Applying the Gospel Study Bible
For Teens and College Students
What Help Does the Book of Romans Offer to Those Who Are Struggling with Sin?
The Problem of Sin
The whole of the book of Romans really addresses the problem of sin—how it separates us from God, how it brings us under his wrath, how we escape God’s wrath and end up being declared righteous before him. And then the Christian life is really a life in which we do not let sin reign in our mortal bodies, progressively. Theologians call that sanctification. So I’ll just highlight two passages in the letter that help us to understand how not to allow sin to reign in our bodies.
Once again, the book of Romans is bluntly realistic about these things and admits that all of us will struggle with sin. So what can we do about it? There are two things really stand out for me. One is our identity in Christ, which gives us a basis from which to deal with the sin in our lives, and the second is our destiny and hope.
Strengthened by the Gospel
Brian S. Rosner
In this volume of the New Testament Theology series, Brian S. Rosner examines the central theology and themes of Paul’s gospel message in Romans to strengthen and encourage disciples of Jesus today.
In Romans 6 he deals directly with this very question. Paul says, “Should we continue in sin that grace might abound?” Might it be good if we just keep sinning and then God’s grace and forgiveness will be even more than it was before we sinned some more? No.
He says there’s no way we should do that now. Why? Because of who we are in Christ. Not only did Christ die as our substitute, paying the penalty for our sins, but Christ also died as our representative. We died with Christ, and we rise with him. This is what he says. “Don’t you know that all of us who’ve been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” So there’s a sense in which we died to self-interest when Christ died.
People’s identity is really based on a defining moment in the past, and for Christians, that defining moment was before we were ever born. It’s when Christ died. We died with him.
But it gets better. “We were buried, therefore, with him in baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”
Let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.
So that newness of life, that sense of making progress in combating our sin and living lives that please God, is based on who we are in Christ—the fact that we identify with him in his death and we look forward to being raised to life when he returns.
Romans 13 says exactly that of our destiny, and there’s beautiful imagery here of day and night, of darkness and light, of sleeping and waking. In Romans 13:11, the apostle Paul says, “Besides this, you know the time.” How do you combat sin? You’ve got to know what time it is. “That the hour has come to for you to wake from sleep. Salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone. The day is at hand. Let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime.”
So there’s a sense in which our destiny—the fact that we will one day be perfected in glory—should affect how we behave in the present. We’re practicing now for that day. We’re apprentices for the day when we fully graduate and when salvation is complete.
So there’s a firm basis for us to combat sin. It’s not an easy thing, but it certainly shows us that the Christian life is not set-and-forget. It’s about remembering who we are in Christ, remembering where we’re headed, and behaving accordingly.
Brian S. Rosner is the author of Strengthened by the Gospel: A Theology of Romans.
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