ASSURANCE OF SALVATION

ROMANS – 6

For several chapters in his letter to the Romans, 1:16 to 5:21, Paul has taught that the salvation given to those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ is secure because it does not depend on our personal works or merit, but solely on God’s gift. So strongly has he explained that salvation depends entirely on Jesus Christ that he knows that some of his readers will conclude that it’s okay for Christians to sin – that sin doesn’t matter: ‘What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?’ – 6:1, and ‘Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?’ – 6:14.

Earlier in his letter, he told us that some people who had heard him preach and teach actually thought that that was what he was saying – ‘Why not say – as we are being slanderously reported as saying and as some claim that we say – “Let us do evil that good may result”?’ – 3:8.

D.Martyn Lloyd-Jones makes these interesting statements about this reaction to the gospel:

‘First of all let me make a comment, to me a very important and vital comment. The true preaching of the gospel of salvation by grace alone always leads to the possibility of this charge being brought against it. There is no better test as to whether a man is really preaching the New Testament gospel of salvation than this, that some people might misunderstand it and misinterpret it to mean that it really amounts to this, that because you are saved by grace alone it does not matter at all what you do; you can to on sinning … This is a very good test of gospel preaching. If my preaching and presentation of the gospel of salvation does not expose it to that misunderstanding, then it is not the gospel’ (p8, Romans: An Exposition of Chapter 6: The New Man, Banner of Truth Trust, 1972).

‘I would say to all preachers; If your preaching of salvation has not been misunderstood in that way, then you had better examine your sermons again, and you had better make sure that you really are preaching the salvation that is offered in the New Testament to the ungodly, to the sinner, to those who are dead in trespasses and sins, to those who are enemies of God. There is this kind of dangerous element about the true presentation of the doctrine of salvation’ (p10).

But even as Paul outlaws such a godless reaction to the Gospel, he does not change his teaching. The reason he gives for not continuing to sin is the same as the reason for the security of our salvation: our union with Jesus Christ. Our union with Christ is the reason salvation is secure; and our union with Christ is the reason sin is always utterly wrong.

Paul, using the truths symbolised in baptism, speaks of four aspects of this union with Christ:

We were crucified with him – 6:6.
We died with him – 6:2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 11.
We were buried with him – 6:4.
We are raised to life with him – 6:4, 5, 8, 11.

In Romans 3:25 Paul wrote – ‘God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood.’ In Romans 5: 6 and 8 Paul said that ‘Christ died for us’, the ungodly. In Romans 5:10, that we were reconciled to God ‘through the death of his Son.’ In these verses Paul teaches that the death of Christ was ‘for us’, that is, in our place, in our stead, instead of us, as us. His death was not on his own account, but for us.

In his death he bore our sins, our guilt.
In his death he took our punishment, our condemnation.
In his death he was cursed with the curse that was ours.
In his death the wrath of God due to us fell upon him.

So completely that there is none of this left for us to bear – no sins, no guilt, no punishment, no condemnation, no curse, no wrath. God deems those who believe in his Son to have already, in Christ our substitute, died – to have paid in full the penalty for our sins. God considers all who are united to Christ by faith to be crucified, dead and buried. And, similarly, to be risen with Christ to a new life that is both present and future. All of this makes it very clear that salvation is absolutely secure.

But the same truths also make it absolutely clear that sin is never okay, that the gospel is not at all about setting us free to sin. The death of Jesus Christ for our sin demonstrates not only God’s great love for us and the certainty of salvation, but also the horrific nature of sin. This cross, this death of the Holy and Righteous One, demonstrates, with total clarity and absolute certainty, what God thinks about sin, how much God hates sin, and how terrible is his wrath against sin.

Anyone who looks at the cross of Jesus Christ and concludes that it is okay to sin, has not even begun to understand the two central truths of the Gospel – that this Jesus who died here is the Son of God, the Lord Almighty, and that by his dying he was doing what he alone could do to undo and reverse the horrific spiritual consequences of our human sin.