PART TWO: THE GRACE OF GOD

In his epistle to the Romans, when Paul asks, "Shall we sin that grace may abound?," we have to ask ourselves what was it about Paul's definition of grace that makes such a question meaningful, makes it arise in the first place. If our definition of grace equates grace with human works or doing (even if enabled by God's power within), with applying ourselves to holiness or obedience by God's power, would it cause that question to arise? If grace is what Christ has done for us and sin is what we do ourselves, then it is clear how this question can arise. But if grace is equated with our right doing or obedience and sin with our wrong doing, then the question looks different: "Shall we do wrong that doing right may abound?" The question does not make sense. It contradicts itself. It is like saying, "Shall I turn out the light so that there may be plenty of light?" Or: "Shall I take away your coat so you can get warm?"

            In fact, Paul uses another question which has the same meaning, when he says that some have slanderously reported that he was teaching in effect, "Why not say...let's do evil that good may result?" (Romans 3:8).  The meaning of that question did not involve a contradiction of the sort I have already articulated: "Why not say ... let's do wrong things that our doing right things may result?" Whether we speak of "the good" which may result or "that grace may abound" either "the good" or "grace" are something different from the actions (good or bad) of those doing evil or sinning. It is something outside or apart from the doer. Something that comes to the doer apart from himself or his own actions. "The good" or "grace" is the same thing as "the righteousness of God" which is revealed or brought out on behalf of our own evil, sin, or unrighteousness (Romans 1:17; 3:5). What Paul is saying is that if our unrighteousness serves as an occassion for the making known of God's righteousness (His way of making people right with Himself by faith and not by works), then does this mean we should just throw all caution to the wind, give ourselves to a life of unrighteousness, so that God's way of making us righteous through faith in Jesus Christ will be all the more magnified?

The point I am getting at is that in this question which arises in different forms ("Shall we do unrighteousness that God's righteousness might be brought out?," "Shall we do evil that good may result?," or "Shall we sin that grace may abound?), the first part has to do with what we do as sinners but the second part (the part that has to do with grace) has to do with what God has done for us outside of us through the person and work of Jesus Christ.  The logic of the question centers on something true: Our human failure as sinners is the occassion for God's showing us grace and mercy in Jesus Christ. But the direction in which this question goes is errant in its assumption that glorying in our human failure by giving ourselves to sin will make God's grace stand out all the more. Paul does not back away from the teaching of grace, though, when he answers this question. What he does is show what the grace of God in Christ is designed to do, as well as what it has in reality accomplished -- viz., it has taken us from death with Jesus to life with Jesus. It has put us in a marriage relationship with Jesus in which He is the husband and the church is the wife. He is having children or bearing fruit in this spiritual marriage. We are receivers of this grace but it is a reception that bears fruit, the fruit of obedience or righteousness.