“What shall we say then? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound?” (Romans 6:1)
As you may know, I’ve just moved house. I’m now in a quiet little place in Concord, tucked away at the end of a closed street. It’s peaceful, the neighbours are lovely, and in many ways, it feels like I’ve accidentally wandered into a holiday resort.
It’s a far cry from where I’ve lived most of my life.
When I first moved to Dulwich Hill in 1990, we were the heroin capital of the inner west, and it was never safe to walk the streets at night on your own. We had gangs like The Legends roaming the area, and there were lots of drugs, crime, violence, and desperation.
We lived in the rectory there for thirty years, and for much of that time we had what was known as the detox room at the back of our house – a small room, attached to the laundry, where parishioners could stay while trying to get clean.
Some genuinely detoxed there. Some tried. Some said they were detoxing but weren’t, and we usually discovered that when our belongings started disappearing.
I’ll spare you the colourful stories. Suffice it to say that for most of my adult life, my two primary questions about my living space have been:
- How do I make my house safe for my children?
- How do I make it hard for people to steal our stuff?
Now I find myself in a place where those questions simply aren’t relevant. I’ve moved house, and the whole framework has changed, and, believe it or not, I think, this parallels exactly what Paul is getting at in Romans 6.
“Should we continue in sin so that grace may abound?” (Romans 6:1)
Paul has been arguing passionately that we are reconciled to God not by our moral performance but by God’s sheer, unearned grace.
“Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1)
If God’s forgiveness is a free gift, if mercy triumphs over judgement, then the obvious question that arises is “Why bother trying to live a holy life in the first place?” If, in the end, God forgives anyway, why not enjoy ourselves in the meantime? Why not sin boldly and let grace do its job?
“Between the stirrup and the ground, mercy sought, mercy found.” It’s an old mediaeval saying my father used to quote. If forgiveness is always available — even in the last split second of life — then why not live life to the full now and worry about forgiveness later?
Paul’s response to this is not the one we might have expected. It’s not the one you received from your parents.
Do you remember that conversation you had with your dad when you were first caught smoking or drinking or flirting with the girls after Friday night youth group?
“Son, you might think that getting drunk and taking mind-altering drugs and sleeping with a variety of women will be lots of fun, but sin isn’t all it’s cracked up to be!”
Paul doesn’t respond with the parental line, and he doesn’t give the government response either. I’m thinking of the obscene images displayed on cigarette packs. I don’t think they actually say, “The wages of sin is death,” but the pictures of the consequences of cigarette smoking make death look like a merciful alternative.
This is how governments try to curb our sinful habits – smoking, drinking, gambling, speeding and one-punch knockouts. They don’t threaten us with eternal damnation but with the suffering we’ll experience in this life if we do wrong! Crime doesn’t pay!
Paul doesn’t say, “Sin isn’t as fun as it looks,” and he doesn’t appeal to karma either. Instead, he says something far deeper:
“How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death? Therefore, we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:2–4)
Paul’s answer is simple: you’ve moved house! You no longer live in the old neighbourhood — the one ruled by fear, shame, addiction, and self‑destruction. You’ve moved in with Christ, so why would you go back to the old address?
Yes, before Christ, we did the right thing because we feared the consequences of doing the wrong thing. We avoided sin because we were afraid of punishment or social fallout. But now we live differently because we are different. We have died with Christ. We have risen with Christ. We walk in the newness of His life.
We don’t avoid sin because we’re scared. We stay away from sin because it no longer fits the persons we have become. We’ve moved house!
I feel I can’t end this reflection without acknowledging that the Apostle Paul, after he found Christ, actually moved out of his good neighbourhood and became a homeless itinerant preacher. Paul was probably living in a place similar to where I’m living now before he met Christ, who moved him from comfort into danger — into the streets, the prisons, the shipwrecks, the beatings, and the uncertainty.
Of course, God knows where I’ll go next. God knows what the future holds for any of us, and it doesn’t really matter where we go or where we live so long as our travelling companion remains the same.
To quote Paul one more time:
“For I have learnt to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learnt the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:11-13)
May God give us grace to walk in that same strength and to enjoy contentment in that same newness of life. Amen.
First published in Father Dave’s weekly newsletter – June 20th, 2026
