SHALL WE LIVE ANY LONGER IN THE SIN?

"What shall we say then? Shall we continue in the sin, that the grace may abound? God forbid: we who died in the sin, how shall we live any longer therein?" (Rom. 6:12).

Paul is making his most masterly argument for complete salvation by faith. He has just said in Rom. 5:20, "Where the sin abounded, the grace did abound more exceedingly: that, as the sin reigned in death, even so might the grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." But the carnal heart perverts every truth of God, and the apostle knew that this would be perverted. He foresaw that men would argue, and doubtless he had heard them argue, for continuance in a life of sin as follows: "Very well! If where sin abounds grace much more abounds, then let us continue in sin, and sin abundantly, for so God can have a chance to make more glorious displays of His grace."

People are making the same kind of argument now. They are smiling upon the sin quite generally in our churches, treating it as a light matter, and thus presume on God's grace. They will tell you, in the face of God's commands to the contrary, that holiness is not at all essential. We can keep on sinning, for there is plenty of grace. Some are even making continuous sinning a necessity. A famous catechism tells us, "No man is able either of himself or by any grace received in this life, to keep the commandments of God, but doth daily break them in thought, word and deed."

Thus all confidence in the possibility of an obedient walk with God is paralyzed under the baneful influence of this notion. Professors of religion settle down into a complacent acquiescence in a life of sin, and make the duty of personal holiness a subject of joke and derision.

Now the whole sixth chapter of Romans is St. Paul's spirited protest against, and sharp rebuke of, such a Satanic conclusion.

In this discussion let us consider:

I. What is "the sin"?

The Greek noun for sin with the definite article before it occurs fourteen times in this chapter, and gives the key to the argument. Let it be remembered that we showed in chapter 2, -from a large number of commentators, that "the sin" in this passage means "sin as a principle," "hereditary corruption," "natural depravity," "sinfulness," "a sinful disposition." Lange says: "The sin denotes sin as a power or principle which reveals itself in hereditary corruption."

In this chapter, this sin principle is remarkably personified. In the sixth verse it is called "the old man" and "the body of sin." Lange says: "The old man is the whole sinfulness of man that proceeds from Adam." Tholuck says: "It is the tendency of alienation from God." Barnes says: "The old man is a personification of the corrupt propensities of our nature." Lightfoot says: "The old man is the personification of our whole sinful condition before regeneration." We add, "And after regeneration too," because regeneration does not remove it.

In verses 16-20 "the sin is personified as a slave-master driving on his slaves to the commission of all manner of sins." This same idea is continuous throughout this entire section of the epistle. It is manifest then that, while in the earlier part of the epistle the apostle was discussing God's method of justification or the pardon of sins, here he has advanced to the discussion of the Gospel cure of the sin principle, or sanctification. This inference is unmistakable, from the words and figures of speech used; and twice in the chapter, verses 19 and 22, he actually names sanctification. The great apostle here lifts up the true Gospel standard of Christian living. He does not treat it as an impracticable ideal of the imagination, impossible to be realized, but as the true ideal within reach of every child of God. He expresses astonishment that any Christian should accept a lower standard. He thus brought the believers of his own time, and he brings us, face to face with the abrupt question, "Shall we continue in the sin, in depravity, in the propensity or inclination to sin?" "Shall we remain unclean, unholy, unsanctified, unlike God?"

II. What can it mean to be dead to "the sin"?

The apostle asks: "We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein?" When did we thus die to sin? The verb is the aorist tense, and refers to some definite act of the past, some change from sin and righteousness. Ellicott appropriately suggests that "potentially we died to sin in our Lord's passion, and actually (in our purpose) when we accepted Christ as individuals." In other words, in the atonement provision was made for all men to be rid of the curse of sin. Christ died for sin, that we might die to sin. And in conversion a man consents to abandon sin, and to accept all for which Jesus died. By consent and in the purpose of his heart, "he dies once for all to sin, he lives henceforth forever to God" (Lightfoot). "To live," says Godet admirably, "is not merely to regain peace with God through justification; it is to dwell in the light of His holiness, and to act in permanent communion with Him. In the cure of the soul, pardon is only the crisis of convalescence; the restoration of health is sanctification. Holiness is true life."

But we experimentally die to sin as an actual fact when sanctifying grace destroys the abnormal proclivity to sin, and we become dead to the enticements of evil. We have this idea of being dead to sin in the second verse, and the seventh and the eleventh. The critical reader will notice that there is a double death. In the sixth verse "the old man" (i. e., the corrupt propensities of our nature) is crucified, and the "body of sin" is destroyed: but in the eleventh verse the figure is changed, and it is the Christian who dies "to the sin" as his master. It is probably a reciprocal crucifixion like that mentioned by Paul in Gal. 6:14: "God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world hath been crucified unto me, and I unto the world."

In view of the context, can such a crucifixion and dying mean anything less than that "the sin," "the old man" of depravity, can be so destroyed by sanctifying grace that the Christian can become as dead to any internal impulse to sin as a corpse is dead to the attractions of the world that once charmed him? A man that is dead is uninfluenced and unaffected by the affairs of this life. He is insensible to sounds and tastes and pleasures. The hum of business does not disturb him. The voices of condemnation or praise do not reach him. All the scenes of commerce or gayety or ambition do not move the heart. The dead orator's breast does not heave at the sound of applause or the tributes of his own eulogy. The dead warrior's pulse is not quickened by the rattle of musketry or the roar of cannon or the clash of contending hosts. And a Christian can be so delivered from the propensity to be charmed by the world that he is as one dead. The thing that once stirred within him at the approach of temptation has been " crucified" and "destroyed," and he is dead to all but holiness and usefulness and God. So, we are told three times in this chapter that we are made free from "the sin."

The great Greek exegete, J. Agar Beet, D. D., says:

"The words 'dead to sin' in the eleventh verse clearly imply that the old life of sin has completely come to an end, and the fetters of bondage to sin have been broken. So complete is the deliverance which St. Paul has in view that he compares it to Christ's escape by death from the enemies who nailed Him to the Cross, and from the burden of sin He bore there. Although Himself unspotted by sin, Christ occupied, during His life on earth, a very real and painful relation to it, and specifically to 'the sin' of the world. In order to save us from death, which is the consequence of 'the sin,' the Son of God placed Himself under the curse and burden of sin. During His life He was exposed to all the deadly assaults of sinful men, and the powers of darkness who, through them, struck Him. How real and awful was His contact with sin we see by His agony in the garden and on the Cross.

"All this explains in what sense Christ died to (in relation to) sin. His awful relation to it was absolutely sundered by His death. While He lived he was exposed to the assaults of His foes, and He groaned beneath the curse of the world's sin. But in the moment of His death He was free. The taunts and jeers and curses of His enemies hurt Him no more. In the moment of death He was separated from it all for ever.

"Just so, the words, 'dead to sin,' clearly imply that the old life of sin in the Christian may come to an end, and all the fetters of its bondage be broken. The phrase describes complete deliverance from all bondage and defilement of sin. This verse (eleventh) embodies the all-important and distinctive Christian doctrine of 'sanctification in Christ through faith.' "

We heartily accept the conclusion of that noble Christian scholar. Beyond all question, the subject under discussion here is "the sin-principle" and deliverance from it, or "sanctification." Alford says: "The passage teaches that we shall be made righteous, not by imputation but really and actually righteous, as completely so as we were made really and actually sinners."

III. Now if we may thus be delivered from "the sin," St. Paul asks, "How shall we live any longer therein?"

This question is practically repeated in the fifteenth verse. The apostle expresses astonishment that anyone should desire it or think of it.

Elliott says: "St. Paul sees the matter in the ideal light to force upon the consciences of his hearers the fact that an entire change came over them when they became Christians -- that the knowledge and the grace then vouchsafed to them did not leave them where they were -- that they are not, and cannot be, their former selves, and that it is a contradiction of their very being to sin any more."

Whedon says: "Christian faith, in its very essence an act, is an abandonment of the sin and a most entire and perfect surrender to holiness."

"Holiness," says Godet, "is salvation in its very essence. Justification is to be regarded as the strait gate through which we enter on the narrow way of sanctification, which leads to glory." "In this section of the epistle (6:1-7:6) the apostle unfolds the new principle of sanctification contained in the very object of justifying faith -- Jesus Christ." ... "In the previous part of the epistle the thought of the apostle was on the contrast between wrath and justification; but the contrast here is between the sin and holiness. For the matter in question is no longer to efface sin as guilt, but to overcome it as a power or disease." ... "The apostle shows the powerlessness of the law to sanctify as well as to justify; and, on the other hand, the entire sufficiency of the Gospel to accomplish both tasks."

We are happy to be able to quote these three commentators in support of our argument that the apostle is here unfolding sanctification through the Spirit as the cure of "the sin," the death of our depravity. Many others might be quoted. We want our readers to know that this is no hair-brained theory of ours, but the real teaching of the Word of God.

The apostle launches out into several arguments to show how abhorrent it is to continue unsanctified and live in "the sin." 1. He says in verses 3-5, it involves the breaking of the baptismal vow. The very rite means a profession of a holy purpose to be dead to "the sin" principle, and a vow to live to God. Baptism in the New Testament Church takes the place of circumcision in the Old. The rite of circumcision, as explained in Col. 2:9-11, meant "the putting off of the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ." Meyer says: "The spiritual circumcision, divinely performed, consisted in a complete parting and doing away with this body of sin, in so far as God has removed the sinful body from a man, like a garment drawn off and laid aside." Now the rite of baptism looks to, and signifies in purpose, the same cleansing of our nature. As Christ died to the curses of mocking men, so we in baptism profess to be willing to die to this inward curse of sin: as Christ rose again, so we in baptism consent to rise to a holy life.

Am I forcing this argument? Listen to the Prayer Book of the Church of England: "Baptism representeth unto us our profession which is to follow the example of our Savior Christ, and to be made like unto Him: that as He died and rose again for us, so should we, who are baptized, die for sin, and rise again unto righteousness."

The Southern Methodist Episcopal Church has this prayer in her baptismal ceremony: "O merciful God, grant that the Old Adam in these persons may be so buried that the new man may be raised up in them. Amen. Grant that all carnal affections may die in them, and that all things belonging to the Spirit may live in them. Amen."

Alford says: "The apostle refers to an acknowledged fact in the signification of baptism -that it put upon us a state of conformity with and participation in Christ; and that this involves A death to sin even as He died to sin." Now, for such baptized Christians to spurn sanctification and refuse to be rid of their carnality is to renounce their own baptism and to do violence to all its sacred meaning.

2. The apostle teaches in the sixth verse that to refuse sanctification, and purposely continue to live in "the sin," is to reject the atonement in its results. Provisionally, "our old man was crucified with him, that the body of the sin might be destroyed." This was the sacred purpose of Christ's death. Eph. 5:25: "Christ loved the church, and gave himself up for it; that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it ... that it should be holy and without blemish." Heb. 13:12: "Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate."

In 1 John 1:7 we are told that "The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin."

Now, when we learn that God has set His heart on our being free from "the sin," and Jesus shed His life's blood on the cross that we might be thus sanctified, if we spurn this blessing and cling to our "old man" of carnality, what else is it than treading under foot the Son of God, and counting the blood of the covenant wherewith we might be sanctified an unholy thing, and doing despite to the Spirit of grace?

Remember what this old man is. Dr. Barnes voices a dozen commentators when he says, "It is a personification of the corrupt propensities of our nature"; or, as Tholuck says: "Our tendency of alienation from God." This is the vile fountain from which the stream of sin flows. This is the traitor in the citadel of the soul, which responds to every outside solicitation to evil and longs to deliver us into the hands of our enemies. This is the internal cancer that eats away at the spiritual life, to consume it utterly. "For from within," said Jesus, "out of the heart of men, evil thoughts proceed, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, covetings, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, railing, pride, foolishness: all these proceed from within and defile the man." This is the "bent to backsliding" in the hearts of unsanctified believers, of which God justly complains. This is "the root of bitterness" by which so many Christian hearts are despoiled of their loveliness. This is what expresses itself in the easily besetting sin, in the fierce uprising of ungovernable temper, and in the smoldering embers of hate. Oh, this is that "carnal the sin that is enmity against God," and will not bow to God and tries to keep us from doing it, and is the relentless foe of all deep spirituality in every life.

And this "old man was crucified with Christ, that this body of sin might be destroyed." That is to say, Jesus in His atoning work made provision for this old thing to be crucified, that this propensity to sin "might be destroyed." Barnes says: "It refers to the moral destruction of the power of sin in the heart by the gospel, and not to any physical change in the nature."

Now, when any Christian understands this truth, and then deliberately rejects this cleansing, sanctifying grace, and refuses to have his carnality destroyed, what better is it than to stand on Calvary and join the rabble crowd of Christ-rejecters who mock the dying agonies of the Son of God?

3. The, apostle further shows that to continue in the sin involves a disregard of god's glory. The more wretched sinners become like God, the more glory He will get out of us. It will reveal Jesus as a mighty Savior, and will display to an admiring universe the glories of His redemption.

Verse 7: "For he that is dead is freed from sin" (old ver.). New ver.: "Justified from sin." Barnes: "The word here is used in the sense of setting at liberty, or destroying the power or dominion," "as a master ceases to have power over a slave when he is dead." Lange: "It means a release from sin by the death of the sinner himself." Clarke says: "The context shows that it means, 'All his evil propensities are destroyed, and he is wholly sanctified to God'."

Verses 8-11 confirm what has been said before: "If we be dead with Christ." Barnes: "If we are made dead to sin by Christ's atoning work, as He was dead in the grave." "We believe we shall also live with Him." "It refers not to the future so much as the present. It becomes an article of our belief that we are to live with Christ. As He was raised from death, so we shall be raised from the death of sin. As He lives, so we shall live in holiness." And God expects it of us here and now (1 Peter 1:15). Whedon: "Dead to a world of sin, as Christ was dead to a world of external things, and live with Him -- that is, live in conformity with His character."

Verse 10: "He died unto [in relation to] the sin once [for all]: but the life that he liveth he liveth unto God." The death of Christ was the very highest point of antagonism between holiness and the sin. Barnes observes: "The design of His death was to destroy sin. ... The whole force of the motive, therefore, drawn from the death of Christ is to induce Christians to forsake sin. And Christ now lives 'unto God ' -- that is, to advance His glory; so should the powers of Christians, being raised from the death of sin, be exerted to promote the glory of God." But very little glory can God get out of Christians who of choice remain carnal. "The sin" holds so large a place in human life that it will not be innocently, ineffectively dormant. It shows itself to be a most aggressive force in a little child, and it grows in effective virulence in the after years. Without complete victory over the sin there can be no unreserved devotion to God; for all is resistance to God. So God proposes to "crucify," "destroy" t his foul thing within, that we may have no more trouble with it, and have perfect leisure to devote ourselves to the glory of God.

Rom. 7:11: "Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto the sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus."

With the end of Jesus' life, His struggle with sin ended. Even so, says the apostle, let your relation with sin end. Godet says on this and following verses: "As Christ does not return back again from His life in glory (to have relation to sin), so the believer, once dead to sin and alive to God in Christ, cannot return to his old life of sin. ... The believer does not get disentangled from sin gradually. He breaks with it in Christ once for all. He is placed by a decisive act of will (and the work of the Spirit) in the sphere of perfect holiness. ... This second gospel paradox, sanctification by faith, rests on the first, justification by faith."

Professor Dougan Clark, D. D., says on this passage: "We are wholly unable to destroy or do away with the body of sin by any resolution or will-power of our own. The sin will not go dead at our bidding, nor can we become dead to it by wishing or striving to be so. Again, we are brought face to face with our helplessness, but the apostle solves our problem for us by directing us to resort to the process of reckoning. What we reckon with the sublime reckoning of faith, Christ can make real and true.

But we must not fail to reckon ourselves alive as well as dead. And to be alive to God means to be responsive to every intimation of His will -- in short, to be sanctified wholly. Oh, beloved, what a blessed reckoning is the reckoning of faith! How vastly does it transcend all the reckonings of logic or mathematics! For by it we experience a deadness to sin and a holiness of heart and life."

The sainted Friend, David B. Updegraff, says: "I hated pride, ambition, evil tempers, and vain thoughts, but I had them, and they were a part of me not as acts, but as dispositions lying behind the acts, and promptings thereto, natural to the 'old man.' ... But, with my all upon the altar, I had no sooner 'reckoned myself dead unto [the] sin, and alive unto God,' than the 'Holy Ghost fell' upon me. Instantly I felt the melting and refining fire of God permeating my whole being."

Agar Beet, D. D., the noted Greek exegete, says: "St. Paul bids us reckon it to be ours. This reckoning implies full assurance. For when a reckoning is complete, the reckoner knows the result. ...This verse embodies the all-important and distinctively Christian doctrine of sanctification in Christ through faith."

Verses 12 and 13: "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body ... neither present your members unto the sin." In other words, "Therefore," since you can get rid of the sin by the sanctifying grace of Christ, do it, and do not let it reign in you any more, nor yield your members to its use.

"The sin" is again personified as a ruler, or queen. Adam Clarke says: "Let not the sin have any place or being in your soul. ... Wherever the sin is felt, there the sin has dominion; for sin is sin only as it works in action or passion against God. The sin cannot be a quiescent thing: if it does not work, it does not exist."

Barnes says: "Christians should devote every member of the body to God and His service -- the tongue, hands, feet, eyes, ears, etc., all for God."

Verse 13: "But present yourselves unto God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God." Here the apostle names one of the fundamental conditions of sanctification. Very definitely "present yourselves" even minutely your individual members to God in entire consecration. In verse 11 he has just urged Christians to exercise faith for the blessing of sanctification. But it is impossible for an unconsecrated person to exercise any such sanctifying faith. Now, in this verse he shows how to get all difficulty out of the way. Jesus takes all He can get, and sanctifies all who will let Him. Jesus is the altar whereon we place ourselves as a sacrifice, and "what soever toucheth the altar is made holy." Jesus himself said, "The altar sanctifieth the gift." It is the personal transaction of a heart already regenerated -- "alive from the dead" -- with a personal God, for the sake of holiness and the greater glory of a sanctifying Savior.

Professor Dougan Clark says: "The essence of consecration is in the sentence, 'Yield yourselves unto God.' When you yield yourselves you yield everything else. All the details are included in the one surrender of yourself: 'Yield yourself unto God.' Consecration is not to God's service, not to His work, not to a life of obedience and sacrifice, not to the Church, not to the Christian Endeavor not to the missionary cause, nor even to the cause of God: it is to God Himself. Consecration is the willingness, and the resolution, and the purpose to be, to do, and to suffer all God's will." The verb is in the aorist tense, and denotes a definite transaction, made once for all, never to be repeated, unless we have failed to keep it.

Meyer says: "The imperative aorist denotes the instantaneousness with which the consecration of the body should be carried out."

Philippi: "This tense expresses the idea of a consecration once for all."

Godet says: "It indicates an immediate transition into the new state. This change should affect not the body only, but the whole person, 'Yield yourselves.' All is included in that of the person." ... According to Lange and Schaff the sanctification of the mortal body here below is mentioned as serving to prepare for its glorification above."

Professor Isaiah Reid gives this form of consecration for holiness: "O Lord, in view of this thing Thou hast besought me to do, I hereby do now really consecrate myself unreservedly to Thee, for all time and eternity. My time, my talents, my hands, feet, lips, will, my all. My property, my reputation, my entire being, a living sacrifice to be and to do all Thy righteousness will pertaining to me. Especially at this time do I, Thy regenerate child, put my case into Thy hands for the cleansing of my nature from indwelling sin. I seek the sanctification of my soul."

He adds this pledge of faith: "Now, as I have given myself away, I will, from this time forth, regard myself as Thine. I believe Thou dost accept the offering I bring. I put all on the altar. I believe the altar sanctifieth the gift. I believe the blood is applied now, as I comply with the terms of Thy salvation. I believe that Thou dost now cleanse me from all my sin."

Any regenerated person who thus consecrates for this blessing has a right to believe, on the promises of God, that He does then and there keep His word and cleanse the heart. Yea, it would be dishonoring God not to believe.

Verses 14, 15: "For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law but under grace? God forbid."

The word "sin" has no such article in verse 14, as if it referred to an act, although, as Barnes and other commentators admit, it is personified here as previously, and still refers to "the propensity or inclination to sin." Perhaps the reason of the change is revealed in the tense of the verb in the fifteenth Verse. According to Lange, Meyer, Tischendorf, Godet, and others, the true reading is "hamartesomen" -- aorist subjunctive of deliberation, not a future, and is best rendered "may we sin."

Godet makes this fine comment: "The principle of holiness inherent in salvation has been demonstrated. ... The question which now arises is whether this new dominion (of sanctifying grace) will be strong enough to banish sin in every particular case. Hence the form of the aorist subjunctive: should we commit an (one) act of sin? Could we act thus voluntarily in a single instance?" "God forbid." "Let it not be so." Hallelujah! How much better and more scriptural that sounds than the rattle of an old creed which tells us that we must "sin daily in thought, word, and deed" as long as we live! Such an assertion is unbiblical, contradictory to God, and insulting to the sanctifying Holy Ghost. If the Bible teaches anything, it teaches that sin is not a necessity. No act of sin can be necessary in a moral universe ruled over by a holy God.

IV. Paul teaches in the sixteenth and following verses that to continue in "the sin" and yield to it and refuse deliverance is to be "the sin's" slave.

Verse 16: "Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves as servants, unto obedience, his servants ye are whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?"

Here, as in verse 14, the word "sin" is without the article, the only times in the entire chapter. The personification of sin is still kept up. But the article may be omitted for a purpose. Godet suggests: "Paul seemed to hear the objection that an act of God's grace is enough to annul it, so that not a trace of it shall remain. So superficial Pelagianism understands moral liberty. After the doing of each act it can return to the state in which it was before, exactly as if nothing had passed. But a more serious study of human life proves, on the contrary, that every act of will, whether in the direction of good or evil, creates or strengthens a tendency which drags men with increasing force till it becomes altogether irresistible." The first sin of Adam created his depravity. The first sin of a sanctified Christian would again reproduce a tendency to sin. So a fully saved person should shrink from sinning even once again.

If men yield themselves to commit a sin they create a propensity and become the servants of it. They then give themselves to the indulgence of it, even with death and ruin and condemnation before them. They follow their evil propensities even if they lead them to hell. So it is never safe to commit one sin. That way is death.

"So," says Barnes, "the same law exists in regard to holiness or obedience. The man who becomes the servant of holiness will feel himself bound by the law of servitude to obey, unto eternal life." "The word 'righteousness 'in this verse means personal holiness."

Verse 17: "But thanks be to God that whereas ye were servants of the sin, ye became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered." These men had been in the bondage to the sin -- completely its slaves. But they had been set free by heart-obedience to the gospel. Like every other body of believers, they were in various stages of grace. Some probably were sanctified, and all were urged to be. For the next verse reads:

Verse 18: "Being then made free from the sin, ye became the servants of righteousness." "The aorist participle here," says Lange, "denotes a definite act of deliverance." That is exactly what we are contending for, that in sanctification we get definite deliverance from the sin-principle, and this great truth is taught in a striking and solemn way in this and the following verses of this chapter. For

V. St. Paul shows that self-interest should prompt us to dissolve all relationship with this internal sinfulness.

"We became servants." "You became voluntarily under the dominion of righteousness: you yielded yourselves to it: and ye are therefore bound to be holy" (Barnes). Here is "the sin" personified as a slave-master, and the manumission from slavery. The slave, once set free from his servitude, is as free as if he had never been a slave. So is the Christian who is once set free from the sin.

Verse 19: "As ye have yielded your members as servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now present your members servants of righteousness unto sanctification." Formerly they had yielded all the faculties of their being to the service of the sin-principle to commit iniquity; even so now they should present all their members to their new master -righteousness, to practice sanctification. Godet suggests: "There is a slightly ironical touch here. It concerns Christians to be as zealous servants to their new master as they formerly were in the service of their old master. 'Ye were eager to yield your members to sin, to commit evil, be ye now as eager to yield them to righteousness, to realize holiness. Do not inflict on this second master the shame of serving him less faithfully than the first.' "

Dr. Barnes says: "Let the surrender of your members to holiness be as sincere and as unqualified as the surrender was to sin. This is all that is required of Christians. If all would employ the same energies in advancing the kingdom of God that they have in promoting the kingdom of Satan, the Church would rise with dignity and grandeur, and every continent and island would soon feel the movement. No requirement is more reasonable than this; and it should be a source of lamentation and mourning with Christians that it is not so; that they have employed so mighty energies in the cause of Satan, and do so little in the service of God." This is sadly true, and we see no cure for it but this great blessing of sanctification which will take out of Christians their carnality and selfishness, and get them all on fire with a passion for souls.

This is the very remedy that St. Paul suggests. He makes an argument for energy in the divine life by comparing the rewards obtained in the two kinds of servitude. "Yield your members servants of righteousness unto sanctification.

Verse 20: "For when ye were servants of the sin ye were free in regard to righteousness."

Verse 21: "What fruit then had ye at that time in the things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death."

What an awful statement! When a man has this Carnality in him and he consents to serve it, it empties him of all goodness and makes him wholly displeasing to God. "Free from righteousness!" Carnality incarnate! A moral leper, ready for death! But such will Christians become who deliberately reject this priceless blessing of sanctification and choose to be slaves of the sin.

Verse 22: "But now being made free from the sin (aorist tense, once for all) and become servants to God (aorist tense, once for all) ye have (continually, present progressive tense) your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life." What a galaxy of glorious truths are brought together here! (1) We can be definitely set free from this cruel old tyrant, the sin-principle, delivered from him so instantaneously and completely that he will trouble us no more. (2) "Being made free" by Christ our mighty Deliverer, the "Lion of the tribe of Judah." "The Lamb of God that taketh away 'the sin' of the world." Performing His High-Priestly office, He baptizeth us with the Holy Spirit, "cleansing our hearts by faith" (Acts 15:8, 9). (3) We have our "fruit unto sanctification." The result is sanctification. That is what sanctification is -- a state of freedom from the principle of sin, "the carnal the sin," the alienation from God, the proneness to sin! Oh, wonderful deliverance! And (4) we can have it "NOW." It is not something that we get by development and growth. The cleansing of our heart is the work of the Holy Spirit performed "suddenly" as at Pentecost. We do not get it by the discipline of life and the passage of years. The writer once heard an old lady, eighty years old, testify as follows: "I was converted when I was ten years old. I tried to grow into sanctification for sixty-nine years, and utterly failed. Then I got tired of trying to get it by growth, and last year I went to that altar and received it by faith in half an hour, and I have the blessing yet." That was the scriptural way. The Holy Word always tells us that we receive the Spirit by faith, and are sanctified by faith. Sanctification is purity of heart, freedom from the indwelling sin, obtained instantaneously. Then we grow to maturity, and will grow for ever.

Much less do we get sanctified by death. One writer says: "The body of sin in believers is indeed an enfeebled, conquered, and deposed tyrant, and the stroke of death finishes its destruction." Indeed! Then the Omnipotent Christ and the Infinite Spirit can only enfeeble indwelling sin; but physical death can finish him and sanctify us wholly. Thus not Jesus but death becomes our Savior. "The sin" produced death, and death, the effect of sin, turns about and destroys its cause! This is only heathen philosophy, rank with absurdity! No! "May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly" (1 Thess. 5:23). It is God that does it, and not death, and He does it instantaneously. Sanctification is as instantaneous as justification. Each is performed by an act of God in response to our faith.

And (5) this sanctification ends in heaven. The final result, the ultimate consequence, is "eternal life." By this tremendous consideration the great apostle would inspire all believers to seek deliverance from the sin and be sanctified wholly, and be preserved blameless, ready for their summons to their eternal home.

Verse 23: "For the wages of the sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." One can cling to the sin and serve it if he likes; but let him not be deceived or disappointed about the wages. The wages is death; not something arbitrary and undeserved, but earned. Barnes "Not a pain will be inflicted on the sinner which he does not deserve. Not a sinner will die who ought not to die. Sinners in hell will be treated just as they deserve to be treated; and there is not to man a more fearful and terrible consideration than this. No man can conceive a more dreadful doom than for himself to be treated for ever just as he deserves to be. Death, eternal banishment from God, is the wages of the sin because it was promised, and will be paid in full.

"But eternal life is the free gift of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." A gift of God, because no man could ever earn it; but in Christ Jesus He offers His sanctifying grace freely to every believer who will have it. The cleansed and holy heart which it gives us is the great preparation to meet God, and dwell with Him for ever.

Thus the great apostle appeals to us, even by self-interest and the motives drawn from the eternal world and the contrasted issues of soul-destiny, to accept deliverance from the sin and receive a holy heart, and be forever fitted for companionship with God.

Reader, St. Paul's question, "Shall we live any longer in sin?" presses for an answer. Shall we accept sanctification and walk with God and gain heaven? Or shall we refuse our interest in the atonement of Christ, cling to our carnality, and reap its wages of eternal death? John Fletcher said: "So much of indwelling sin as we carry about with us, so much of indwelling hell, so much of the sting which pierces the damned, so much of the spiritual fire which will burn up the wicked. To plead, therefore, for the continuance of indwelling sin is no better than to plead for keeping within your hearts one of the sharpest stings of death, and one of the hottest coals of hell-fire. On the other hand, to obtain Christian perfection is to have the last feature of Belial's image erased from your loving souls, the last bit of the sting of death extracted from your composed breasts, and the last spark of hell-fire extinguished in your peaceful bosoms.

St. Paul said: "The sting of death is the sin." It is carnality in the heart that makes it hard for people to die. John Wesley said: "Our people die well." Certainly. Sanctified people always die well, for the sting of death is gone.

Well, here is the apostle's question, "Shall we live any longer in the sin?" What will you do about it? God now waits for your decision.