“Well, if God’s going to forgive me no matter what I do, then why not just keep on sinning?” If that question hasn’t ever occurred to you, chances are you haven’t come to grips with just how radical God’s grace really is. For the fact is that all who trust in Christ are justified, declared righteous in God’s sight, solely because of His sacrifice. That means we no longer need to fear the anger of God (5:9), no matter what we do or leave undone.

But if God’s free grace is radically different from the legalistic self-help philosophies offered by all the rest of the religions of the world, the reason for a Christian’s pursuit of holiness is also radically different from the guilt trips peddled by so many so-called gospel preachers. For the real reason that Christians should no longer go on sinning is because we are connected to Christ – we are one with Christ.

After all, that’s really what it means to have the Holy Spirit given to us (5:5) – it means that Christ is living not only with us but within us. That’s what Paul means when he says that we have been baptized into Christ Jesus (6:3) and united with Him (6:5). So, if by trusting in Christ we become one with Him, that means we died with Him on the cross. And that in turn means that our old sinful self died with Him too, the sinful nature we inherited from Adam that compelled us to sin (6:6). Simply put, those in Christ don’t have to sin anymore – sin no longer has the power to control us (6:14).

But more than that, we should not even want to sin anymore. That’s because we haven’t just died with Christ. Because of our union with Him, we have also risen from the dead with Him. That means we are already resurrected to a new kind of life (6:4), a life lived not for ourselves but for the glory of God and for the good of others (6:11). We thus pursue holiness not because we have to, but because we want to.

So, does it make any sense for someone who has been given the Spirit of Christ to go on living in rebellion against Him? Does it make any sense for someone who has been joined to Christ by faith to keep pushing Him away? Does it make any sense for someone who has become alive to act as if he is still dead? By no means!

Romans 6:1-14 (ESV)

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4 We were buried therefore with him by 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.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.
8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.
10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.
11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.
13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.