PAUL TAUGHT WE DO NOT HAVE TO COMMIT SINS AGAIN
Part 1

Michael F. Blume
November, 1997

The Main point in Paul's teaching in Romans Chapters 6 and 7 is that believers already have everything we will ever need for victorious living due to the blood of Christ shed on Calvary and due to God's work in that event. Its just that most believers do not know all that is theirs.  It is like having one million dollars in the bank put there by a man of wealth.  If one is unaware of that storehouse of wealth at one's disposal, one will not enjoy it by living life in accordance with such benefits.  One will live lower than one actually has to.

This study explains how the Bible teaches that we do not have to sin again as believers, if we have been sinning occasionally.  We do not have to live so low as to think we must sin throughout our entire lives.  There is more victory for us than that!  Since most of us never realized the Bible teaches this truth, we have never benefited from it, let alone believed it!

Before we go any further, let us think about something.  Romans 8 is often heralded and quoted by many preachers and Christians.  But how often are the truths and the sequence of thought throughout Romans chapter 6 and chapter 7 ever proclaimed?  I have hardly ever heard anyone preach from these two chapters, unless water baptism was expounded by the first few verses in Romans 6.  But water baptism was not the issue.  It is mentioned there, and it is taught to be necessary, but still that is not the main issue.  Paul repeatedly asked the Romans if they "knew" specific truths.  I came to understand that the victory in Romans 8 cannot be experienced unless I "know" the truths of chapters 6 and 7 and then apply those truths to my practical living.

No wonder so few believe we can live without ever sinning!  Hardlyanybody has ever touched the truths of Romans 6 and 7, and therein lies the explanation of how to live that way.

Be not ashamed, though, if you cannot say you understand clearly these chapters.  Peter admitted the topic of righteousness that Paul delved into was hard to be understood.
 

Righteousness is a deep topic.

First of all, let us agree that the Bible is the source of information for believers that we may have victory over everything in life, as supplied by God through Christ's death on the cross.  We have victory over sin, but, like the Romans, we may not know that.  And if we do not know it, then we will not enjoy it.

I want to make it clear that there is nothing else we need that we do not already have.  There is nothing else to do and nothing else for God to do.  It has all been done through the cross.  All of it!

At this point you may be thinking, "I know I have victory over sin."

But what exactly do you mean by "victory over sin?"  Many think all the victory that we can have is to sin by error and then repent.  Sin again and repent again. Over and over.  Is that victory?  So, what do you mean when you say "victory over sin"?

Paul's idea of victory over sin was living without ever sinning.  Ever.

Paul brings this up in a hypothetical response to a fact he stated in Romans 5:21.  He suspected the Romans might reply erringly to that fact.
 

The Fact:  Grace reigns to such glorious extents that sin is ever superseded by it. And that includes sinful living.  Grace raises us above sin.

But the Romans were so unaware of victory over sin in this life and in their practical everyday experiences that they could never dream of living a life and not sinning.  As Paul assumed correctly, they, like most, would very likely respond, "Hey!  Does that mean we can sin more so we get more grace?"

They did not even conceive the thought that grace can cause them to stop sinning no matter how great a force sin is.

Paul saw a lack of awareness in the Romans which took them to the point of  not even considering a life above sin when Paul noted that grace supersedes the degree of sin.   Paul then said,
 

He said, "What?  Sin so that grace may supersede more and more?  A thousand times no!  You do not realize that we died with Christ, and that means we have experienced the only and single thing that frees us from a sinful bondage -- Death.  And we do not have to sin more so that we can experience more grace!  What I am talking about is that grace made you dead to sin altogether.  You are delivered from it and its effects.  No matter how great the force of sin is, grace can lift you above it so that you will not sin.  You must realize that your deaths with Christ offers you a difference in living.  Since you are dead with Christ, it only stands to reason that you are also risen with Him. And that means victory in practical life."

And this is where the point about sinless living comes in.  Paul did not compare a victorious life that can be ours with Jesus' life before the cross... and even that was a victorious life!!!  But he compared the degree of victory we have in life with Jesus' life after the resurrection from the dead!  If there could be any more victory than that of Christ's pre-cross life on earth in flesh, it is the post-resurrection life.

Let Paul explain that:
 

The life we can live, and we are intended to live, is with Christ, in His resurrection life.  He died once, and liveth.  That means He keeps on living.  He does not have to die to sin everyday.  Some teach we must die to sin everyday.  No.  We must realize we are already dead to sin every day.  Daily realization - not daily death.

He liveth.  Then Paul told us to reckon ourselves dead to sin in the same way that Christ is dead to sin.  And he died once to sin.  That means you are dead and do not need to die to sin again.  And reckon yourselves to be alive to God to the same degree and in the sme manner that Christ is alive.  And He liveth!  Is that pre-resurrection life or post-resurrection life?  Post-resurrection, obviously, since it is LIFE after death.

DIE DAILY TO SIN?

Everyone seems to jump to 1 Corinthians 15:31 at this point, and say like Paul, "I die daily to sin."  Problem is that Paul did not say that.
 

Paul said he died daily.  But what did he refer to?  Did he mean Death to sin, like most believers believe, as though Paul had to die to sin everyday so as to live righteously?  No.  Shock yourself and read the context:
  Paul said that if christianity had no literal resurrection, then what a sorry group of people Christians would be.  What good was it to suffer persecution, like Paul did, if nothing better than this life existed?  He said that those who literally died are perished and non-existent if there is no resurrection.

After elaborating on that thought some more, he then said:
 

Paul asked us why would he bother to risk his life to such an extent as he did if there was no resurrection.  He would care for this present life as best he could if there was nothing better to follow.  Later on he said that resurrection life is always greater in glory than this life.  He was in jeopardy during the hazards he experienced as the result of his bold preaching.  He fought with beasts of Ephesus.  Men persecuted him severely and once left him for dead.  He came so close to death so often that he said, "I die daily."  He just as well accepted death in each hazard, thinking that might be the day he would depart from the body to be with the Lord.  Knowing that there is a resurrection to come, he was not afraid to look death in the eye.  He believed there was a resurrection to come.  And he lived like it by risking his life so severely!

He did not refer to dying to sin daily.  He said in Romans 6 that we died once with Christ who died once unto sin.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION?

Paul said that we are intended to "walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4).  Now, does this exclude practical experience in everyday circumstances?  No.  Most seem to think  "yes."

What Paul said is the kind of victory Paul described in Philippians.

Nothing bothered Paul.   Now, I call that "Victory."

To have peace of mind when everything is going wrong.  That is freedom. Freedom from sin.

When is it that we sin?  In times of frustration and worry and loss of temper and self-control.  And to be able to be relax our souls in any situation, and to be content, is to nip sin in the bud where it starts.  Lust is held at bay when we are content with what we have.

And Paul said that sin was in his flesh (Romans. 7:17-18), but yet he said in Romans 6:12 that we are not to let sin reign in our flesh.

So, although most believers say that Paul's lesson does not mean that we can live above sinning, upon careful reconsideration the honest soul will find that it does.

He wrote the above statement as a logical conclusion to the truths he presented in the previous verses, which are: We are dead with Christ.  So.....  we must also believe we went the rest of the way with Him, and are alive from the dead and already in newness of life.  Resurrection life.  We are resurrected with Christ in life.  And Paul applied that (and here is the clincher) to practical living, because he addressed a misconception which involved practical living.  He said, "No, you do not sin more in order to get this grace more.  Something else occurs."

The references in the chapter to newness of life and walking with Jesus are in response to the misconception that we have to sin in order to see grace work in our lives (Romans 6:1).  Now, if that is not an issue of practical life, then what is it?  And because it is a practical issue, Paul gave the reality of our deaths and freedom from sin in regards to practical living.  And if freedom from sin is a reference to practical living, then how can it not refer to living above sin and not sinning?

Paul is saying we should not let sin even reign in our flesh.  Forget about getting more grace by sinning more!  We're raised up higher than that!  Do not even let sin reign in your flesh!

WHAT WAS PAUL'S PROBLEM?

Paul related his personal battle with sin in Chapter 7 in order to explain what he meant in Chapter 6.  Sin made Paul's flesh commit sins, according to:...

Paul wrote about doing, did he not?  Doing what?  Sins.  And is this not a further explanation by way of personal experience of how it is true that we do not need to let sin reign in our flesh?  The manner in which sin reigned in Paul's flesh, as seen clearly in Romans 7, was that it made Paul  do sinful things.  The acts were the outward effects.  And therefore, the reference to not letting sin reign in the flesh in chapter 6 refers to not doing sinful things.  In other words, not sinning.  It is teaching us to nip sin in the bud, and stop its source of opportunity to work the outward effects

Paul said "do" in Romans 7:15-17.  He wanted to "do" good.  And since Chapter 7 is an explanation through personal experience of what he taught in Chapter 6, we know that Chapter 6 is an answer to the weak life of  "doing" sinful things all the time.  There is more victory in Christ than simply repenting every time we supposedly inevitably sin.

Since Paul had a dilemma of not wanting to sin, but sinning anyway, he cried out for deliverance from doing sin, and claimed God would deliver him from doing sin. And that deliverance was through Christ.

How is it that "through Christ" God delivered him from doing sins? The answer is what Chapter 6 is all about.  And that is why I say and maintain that we can live without sinning.

THROUGH CHRIST

Here is what Paul said in Romans 6.  We died with Christ.  And since death frees us from sin, we are freed from sin through Christ.  That is what Paul meant by being delivered by God "through Christ."

Since we died with Christ, Paul said we are also resurrected with Him. And Paul said that if that is so, then do not let sin reign in your flesh.

The key to seeing what ramifications newness of life has to offer us, as referred to in Romans 6:4, is in seeing that Romans 7 is an explanation of that truth through illustrations of a marriage and then of his personal experience.  The marriage illustration is seen in Romans 7:1-3.

Then he stated the reality that this picture illustrated in Romans 7:4-6, applying the same principle to our relationship to sin. We died to the law by the body of Christ.  When Christ's body died, we died.  Through Christ we died.  His body was killed on the cross as us.  We never have to die again, daily or otherwise, since we died once to sin.

And then Paul dug deeper with the Romans and reasoned with them concerning the fact that freedom from the Law of Moses did not imply the Law was evil in Romans 7:7-12.

At this point Paul wrote that he required freedom from the Law as a woman required freedom from a law which bound her to her husband.  The reason was that the the Law instigated sin to act in his flesh.  The lifestyle of doing evil is what Paul wanted freedom from.  The woman bound to the husband depicts Paul bound to a lifestyle.  And the "binder" in both cases was Law.

The Law was not evil, though.  But sinful people can never keep a righteous law.  If mankind was not born in sin, mankind would be able to easily keep the law.  Paul said that sin stirred and reacted to the efforts Paul made to obey the good law, and made him sin instead.

Paul then raised another question.

He answered it beginning in the remainder of the same verse. Paul said he was bound to not obey the Law.  It had nothing to do with the Law being bad.  Neither did Paul look at the Law as being bad.

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