So do you think we should continue sinning so that God will give us more and more grace? Of course not! Our old sinful life ended. It’s dead. So how can we continue living in sin?
Did you forget that all of us became part of Christ Jesus when we were baptized? In our baptism we shared in his death. So when we were baptized, we were buried with Christ and took part in his death. And just as Christ was raised from death by the wonderful power of the Father, so we can now live a new life.
Christ died, and we have been joined with him by dying too. So we will also be joined with him by rising from death as he did.
We know that our old life was put to death on the cross with Christ. This happened so that our sinful selves would have no power over us. Then we would not be slaves to sin. Anyone who has died is made free from sin’s control. (Romans 6:1-7 ERV)
The idea of salvation by faith is often minimized as a free "get out of hell" coupon, or "go straight to heaven" game card. But that's not how it's explained in the Bible. The epistles are basically explanations of the gospel, Christian doctrine, and how to live it out in this life.
Of course, genuine believers do have the hope of eternal life with the Lord, but there's far more to it than a promise for the future.
In this Scripture, we are given some insight to how our salvation by grace is to effect our life now. We have the picture of water baptism. We have a new identity in our relationship with Jesus. Baptism reminds us that our old life, enslaved to sin, is dead and buried. We have a new life to live because of the Lord's resurrection from the dead.
Our commitment to Jesus and confession of faith (as in water baptism), opens up the power of a life of freedom. Only one catch, we need to choose to live in this freedom each day.
This requires faith—trust in Jesus and what He did for us through His death and resurrection. ©Word-Strong_2015