Paul raises and answers four questions in his letter to the Church at Rome. The answers are vital to our understanding the effects of the atonement of Jesus Christ applied in the hearts of sinners by the Holy Ghost in regeneration. The questions are found in chapters six and seven. First Romans 6:1, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” From verses two through thirteen Paul answers the question. He begins with a strong denouncing of such a foolish question, “God forbid.” (or “Certainly not!”) “…How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” How did we who are believers “die to sin”? We died to sin judicially when God in His satisfaction for sin’s debt put away our sins in the atoning death of Jesus Christ. We died experimentally when, in the operation of grace by the Holy Spirit, we were baptized into His death and raised to a new life in Christ. The second question is found in 6:15, “What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace?” “God forbid.” Paul answers the question from verse sixteen to the end of the chapter. This question, Paul perceived, would arise from his concluding statement in verse fourteen, “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” The “law” that believers are not under is the moral law as a covenant of works. We as believers, are not under the law as a covenant because we have endured its curse and obeyed its precepts in our Covenant Head, Jesus Christ, by whom the righteousness of the law has been fulfilled in them (see Rom.8:4). Does this wonderful liberation free us to sin? No, because the moral precepts of that holy law are engraved upon the tender tables of the new heart. As Robert Haldane put it, “According to the tenor of that gracious covenant, His law is written in their (believers) hearts and His fear is put within them.” To this very principle Paul speaks in Romans 7:22, “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man…” Now that is what grace tends to, not the opposite which is sin. The third question, “What shall we say then? Is the law sin?...” (Romans 7:7). Again Paul responds with a strong negative, “God forbid.” The purpose of the law is to bring us to a convicting knowledge of sin and lead us to Christ our substitute. Paul shows this in his answer from chapter seven, verses seven through twelve. The fourth question, “Was then that which is good (the law, v.12) made death unto me? God forbid.” Thereafter Paul shows that it is not the law that slays the sinner, but conscious awareness of my inability to keep it as it magnifies my sin. NOTE: To my regret due to the lack of space I cannot expand as I would like to on the last two questions. Please take your Bibles and carefully study the passages using study notes.
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