Every now and again, a familiar scene happens inside the confines of my house, and an argument begins. Now, one of the more recent arguments that broke out was between my wife and me. This was not a disagreement or anything tense. There was an argument about where something was. I needed a cookie cutter that we often use to make our family favorite “Sunshine Breakfast” (basically egg in a hole, but my kids like to give things “better” names). After about five good minutes of looking, I called out to my wife, stating I could not find what I was looking for. I was rather vocal about not being able to find said cookie cutter. Finally, my wife walked over to me, moved one thing, and low and behold, out of nowhere, the cookie cutter appeared.
While I cannot prove this biblically, I believe wives have a super spiritual ability to be able to just know where something is. I asked her, “How did you know that was there and why did you not just tell me?” Her response was, “I just knew where it was and I knew you would not ask for help.” Seems to be a universal truth that wives just know where stuff is better than their husbands.
1. Have you ever known where something was, what someone would say, or the answer before the person asked?
Similar to this situation, God inspired Paul to write and know the truth to every common argument that would arise against Paul’s writing in the book of Romans.
Romans 6:1-2 says, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?”
2. What do you think the common argument was that Paul was contending with based on Romans 6:1-2?
3. Does the fact that God is so full of grace give us permission to test that grace?
God knew that people would argue this point and make excuses for the next 2000 years. Just because God is gracious, that does not give us a license to live in sin. While we all will sin, and God’s love is so vast, deep, and incomprehensible, using God’s grace to merit a sinful, disobedient life shows a complete disregard for the sacrifice of Jesus.
4. What should our response be to the grace that God has shown us?
One of the things I wish my wife could have taught me that morning was how she can remember so much. She knows all the important dates, the idiosyncrasies about our house, and manages to memorize all the preferences of our four kids. I asked her, “Can you teach me to remember like that?”
The thing I love about the book Romans is that God uses a logical progression. The Holy Spirit inspired Paul to call out the abuse of grace but then prompted Paul to write the solution to the problem.
Romans 6:3-4 adds, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”
5. What must we be taught in order to not take advantage of Christ’s grace?
There is a keyword we have to spot when reading the above verse, and that is “into.” The text says we have been “baptized into Christ,” and “baptized into His death.”
6. Why does Paul use baptism as an example to refute living in sin?
God’s Word is pointing out that while we are all dead in our sins, the work of Christ alone is grounds for our justification to any who put their faith in Jesus. We are united with Christ when we are saved. We are “into” Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.
7. Why should one who confesses Jesus as Lord and is justified by the work of Christ desire to be baptized?
Romans 6:5-7 continues, “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin.”
8. What does dying to your old self and being raised into a new life in Christ allow you to be?
The argument that most people will make is that living in sinful manner is “freeing.” Sadly, sin does not free, it only imprisons. Freedom from the tyranny of self-love, self-worship, self-sufficiency, and self-satisfaction is only found when we confess our sins and call out for forgiveness to the One who can truly forgive us, Jesus.
9. How has the lie of “freedom” hindered your walk with Jesus?
Romans 6:8-11 says, “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
10. How effective was Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross? Why do we struggle to remember that at times when we are drifting in our faith?
One aspect I love about my wife is that she knows what I am looking for before I ask and before I admit to my struggle. While I sit here typing, as blessed as I am to have her as a wife, I am much more blessed to know that God knows what I am looking for before I ask and knows the answers to my struggles and questions. The Holy Spirit knows what the hearts of men need to hear, 2000 years ago and now. The truth is that all mankind needs Jesus to rescue us, which is truer than a husband who does not know where something is.