I am awed by every word in this letter to the church in Rome. The theology that Paul is expressing in this letter turns all other theology preached by men on its head. Picture men standing on their heads and this is the theology of the world’s religion. That form of religion died when man ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The form of religion that I am speaking of is earning your way to heaven through righteous deeds and law keeping.
We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We were all hopeless, only facing eternal separation from the Father in death. Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
In Christianity everything is reversed. We begin unrighteous and are declared righteous when we repent and believe in Jesus. However, it does not stop there. We are actually becoming righteous through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. This is how to tell if we have truly been set free from slavery to sin. Are you being sanctified? Are you a slave to sin or a slave to righteousness? I am not saying do you or have you sinned, but to whom are you a slave?
If you have repented and believed in Jesus Christ, you have been saved from the penalty of sin, you are being saved from the power of sin and will be saved from the presence of sin. As long as we are living in the presence of sin, the Christian will be tempted and may fall into sin. The difference between the believer and the unbeliever is this; do you sin successfully? What do I mean by successfully?
There is a movement in our society today: “Gay Pride!” The sin of homosexuality is spoken against throughout the word of God. In the Old Testament law, it is called, “an abomination.” (Lv 20:13) In the New Testament, it is called, “degrading passions and unnatural.” (Rom 1:26) There are people who take pride in this unrighteous act, yet the apostle paul wrote that no homosexual will inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Cor 6:9) Does that mean that someone who is tempted by homosexual sin is excluded from the kingdom of God? Does it mean that someone who commits the act of homosexuality is excluded from the kingdom of God? I used homosexuality as an example because it is prevalent in our society today and being promoted as good. There are many other sins like it. The apostle Paul gives a list in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10.
The difference between the believer and the unbeliever who is tempted by homosexuality and all immorality: Do you confess it to be sin or are you pursuing it? The question that the follower of Jesus Christ should be asking: Am I to continue in sin so that grace may increase? (Rom 6:1) The answer that Paul gives in his letter to the Roman church, “May it never be!” (Rom 6:2)
