| |
Grigori Rasputin was a Russian mystic and self-proclaimed “holy man” who claimed to speak on behalf of God. He gained considerable influence in Russian during the early 1900s. Controversy surrounds Rasputin as he claimed and demonstrated divine healing for a boy named Alexei, the Tsar and his wife Alexandra’s only son, who suffered from hemophilia.
But there was a dark side to Rasputin. He struggled with alcohol abuse and sexual promiscuity. Attaining divine grace through sin seems to have been one of his central secret doctrines that was preached to (and practiced with) his inner circle of society ladies. The idea that an increase of sin would cause an increase of God’s grace was a convenient excuse to continue to feed the flesh what it desired. The problem is, Paul had already debunked this doctrine in Romans 6.
Paul is not speaking to those who backslide from time to time and know their choices are sinful. All believers are in that category. He is speaking to those who willingly continue sinning and allow it to develop into a pattern of life. He is addressing those who actually justify their own behavior by believing they are receiving more grace than others who are not sinning. The entire concept makes no sense whatsoever. If someone justifies their sinful behavior, why would they need grace anyway?
This is exactly the point Paul is delivering to his readers. If we have been delivered from sin and now recognize it for what it is, why would we go back to it? Grace brings this kind of revival.
Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Romans 6:13-14 ESV
We are free to live in righteousness through the grace of Jesus Christ. But ultimately, that freedom still requires a choice. Many Christians today know freedom is available but choose instead to live as a prisoner.
(I use everyday language because of the weakness of your natural selves.) At one time you surrendered yourselves entirely as slaves to impurity and wickedness for wicked purposes. In the same way you must now surrender yourselves entirely as slaves of righteousness for holy purposes.
Romans 6:19 GNB
Once you choose to live in freedom, you experience the riches of being a slave to righteousness. The power comes from Jesus’ love, not from our own ability to conquer sin. An important question to ask yourself is, what is my default mode? Do I operate most days as a slave to sin or a slave to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? If I am free now to use my mind, body, and resources for God’s purposes, where have I gone back to the pigpen of sin? All of us have a struggle and all of us need to be reminded of the covering of Jesus. His power is sufficient to produce fruit from our shattered lives.