Continue in Sin So Grace May Abound
No Longer a Slave to Sin
A famous historical instance of such thought comes from the Russian monk Rasputin, who dominated the Romanov family in their final years. Rasputin taught that salvation came through repeated experiences of sin and repentance. He argued that because those who sin more require more forgiveness, those who sin with abandon will as they repent experience greater joy; therefore, it is the believer’s duty to sin.
Having outlined the way God in Christ justifies sinners, Paul goes on to the way the justified should live (cf. 2 Cor. 13:4; Gal. 5:13). His teaching that salvation is a gift of God, that it is the result of Christ’s death and not our own achievement, that we obtain it by faith and not by any effort of our own, marked a revolution. And it raised all sorts of questions that could never surface while it was held that law in some form was the gateway to godliness. One question that arose naturally enough was this: “If everything depends on what God has done, then what does it matter how we live?”
The question leads to a suggestion that Paul repudiates strongly. Evidently some had argued that since everything depends on grace our part should be to give grace the maximum scope in which to operate. If we go on sinning we provide scope for grace to increase: should this not be the Christian way?
Previously they had been dead in sin (Eph. 2:1); now they were dead to sin. The aorist in the verb died points to an action rather than a state: “we who died” rather than “we are dead” (“we have died”, GNB). Becoming a Christian is a decisive step; it is the beginning of faith and it means the end of sin
It is the end of the reign of sin and beginning of the reign of grace (5:21).
It is the death of Christ that makes anyone a Christian, and apart from that death baptism is meaningless. This is a strong affirmation of the centrality of the cross
2 Corinthians 5:14
with 2 Corinthians 5:14, “one died for all, and therefore all died.” Christ’s death alone is the ground of our justification, and when we make that our own by faith we are united with Christ—united with him in his death, united with him in his burial, united with him in his rising again, united with him in life.
It is interesting that we are never said to have been born with Christ or to have been baptized with him, as Lagrange points out. But we are crucified with him (v. 6; Gal. 2:20), we died with him (2 Tim. 2:11), were buried with him (here; Col. 2:12), were made alive with him (Eph. 2:5; Col. 2:13), were raised with him and made to sit with him in the heavenlies (Eph. 2:6), we are co-heirs with him (8:17), sharers of his glory (8:17), and we will reign with him (2 Tim. 2:12). The burial has unexpected emphasis in the New Testament (besides the Gospels, see Acts 13:29; 1 Cor. 15:4; Col. 2:12); it even finds a place in the Creed, a short statement which necessarily omits much that is important. Perhaps the point is that the burial emphasizes the completeness and finality of the death. Christ’s death was no momentary faint but real death, death followed by the tomb. Jesus really died. And our identification with that death is also complete.20 When we are baptized we have died. In baptism we are buried with Christ.22 An old way of life passes away completely.
become” united with Christ “in the likeness” of his death (for “likeness” see on 1:23). The word is characteristic of this epistle (four times out of six in the New Testament; Parry thinks that it “implies true assimilation, but of things different”). It is not easy to grasp the force of “likeness” (how does one unite with a “likeness”?)
Our death “is not the same as Christ’s but is similar to it” (Calvin). His death was physical whereas ours is not. JB has “If in union with Christ we have imitated his death”, but Paul is not saying this. There is no question of imitation; by faith we become one with Christ and this means a real death to our former life
Jesus’ death to sin was once and for all, “the great New Testament note” (Robinson).53 Believers face a new contest with sin every day; as long as we are on this earth we are never free from it. But Christ’s death was unique, a once-for-all dealing with sin. God made him sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21), and his death dealt decisively with sin, took it out of the way, paid its penalty, removed its sting (1 Cor. 15:55–56), won the victory over it. Look at sin how you will, Christ has effectively dealt with it.