What is going on here? Paul extols the extent of God’s grace—let’s keep in mind it is to billions, not just the everlasting “ME,” so multiply the grace one has received (whether realized or not) times infinity. So why would we discount grace by sinning? And what kind of sin does he mean? Is it me getting distracted this morning by my husband's complaints and delaying my Bible study? I don’t think so. That is "modern middle-class evangelical Christian in Georgia Bible belt" sin. It is informed by hundreds of years of morning devotions being touted as the highest spirituality.
Real sin is first the sin of unbelief, which is always the first sin. Then despair, fear, at what we face in the world—that Paul's audience did, in Rome in 50 AD or so under nutsy, evil emperors. It’s falling back into the paganism. It’s materialism and ingenerosity and lying to God. We modern evangelicals can control our sexuality, perhaps, but the materialism is something we take for granted. I just had a bunch of groceries delivered—more food than we need for two months.
Let’s not diminish grace by cherry picking our sin with the small stuff and ignoring where we really are sinning.
And then the real punch: We died to sin—because of the cross, we are buried with him through baptism into death, united in the likeness of his death, our old man was crucified with Him, we should no longer be slaves of sin, and we are freed from sin. So, all that being true, why in the world are we so dimwitted about sin?
More on this. We sing "I am freed from sin" but don't know what we are singing about.
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