"Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound"

Some time ago I criticised a faulty reading of Romans 7 which concluded that even regenerated Christians are still totally depraved. I argued that this was not a defence of the "T" in TULIP, but a denial of the "I", irresistible grace, by which we have new life. For example, when Paul says that he cannot do the good that he wills to do, he does not mean that he cannot do good absolutely, but rather that he wills to do more good than he actually achieves. If he were totally depraved, of course, he would neither do any good, or even will to do good at all.

Now, I would like to give similar treatment to a faulty reading of Romans 5 regarding another letter in TULIP, "P", the perseverance or preservation of the saints. This pseudo-Reformed interpretation latches onto the phrase, "where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" ignoring the surrounding context, especially the more full explanation expounded in the following chapter. It concludes that the more you sin, the more the grace of preservation abounds, and even that grace does not abound where there is no sin. In other words, although the conclusion of Romans 6:1, "shall we sin that grace may abound?", ought to be and will be hated as impious by those who are redeemed by Christ, it is nevertheless supposed to be a legitimate conclusion. This is in fact not a defence of the preservation of the saints, but a denial of the perseverance of the saints.

The rest of Romans 6 and following proves that the conclusion is both impious and illegitimate, but even a careful reading of Romans 5 itself does not support the conclusion. The conclusion is in fact a wicked slander against the Christian faith, not to be entertained or admitted, but to be refuted with extreme prejudice so that the name of God should not be blasphemed. Consider the following:

1. The passage (Romans 5:12-21) is not primarily speaking about how God preserves His people, but about the history of sin and grace, comparing and contrasting Adam with Christ.
2. Grace did not abound strictly everywhere that sin abounded, since many of those in Adam are not in Christ (Rom. 5:14-15).
3. The passage nowhere says or even implies that grace abounds only where sin abounds, in fact the passage consistently teaches that grace abounded much more than sin (Rom. 5:15, 20).
4. The abounding of sin is described as a reign of sin/death, and the abounding of grace is described as a reign of grace/life (Rom. 5:17, 21). These two reigns cannot co-exist in the same place at the same time, since they are wholly antithetical to each other and one is unto death, while the other is unto life.
5. We are told that those who "receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life" are in contrast to those in whom death reigned, meaning that they are no longer under the reign of sin and death. The comparison is that they will much more reign in life by one (Christ), than the reign of death was by one (Adam). And this is because of the contrast between the condemnation by one offence from the judgement of Adam, versus the justification from many offences by the free gift of Christ (Rom. 5:16). The free gift surpasses that judgment by far, and therefore the reign of life by far overturns the reign of sin and death.
6. Roman 6 begins the exposition of the reign of grace, concluding that since we are now dead to sin, we cannot live any longer in it. By re-using the term "the gift", Romans 6:23 illustrates that this is the same "free gift" as in Romans 5, and therefore the whole chapter is a more detailed treatment of what the abounding of grace (or reign of grace) actually looks like. According to this passage, consistent with Romans 5, sin/death has been dethroned, no longer having dominion (Rom. 6:6-7, 9, 12, 14), and is no longer abounding because grace has been much more enthroned in its place (Rom. 6:2-5, 8, 10-11). We must reckon ourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God (Rom. 6:11), not because we like to entertain comforting fantasies, but because this is the spiritual reality for all who have been united to Christ in the power of His death and resurrection (Rom. 6:5; cf. Eph. 1:19-20; 2:4-6).
7. Under the reign of grace, we are servants of righteousness and no longer servants of sin (Rom. 6:16-18). Now that grace is abounding much more, sin is no longer abounding (Rom. 6:19-22). Not to say that sin is not still present and does not still retain a great measure of power so that we must battle it and we cannot do what we will, but that groaning wretchedness we still experience despite all the victory and progress of the reign of grace in this life is a subject treated in the next chapter (Rom. 7).

So then, the correct view of the "P" in TULIP is not that preserving grace is abounding more when we are sinning more, or that for example, preserving grace is not abounding when we are not falling into some grievous sin like David's adultery or Peter's denial of Christ. The main thrust of the answer of the Canons of Dordt concerning the preservation of the saints is that the grace of God causes us to persevere:

Article 1. Whom God calls, according to his purpose, to the communion of his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and regenerates by the Holy Spirit, he delivers also from the dominion and slavery of sin in this life; though not altogether from the body of sin, and from the infirmities of the flesh, so long as they continue in this world.

Article 2. Hence spring daily sins of infirmity, and hence spots adhere to the best works of the saints; which furnish them with constant matter for humiliation before God, and flying for refuge to Christ crucified; for mortifying the flesh more and more by the spirit of prayer, and by holy exercises of piety; and for pressing forward to the goal of perfection, till being at length delivered from this body of death, they are brought to reign with the Lamb of God in heaven.

Article 3. By reason of these remains of indwelling sin, and the temptations of sin and of the world, those who are converted could not persevere in a state of grace, if left to their own strength. But God is faithful, who having conferred grace, mercifully confirms, and powerfully preserves them herein, even to the end.

Lamentable falls, such as in the biblical examples given, are the awful extraordinary exception (Canons 4.4), when this preserving grace is not abounding in us so richly for a time (cf. Canons 1.16), so that we fall into some terrible sin, but then the divine solution is not the abounding of preserving grace while we remain impenitent. The answer is that when preserving grace begins to abound again we are restored again to repentance. Until restored in this way, preserving grace can for a time be a mere trickle, just enough that we do not fall away completely, so that the incorruptible seed of regeneration is always preserved in us (Canons 5.7). Even so, when restored from such a fall, preserving grace then abounds all the more, because it then makes us more diligent and much more careful and solicitous in persevering in the ways of the Lord and using the means of grace which He has provided (Canons 5.7, 13).

There is another, much simpler, theological reason from Scripture why the wicked slander (which says that the more you sin, the more grace abounds) against the Christian faith is necessarily and hopelessly wrong. Grace itself is not merely or primarily unmerited favour. It was preserving grace which kept the angels which did not fall in Satan's rebellion. Grace abounded, and still abounds, in these angels, yet they are without sin and have always been without sin. In the angels that sinned, preserving grace did not abound, and now will never abound (II Peter 2:4-9). Our Lord Jesus Christ is full of grace and truth (John 1:14), and abounded in favour with God (Luke 2:52) yet was and will always be without sin (Heb. 4:15). Our definition of grace must be consistent with these truths too.

Grace is divine beauty, the glorious and resplendent moral and spiritual pleasantness and delightfulness of God (Ps. 84:11; Ps. 90:17). As an attitude of God towards the creature, it is a beautiful attitude of unmerited favour, but as God has done all that pleased Him (Ps. 115:3), it is also necessarily the omnipotent power of God by which those who are spiritually ugly in their sins are made spiritually beautiful (Ps. 149:4; Eph. 5:25-27). In short, towards us, grace is the power and spiritual virtue by which we are transformed into the image of Christ (II Cor. 3:18; Col. 3:9-10) who is personally the beautiful image of the invisible God (Heb. 1:3). It is utterly impossible therefore, for grace to abound where and when sin is abounding. Sin is spiritual ugliness, grace is spiritual beauty. The two are completely antithetical to one another.

The meaning of Romans 5 is very simple then: first sin abounded by Adam, but afterwards where sin had previously abounded, grace abounded more by Christ. This true both in the history of redemption, and also in our own lives personally, though we have ups and downs according to God's inscrutable wisdom. And this the significance of the distinction between the reign of sin through offences unto death versus the reign of grace through righteousness unto life: where the reign of sin is, there is not the reign of grace. When grace comes along by Jesus Christ, sin is necessarily dethroned, and the throne of grace is much more abundant than sin ever was. We await the day of perfection with earnest expectation, but until then, with grace-worked diligence and care, we press forward and persevere and progress according as the grace of Christ abounds in us.

P.S. Thanks to my friend and brother in the faith, Marco Barone, for his helpful input on this subject especially regarding the importance of the more complete biblical definition of grace here.