Super Abounding Grace: A Study in the Book of Romans

Super-Abounding Grace is a study on the book of Romans. The Book of Romans is the foundational book for the Christian life. The title of the book “Super-Abounding Grace” is taken from Romans 5:20-21 “But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” This book emphasizes the biblical truth that where sin abounded, grace super-abounds.

The greatest problem that has plagued humanity throughout all of history has been sin. People started sinning as soon Adam sinned. Every human since Adam was born with a sin nature, and therefore sins. We sin because we are the offspring of a fallen begetter…we are born into sin. The message of Romans is that there is only one thing that can defeat sin. This is the case both with personal sin in our individual lives or with corporate sin, affecting society at large. It is the grace of God that can give us victory over sin. The ability of the grace of God to defeat sin is laid out in its full power and glory in the Book of Romans. Paul tells the Romans: “But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.” (Romans 6:17) That special form of doctrine that delivers from sin is revealed to us by our Savior though Paul the apostle of grace in the book of Romans. Super-Abounding Grace is a tour through the Book of Romans to gain an understanding of the life changing effect of the gospel of grace to have victory over sin in your life.

An Excerpt from Super Abounding Grace

Chapter 6

The Walk after the Spirit

The first fourteen verses of chapter 6 lay out for believers how grace works in them to enable believers to live lives separated from sin unto God. These verses comprise the simple and basic doctrine that enables the believer to live a life free from the dominion and tyranny of the sin nature. That freedom comes by faith in the operation of God in baptizing believers into Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. The Holy Spirit performs that baptism in believers at the moment lost sinners trust Christ. He joins believers to Jesus Christ and indeed places them in an eternal, living relationship with Him. In that baptism, believers are so joined to Christ that they are members of His body, His flesh, and His bones much like how a man and a woman are joined in marriage (Ephesians 5:30).

The point to note, though, is that when He receives us as members of His body, He receives our sin so it (our sin) actually becomes His, in that what was ours becomes His. He then, having acquired our sin and guilt by virtue of this baptism, could then pay the debt of our sin. This He did on the cross of Calvary. This baptism is referenced in Colossians 2:12, where we see that this baptism is “the operation of God.” In 1 Corinthians 12:13, we see that the Holy Spirit performs this baptism. But here in Romans 6 we see that this baptism has results that go beyond simply transferring our sin and guilt to the Savior so He could pay its debt. As a result of this baptism, our old man (i.e., our souls under the rule of our sin nature) has been crucified with Christ so we can now lead a different life. The end result is that we “are dead to sin” (v. 2). Paul therefore asks (and answers) the rhetorical question of verse 1.

Shall We Continue in Sin That Grace May Abound?

¹ What shall we say then? Shall we continue^[a] in sin^[b], that grace may abound? ² God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? ³ Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized^[c] into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? ⁴ Therefore we are buried^[d] with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised^[e] up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:1–4)

[a] The question raised in verse 1 (“Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?”) addresses a common objection thrown up to the gospel when that objection is verbalized. If salvation is by grace through faith apart from works, then people could do anything they want and still be saved. Because soul salvation (i.e., having eternal life) is a gift of God (v. 23), truly people can do whatever they want and still be saved (in the sense of being saved from sin’s debt penalty in the lake of fire). However, grace doesn’t save people to sin but rather saves them from sin. Apparently people were accusing Paul of making the argument that where sin abounded, grace superabounded; then the more one sinned, the more grace there was (according to this argument), and the more God was glorified. Paul’s answer to that false accusation that we should continue in sin that grace may abound was an emphatic statement: “God forbid.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

[b] In this chapter Paul often uses the figure of speech of personification. Personification is the imparting of personality to an inanimate thing for discussion purposes. The names given to the two natures in this passage are very informative. Here in verse 1 “sin” is the old sin nature. Mr. Sin used to run our lives and used to (before we were justified by faith) actually own our physical bodies. We will see more on this issue later.

Names for the old man:

• “Sin” (vv. 1, 2, 6–7, 10–12, 14, 16–18, 20, 23)
• “Our old man” (v. 6)
• “Uncleanness” (v. 19)
• “Iniquity” (v. 19)
• “Death” (v. 9)

Names for the new man:

• “Obedience” (v. 16)

Names for the inner man (Ephesians 3:16):

• “Righteousness” (vv. 18–20)
• The inward man (2 Corinthians 4:16)

[c] The believer was baptized into Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit at the very instant he or she trusted in Jesus Christ as Savior (1 Corinthians 12:3; Colossians 2:12). This baptism has nothing to do with water or speaking in tongues. This baptism isn’t Pentecostal baptism, where Christ baptized the believers of Israel with “the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 3:4). This baptism is done by the Holy Spirit into Christ. This baptism of Romans 6:3 is done by the Holy Spirit in response to our faith. “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:26–27). The common misconception among professing believers today is that baptism refers to either a water rite or speaking in tongues, but there are many other baptisms in the New Testament.

• Our Lord’s death is referred to as a baptism (Matthew 20:22–23).
• There was a baptism unto Moses (1 Corinthians 10:2).
• John the Baptist talked about a baptism with fire (Matthew 3:11).

This baptism of Romans 6:1–4 is a baptism into Christ. Note that it’s not a baptism into water, a baptism by water, or a baptism with the Holy Spirit, as was the case in Matthew 3:11. It’s a baptism the Holy Spirit performs. In Israel’s program, there was a water rite required for salvation. “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned” (Mark 16:16, emphasis added). Nowhere in Paul’s epistles, however, do we find a reference to water baptism as a requirement for salvation. In quite the opposite terms, Paul says. “Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the gospel” (1 Corinthians 1:17). The only baptism Paul preached was the baptism the Holy Spirit performed in the process of forming the church, which is Christ’s body (1 Corinthians 12:13, 27; Ephesians 1:22–23; Colossians 1:18). Based on his statement regarding “one baptism” in Ephesians 4:4–5, we would conclude that the water rite is not only not necessary but inappropriate for practice today under the dispensation of the grace of God. Note that Paul’s commission to be the apostle of the Gentiles didn’t include water baptism (1 Corinthians 1:17), while the commission given to the Twelve did. In the early part of his ministry as the apostle of the Gentiles, he baptized some with water (1 Corinthians 1:14–16). In the same epistle of 1 Corinthians, he also proclaimed a baptism whereby the Holy Spirit joined individual believers to Jesus Christ at the moment of conversion to make that person eternally a member of the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13).

[d] Verses 4–5 speak of our identification with Christ in both His death and resurrection from the dead. This identification of us with Him in His death, burial, and resurrection guarantees for us our resurrection. But our resurrection is presented here as a two-fold resurrection. We have a spiritual resurrection now as believers (i.e., “that we also should walk in newness of life”) and a physical resurrection later (i.e., “we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection”).

[e] According to 1 Corinthians 15:3–4, the gospel is defined as “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.” The burial of our Lord was necessary to prove He was indeed dead. For us, His burial (and our burial with Him) presents a demarcation between the life we had before salvation and the life we now have as believers. As a result of that baptism into His death, burial, and resurrection, we can now walk a new walk because we now have and live a new life.

The Old Man Crucified, the Body of Sin Destroyed?

⁵ For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: ⁶ Knowing this, that our old man^[f] is crucified with him, that the body of sin^[g] might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve[h] sin. (Romans 6:5–6)

[f] Here the apostle again uses a figure of speech to refer to the person we were before conversion as “our old man.” Verse 6 tells us that that person was crucified. He or she was crucified with Christ. It was the baptism of verse 3 that resulted in our old man being crucified along with Christ. So let’s ask two important questions here:

1. Who is our “old man”?
2. What is the significance of him being crucified?

The answer to each is profound:

1. Our old man is the person we were before conversion when the old Adamic sin nature reigned in our lives and in fact owned our bodies.
2. The significance of him being crucified (as indeed he was for the believer) is that the old man no longer exists. We will see in chapter 7 that the old sin nature still resides in our physical bodies, but the person we were under his rulership no longer exists.

[g] The term “the body of sin” is also a figure of speech. We ask ourselves two questions regarding this body of sin:

1. What is the body of sin?
2. In what sense was it destroyed when we trusted Jesus Christ?

Here, too, the answers to these questions teach profound truth on the life-changing work of grace:

1. The term “the body of sin” is in the genitive case, indicating in this case possession. The body of sin in this case is the body every believer has now as a saved person but refers to its state before conversion to Christ when the old sin nature still owned it.
2. When we were baptized into His death, burial, and resurrection, our old man was thereby crucified. The ownership of our body by the sin nature ceased, and in that sense it was “destroyed” as “the body of sin.” (i.e., it is no longer the body Mr. Sin owns). As believers, our bodies are now under new ownership, that being of Christ (1 Corinthians 6:15–17).