I will ponder on it. Meanwhile, I suppose I could at least offer my opinion of it. But, to be honest, I haven't spent much time on that particular scripture, as of late, and my quick response may be out of context with the overall message. (I have learned not to cherry pick scripture to validate my views as that approach has backfired on many who frequent our little forum, myself included.)
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
Should we pour gasoline on a fire? I think the sentence is clear. To the christian, "sin" must be resisted. Sin is defined and interpreted for the christian either by their church, the Holy Bible or the Holy Spirit. Or a combination of all three. The state of grace is always worked towards to the practicing christian. (I highly doubt we will meet any of them here at Debate Politics, however.
) To the non-christian, it is an understandable behavior but it can become offensive when one man's religion or beliefs treads upon their personal beliefs. The assumption that the believer's point of view is always right, because their God said so, is an infringement upon the freedom of others who choose to freely think. When one party of any debatable issue thinks their source of knowledge and viewpoints are beyond reproach due to their deity being their source of validity, it becomes a pointless conversation going forth. All to often, at that point in time, the non-religious just drops their jaw and shakes their head. But, it's been going on since Adam and Eve took dietary suggestions from a talking snake so I digress.
2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
I suppose that could be interpreted in several ways. Hard to tell without going back through to read what's in front of it. But, just guessing, it's relative to spiritual enlightenment and the quest of the christian to be godly and avoid sin. OR, could it be possible that it is subliminally prophetic? With STD's the way they are, could it be people were dying from promiscuity. That's a stretch. Regardless, we got a group of people telling the rest of the world what is to be considered sin and what is not. I imagine that is just as difficult today as it was a thousand years ago. But whatever. For the non-believer to even be concerned what it means there, they would have to acknowledge that it is even worthy of discussion to begin with. Again, they are at the point where they are thinking, "I'm debating someone who believes in talking snakes, water turning to wine, virgin births, dead people coming back to life and 'dim bones gonna rise again! And he's telling me how I can or cannot live MY life!" The phrase, "Don't tread on me," comes to mind.
3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
Sorry dude. We're in the dungeons and dragons world with all the mumbo jumbo there. I can't even offer an opinion. I mean, I know what it supposed to mean, kinda, but it is so out there in the twilight zone I shudder to give it enough validity to even discuss. In short, I don't care what that means because it looks like, sounds like gobble-dy-gook. Therefore, to me, it's gobble-de-gook.
But whatever. I'm getting off point here. What I am trying to say is this:
To the believer. God bless you. Go forth. Do good. Believe what is in your heart. What you believe to be a "sin," you should put on your armour and do your best to avoid it. I hope the believer's find this graceful enlightenment or whatever Holy Spirit they are searching for or already claiming. But in the meantime, don't take yourself to seriously because I assure you, others, all to often, do not. Further, at the end of the day, you have no moral highground or trump card diety unless you are dealing with others who recognize the same godly Ace of Spades.
To the non-believer: Lighten the **** up. In this day and age it is refreshing to see someone who stands firm on their beliefs especially when their mission statement, above any and all impressions they may leave, is love. I know, I know. I hear you. But the bad side of them does not necessarily outweigh the good. Meet their intolerance with tolerance and patience. Whatever they have to say is only relevant to those who are like-minded and it can only become relevant if you let it.
To everyone: There is a new deity or belief system about every 2000 years or so. If I am not mistaken, the current age of Christianity, as we know it, is, shall we say, running on bald tires. We can expect a blow out soon enough and then we can get on with next, latest, greatest religion and then we can let THOSE guys tell everyone how to live.
This too shall pass.
And the beat goes on....
