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Today, Paul continues his clinic on sin, religious law, and grace for everyone. The most common response has been confusion about how Paul’s claim can be true (Romans 3:23-25) “all have sinned…AND are justified…” Religion simply won’t teach this...not in Paul’s day and not in ours. Religion divides people into saved and unsaved yet doesn’t save them (3:20), but God sees the whole timeline and doesn’t divide us that way. We must remember that this is a letter and Paul is revealing how we overcome this stumbling block. Since I’m taking weeks, not minutes, to get to his point, we have to sit with the confusion a bit longer, but I promise it will be worth it.

Paul has shown that the law is good, but insufficient for justification, or said another way, religious obedience doesn’t put us right with God, Christ does…”once for ALL” (5:18). This remains an absolute scandal today. “What about those sinners?” Paul doesn’t back off. He presses his case: “As sin increases, so grace increased to the extreme” (5:20). If we follow his logic, Paul has been showing that ALL people (religious and heathen) are BOTH:

1. Under wrath (1:18-32) and Circumcised of the heart (2:29)
2. Have sinned and fallen short, AND are Justified (3:23-25)

How does all this work? Paul’s framework is called the Gospel of Faith. (1:16-17)

1. Faith is the way God makes all people justified/righteous (3:21-24)
2. Faith is “received” (3:25), Faith is a “gift” (Ephesians 2:8)
3. Faith is how God justifies everyone (Romans 5:1). Abraham wasn’t a Christian or a Jew (4:1-25)
4. Faith gives us access to Gods gift of Grace (5:2)
5. Faith is not believing the facts, it is not belief in religion, faith is a “way of thinking” it’s an action verb whereby we “logizomai” (count, consider) “consider ourselves dead to sin, alive to God” (6:11).

The religious mind hears this and assumes God is ignoring sin…which He doesn’t.“Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace?” (6:15) In modern Evangelicalism, Paul’s words have been coaxed back into a religious framework, teaching that a person must convert to the Christian religion, or they cannot be a recipient of this grace…the same assumption Paul’s Jewish audience held.

Paul’s Gospel is much bigger…

Paul answers this question in an interesting way by illustrating how all people are NOT FREE, but are captive (doúlos–slave, bondservant) to our (sarkós–flesh, human nature). Paul points out that in obedience to (épithumiais-over desire,lust) we (paristánete-hand over, provide) our (mélos-body parts, members) to (àdikías-unrighteousness) to sin (6:13). We are all given over to our sinful appetites.

The way we gain freedom from this sinful predicament is a change of how we think. Paul suggests (logizomai-consider, count) ourselves “dead to sin.” Freedom from sin is not the stopping of sinning, although that is one possible outcome from our freedom. Freedom from sin is “awareness” that our sin is not held against us (4:7-8) because of what Christ has done for us, not what we have done. This awareness motivates the (Kardia-inner self)(6:17) to become a (doúlos-bond servant, slave) BY LOVE to God.

“But if he says to you, ‘I will not go out from you,’ because he loves you and your household, since he is well-off with you, then you shall take an awl, and put it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your slave forever.” (Deuteronomy 15:16-17)

Freedom from sin is when it finally occurs (faith) to us that the love of God, and His work of grace through Jesus Christ, has erased any wrath and has restored us completely. We know when this love hits us, because we love right back (faith), and insist on staying, driving the awl through our ear, becoming a bondservant to righteousness (dikaiosune), leading to (ágiasmón-dedication, sanctification)(6:19).

Compare Paul’s Gospel to that of Evangelicalism:

1. Completion -vs- Conversion
2. Faith -vs- Belief
3. God has loved and forgiven -vs- God’s love forgiveness are contingent.
4. Transformation toward dedication -vs- Transaction of sanctification
5. Freedom despite sin -vs- Freedom after stopping sin
6. Sin as hopeless framework -vs- sin as an immoral deed.
7. Christ follower compelled in love -vs- Christian obligated in compliance.
8. Dimmer switch -vs- binary switch
9. Swing -vs- Teeter Totter

When Paul gets to chapter 7, there is no way to make the teeter totter of religion work. Over the years, theologians have come up with some wild explanations for Paul’s words because they can’t fit his wine into their old wineskin. The same will be true for us if we miss these subtle nuances.

Paul goes on to say:

“But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (v.22-23)

Paul’s thesis is that we all begin and remain in slavery to the function of sin in our human nature. Freedom is not the end of slavery but the ability to choose our captor. This universal slavery to sin has been interrupted by the work of God’s love and grace through Christ…to all people, but we don’t all perceive it…for various reasons. Therefore there are two paths of experience which result in two types of slaves. The slave of obligation and the slave of compulsion.

I’m going to nerd out a bit to help make a point. In 6:22-23, Paul uses three words to summarize the relationship in this dynamic flow of slavery. The Greek is helpful here, because it reveals the three results of slavery:

1. That which we earn (òphónion-wages).
2. That trajectory we don’t control (télos-end).
3. That which springs up out of this flow (karpós-fruit)

The Greek uses the accusative form for télos (end) and karpós (fruit) indicating these two are direct objects. This means these results come from something happening to them (Gods grace of sanctification and eternal life (v.22, 23). Paul switches to òphónion (wages)in the nominative form, which means it’s stating an ongoing state or existing fact (we earn our death by sin). Most bible teachers miss this and unfortunately interpret each result as earned wages. (Ex: We “earn” eternal life and sanctification.)

This is where the snag sets in. Evangelicalism’s gospel still says we “earn” eternal life by converting to Christianity. Paul’s Gospel makes no such claim. New Testament Jews, Samaritans, Ethiopians, Centurions, and Hellenists were all Christ followers despite their being from different religions. Paul is not starting a new alternative religion to which we must convert in order to receive God’s acceptance. The biblical revelation is clear, a person can follow Christ from any or no religion through faith, or considering that they are good with God. Religion doesn’t validate or codify these “ways of thinking“, instead, it actually obscures them. Religion has become slavery to obligation by controlling access, the Gospel is slavery to the compulsion of love by removing all barriers to access.

What if we started our spiritual discovery as insiders already, rather than outsiders who have to make a decision about whether or not to join? How would that change how our Super Bowl audience heard the Good News? How does it change how the church should talk about it?