Tag Archives: christ

License to sin

One of the first things that people tend to ask or wonder when they hear about the gospel of Christ is: if all people’s sins are always forgiven, then won’t they keep sinning? In the letter to Romans, Paul actually asked that same question himself to make explicit why such thinking has no place in Christianity:

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. – Romans 6:1-4 (NKJV)

I already dissected these verses in a previous post, and so I want to address a bit more how hiding these verses in our hearts allows us to apply the verses to some of the inner conversations we might be having with ourselves.

Many churches today emphasize the grace of God without highlighting that the grace exists because of the need for justice. And so one of the challenges for many Christians today is that when reminded of their sins or continued sinning, they are quick to say ‘am I under the law?’ – essentially implying if one is to be held accountable for his sins, then Christ died in vain for him. That is an extremely convoluted understanding of the gospel.

Paul makes it clear that the incredible grace of God suggests that one who has truly accepted his/her salvation and has been saved from sins would not choose to live in sin. When we continue to live in sin, we are not identifying with the Christ who died on the cross for us. Paul doesn’t just stop there. He reminds us that identifying fully with Christ means that our sins died with Christ on the cross; but not just that, we gain a new life that is meant to be lived in this world, just as Christ was raised to live from the dead by God.

This is a powerful thought – because baptism in our minds tend to relate to some kind of new birth, the sense of being born again. But to be born again only works when the old self has died. Thinking of salvation as a license to sin is precisely the workings of the old self, not the new. So if the old self is not yet dead, there isn’t the born-again to speak of. As we Christian continues to struggle with sin and temptation, let the words of Paul from Romans 6:1-4 encourage us to tread forth in the newness of life.

Sinning in abundant grace

I’m currently doing some bible memory work of Romans 6:1-4. And sometimes, it just helps to do a close reading of the verses bit by bit and digest it so that the verses stick in my memory not just merely as words but as deep concepts and associations with the many other things I’ve learnt.

The context of Romans 6:1-4 is the preceding chapters of Romans that Paul has penned. He writes and expound on the incredible grace of God that is given to us through the gospel – that Christ died for our sins so we may gain salvation, and be reconciled with God.

Paul asks two questions:

  1. What shall we say then? – this question is more to get us to respond somehow to the implications of the grace of God that had been presented before us in the preceding chapters.
  2. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? – this question effectively spells out what would be in the minds of most disciples: is the grace of the Lord fuelled by or shown only by the fact that we have sinned greatly?

He then answers the second question himself: ‘Certainly not!’

And then he poses another question to introduce another concept: “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into His death?” He is presenting the argument that as we submit ourselves to be baptised in the name of Christ, we are entering His death (we allow our old selves to be dead)

Finally, having presented that concept, Paul then concludes his point here with a long statement of the implications of this baptism into Christ’ death:

  • We were buried with him through baptism into death
  • Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father
  • We also should walk in newness of life

In other words, just as Christ was raised up, we are likewise raised, living a different life from the one we lived before when we identify with Christ and accept Him as our saviour, receiving our salvation from Him.

I reproduce again the full text of the verses I’m trying to memorise:

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. – Romans 6:1-4 (NKJV)

Chinese translations

It’s the Easter weekend and when I do translations for church material I’d inevitably chance upon interesting ways in which the (early) Chinese believers saw things differently from the western believers or denominations. It was somewhat reflected in the manner the translations and terms showcased different aspects of the faith.

Looking into the Chinese terms also encouraged me to dig deeper into the English terms that I’ve taken for granted.

Maundy Thursday – this refers to the Thursday before Good Friday. And as it turned out, ‘maundy’ refers to the word ‘command’ in Latin and is referencing Jesus’ command to the disciples around serving one another just as He had washed their feet for them. The Chinese term was ‘濯足节’ – which focused on the feet-washing.

Good Friday – referring to the day of Christ’ crucifixion. Christians referred to it as ‘good’ as a reflection of the manner it reflected how Jesus had paid the price of death for our salvation. In Chinese however, the day is ‘耶稣受难节’ which means it’s the day of suffering for Christ. The focus was more on His suffering for us.

Easter Sunday – that is of course the day when Christ tomb appears to have been opened and his body gone. However, easter actually refers to something about spring and harvest and corresponds more to some other festival that happens to coincide with the Passover season of the Jews. In Chinese, the term is ‘复活节’ which literally means the day of resurrection, once again pointing back to the day in the gospel.

When I shared these with a church elder who was not familiar with Chinese language, nor the terms in Chinese, he was surprised and commented that the Chinese terms were pretty literal. Perhaps they are, but they are very direct and quickly points us back to the gospel too!

Gift of grace

This Christmas, I thought to just repeat to all of us what the gift of grace from God is. Christianity is all about this gift of grace from God, through Christ being born as man to die for our sins. And what this grace means is not that we have to be good in order to earn our place in heaven. Rather, it is that Christ have been that good for us such that we already have a place in heaven, so that we can be good as a response to that. We will never earn our place with the goodness that we can have or do.

It was never the point for us to earn our place with our goodness. But this is what we are constantly fed by the world. And Christianity is this safe spot where we learn that we don’t. Even as Christian myself, I need this reminder. And that’s why this Christmas I’m writing it again, in a different way. To tell all of us that we achieve our place in heaven not by our own goodness. But the goodness of God through Christ, who died for us. This is grace.

And that is what Christmas is about. Christ born for you and I. Grace given to us. Freely. What a joy to be able to receive it.