The book of Romans was written by the Apostle Paul to the early Christian church of Rome. Paul referred to his intended audience as “saints” (Romans 1:7). Although the term “saint” has taken on multiple meanings over the years, the term as used by Paul applies to any who have dedicated, or consecrated, their lives to God. Jesus taught that devoting one’s life to loving and serving God with all one’s heart and mind is the only way to truly please God (Matthew 22:37-40).
However, despite the best of intentions, each one will fail in living up to God’s perfect standard at some point during their lifetimes. Thus, the only way any can hope to maintain any standing before God is through grace. As used in Romans 6, grace refers to the undeserved favor and forgiveness that God grants to those who strive to serve him but occasionally fall short of His standard. Paul explains God grants this grace to His consecrated ones through the merit of Jesus’ sacrifice (Romans 5:15).
In Romans 6, Paul makes a point about Christian responsibility with respect to grace. Those who have chosen to follow Jesus have vowed to sacrifice earthly priorities and serve God whole-heartedly. In essence, these vows are expected to make one “dead to sin” (Romans 6:11); meaning, pursuits that are in conflict to one’s goal of pleasing God are to be avoided and ignored as if one was “dead” to them. Because Jesus’ followers still live in the world and are under constant pressure to conform to its ways, this avoidance requires diligence and effort to maintain. Paul describes this as a struggle between the “new” mind that endeavors to stay pleasing to God and the “old” mind that pulls one’s character back to sinful, earthly ways (Romans 7:15-19). No matter how much effort we devote to the struggle, there will still be times when the “old” mind prevails over the “new” mind, however temporarily, and we find ourselves in need of God’s mercy.
Those who have devoted their lives to pleasing God are promised they will be granted a measure of grace (Hebrews 4:14-16). In Romans 6, Paul reminds those who are truly striving to please God that this grace and forgiveness cannot be treated frivolously or casually. Living one’s life without care for sin or without trying to adjust one’s life, even though there will be failures, would be taking God’s gift of grace for granted. There must be the struggle against the tendency to revert back to sinful practices. If we strive to leave sinful and earthly practices and priorities behind us and focus our energies on the one pursuit of developing a character pleasing to God (Philippians 3:14-15), our minds and hearts may have comfort that God’s grace will provide forgiveness for those inevitable times in our lives when we fail to live up to His perfect standard (Ephesians 2:8-9, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10).
Additional Resource:
Christian Questions Podcast
Ep.1264: What Does God’s Grace Do For Us?
Defining, applying and profoundly appreciating the grace of God
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