Well then, should we keep on sinning?

One of the passages I came across in my Bible reading this morning was a very very popular passage:

Romans 6:1-23

Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? ² Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? ³ Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? ⁴ For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.

Reading it, and actually reading it, it can be realized that this is actually quite a profound statement. Paul is addressing a very common question, even up until this day. If forgiveness is as easy as just asking for it, doesn't it make sense that we can just continue to sin and do whatever we want whenever we want? There are multiple responses that I have to this question but I can try to keep it brief.

First off, let's picture a scenario. Imagine you're mom has asked to to do something important, and the very first thing you do is completely go against her will. Well, you ask for forgiveness, and then the next day you do the exact same thing and go against her will again. First off, I think it can be assumed that that is in no way a functional relationship. Second off, the will of your mother is not aligned with the will of you. Which is really where the root of the problem is. Paul is saying that not only are you asking the wrong question, but if your desire is to continually sin than you have not begun to live life to the fullest as Jesus promised and talked of.

We need to die to our sin and come to terms with it. We can never fully purge ourselves of it and will always have some level of human desire. But with the help of Christ we can harness our desires and refocus them on helping further the kingdom of Christ, the goodness, love filled, joyful, life alterint presence of Christ on earth.

But sometimes I don't see that all the time. Whenever I see giant groups of "Christians" holding anti-gay rallies, with hateful terms held up on signs, or people judging anybody who walks through the door of the church solely based on their appearance, I see a Church that Jesus would most likely not want to attend. Keep in mind, if Jesus walked through the doors of the Church you would find a man in rags, probably slept outside that night, had no car to drive in. Jesus spend a lot of time with people who were social outcasts.

A lot of random thoughts there.

-Joe