"And why not do evil that good may come?" Romans 3:8
I've heard the argument from many different angles over the years. "Christians aren't supposed to be perfect", spoken to give excuse to a particular sin someone enjoyed. "I want God's grace to shine", as though the more sin one was involved in, the more grace God would provide. "It's only about God and His grace and forgiveness in Jesus", given as the reason to continue in some sin that that person really didn't want to battle or resist.
Each of these arguments comes back to one thing. I don't want to give up my sin, even though I know it's sin, so I'll convince myself that God will continually pour out good upon my evil, even if I don't intend to change, to repent of it, or even to consider it as bad. In other words, why not do evil that good may come?
Now, there are some things that we should consider. While God's law calls for complete perfection, God realizes that we are sinful sinners. We won't be able to be perfect, no matter how hard we try. However, we also don't admit our inability to do what God says, and then just stop trying to battle against it. While the sinful nature wants to indulge repeatedly in sin, the new creation wants to do what God says. In a sense, doing evil that good may come is to continually indulge the sinful nature in the hope that God will simply overlook my intentional sin.
The thing is, God looks much differently at intentional sin than in unintentional sin. Are both paid for by Jesus on the cross? Undoubtedly, since that sacrifice covered every sin. However, does God look at the intentional sin as us choosing sin rather than God? I have a difficult time thinking otherwise. After all, if we choose anything other than God, aren't we breaking the commandment against having other gods? And isn't that the most dire sin of all?
We can never fully do what God says while the sinful nature still exists. However, as God's Spirit brings Christ's forgiveness to us, the new creation strives to grow in keeping what God says. Our indulgence of our sin has us basically choosing to side with sin, death, and Satan, the unholy trinity, rather than the Father, Son, and Spirit, the holy Trinity. And that's where I think Paul's rhetorical question speaks much deeper to us than what we might really want or desire.
I've heard the argument from many different angles over the years. "Christians aren't supposed to be perfect", spoken to give excuse to a particular sin someone enjoyed. "I want God's grace to shine", as though the more sin one was involved in, the more grace God would provide. "It's only about God and His grace and forgiveness in Jesus", given as the reason to continue in some sin that that person really didn't want to battle or resist.
Each of these arguments comes back to one thing. I don't want to give up my sin, even though I know it's sin, so I'll convince myself that God will continually pour out good upon my evil, even if I don't intend to change, to repent of it, or even to consider it as bad. In other words, why not do evil that good may come?
Now, there are some things that we should consider. While God's law calls for complete perfection, God realizes that we are sinful sinners. We won't be able to be perfect, no matter how hard we try. However, we also don't admit our inability to do what God says, and then just stop trying to battle against it. While the sinful nature wants to indulge repeatedly in sin, the new creation wants to do what God says. In a sense, doing evil that good may come is to continually indulge the sinful nature in the hope that God will simply overlook my intentional sin.
The thing is, God looks much differently at intentional sin than in unintentional sin. Are both paid for by Jesus on the cross? Undoubtedly, since that sacrifice covered every sin. However, does God look at the intentional sin as us choosing sin rather than God? I have a difficult time thinking otherwise. After all, if we choose anything other than God, aren't we breaking the commandment against having other gods? And isn't that the most dire sin of all?
We can never fully do what God says while the sinful nature still exists. However, as God's Spirit brings Christ's forgiveness to us, the new creation strives to grow in keeping what God says. Our indulgence of our sin has us basically choosing to side with sin, death, and Satan, the unholy trinity, rather than the Father, Son, and Spirit, the holy Trinity. And that's where I think Paul's rhetorical question speaks much deeper to us than what we might really want or desire.
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