Devotional - week of October 26, 2008

SIN UNTO GRACE

Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.   Romans 5:20-21

The Apostle John wrote in 1 John 5:16, “There is sin leading to death.” He was speaking of physical death. The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 5:20 about sin leading to emotional and spiritual death that it might lead to grace. Some of Paul’s critics took his message about sin leading to grace and perverted the meaning of it in an attempt to insult him. In Romans 3:8 Paul writes:

And why not say, "Let us do evil that good may come—as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just.

Paul responds to the false accusation in Romans 6:1 where he writes, “… what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” In Romans 6:2, Paul responds to his own question with a firm “Certainly not.”

With only a few words in Romans 7:9, Paul explains the process of sin leading to death that it might lead to grace when he writes, “I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.”

In Romans 7:7-8 Paul testifies that when he tried to keep the last of the ten commandments—do not covet—in his own strength, he was filled with all types of covetousness. For a while after conversion, Paul experienced a sovereign period of living by grace. By trying not to covet in his own strength, he was reduced to a state he calls death. While in that state of desperation, God revealed to Paul his spiritual crucifixion, burial and resurrection and how to experience such a life. It brought Paul to the life of grace. It was a case of “sin unto grace.”

Today, there are God loving believers who are attempting to keep the commandments in their own strength and are in a state of failure and “death.” In that state, they are ready to discover the life of grace and victory through Romans 6:3-13.

We can pray for those who are prepared to move on to the life of grace. When God so leads, we can guide them to the end of the process—to the life of grace—by showing them Romans 6:3-13.

They will experience “sin unto grace.”

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