Both/And
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Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound?
- Romans 6:1
Paul’s letter to the Romans can be a complicated read! In this section, Paul was just talking about how it is trusting in the compassion of Christ that sets us free, not our own strict adherence to the law. As fallible human beings, he argues, we have no chance of leading sinless lives. Following the law perfectly is impossible, and attempting to can be an exhausting and futile endeavor. However, Jesus’ life, death and resurrection assure us that in Christ, we are forgiven and free from that kind of fruitless search for perfection.
This is a key theological point in Christian theology - that we are saved by faith and not by works (even though the letter of James makes a clear case that works are essential also!) Of course, any strong statement like that is on a knife’s edge, since our human words are inadequate to the task of summing up God. So Paul got a lot of pushback for this theology. (including from James!)
The argument goes: If we don’t have to work hard to follow God’s law, then you’re saying we can just do whatever the heck we feel like doing and God will just forgive us? If that’s the case, we should just sin and sin and sin in order to get more and more and more forgiveness. What, are you out of your mind, Paul?
In answering this criticism of his teaching, he starts the next section with the sentence above. (It is madness for me to address this complicated theological issue in just a little blog, but here I go!)
Paul answers his own question this way:
By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it?
Romans 5:2
And here’s the koan of the Christian faith. Because we follow the way of Christ, we cannot live in sin, even though we cannot NOT sin, because we are just mortal. It’s both. We sin all the time, and in Christ we are forgiven of all sin, unless, of course, we sinfully turn away from Christ.
It’s kind of a chicken and egg thing. Are we free of sin first because Christ has pulled us up out of it or are we sinful beings first who are constantly in need of being pulled out of it? Is it up to us in our free will to turn away from sin or is it only by the grace of God we are able to use our free will to turn away? In Paul’s nuanced theology, it’s all of those at once. We are both earthly creatures bound to the earth, and yet we are also Christ’s body on earth.
Theology in its loftiness may not always seem helpful for or relevant to our day to day decision making, but it is nonetheless a fascinating exploration of the nature of life and the big mysterious picture that we cannot see or fathom. In that way it is VERY important for day to day decision making. It’s also both. Because our lives are small and short and simple. And our lives are a part of the universally cosmic God. It is both.
Let’s leave it at this: As people who hear his voice, we are called to follow in the footsteps of Christ as best as we can. On those bad days when we veer off the path, the good shepherd will come looking for us. And if we’re open and willing to be found, we’ll always be led back - to veer off another day.
