New Lifestyle (Romans 6:12-14)

Step 5. After teaching justification by grace through faith, Paul asks in Romans 6:1, “Are we to continue sinning that grace may increase?” Someone might have a misunderstanding that increasing sin implies an increase in grace, to which Paul replies, “By no means.” More importantly, Paul goes on to teach what Sam Tullock says, “the believer’s union with Christ is the central doctrine of Pauline theology.” To underscore its importance, Tullock says our union with Christ is “one of the most neglected and mysterious truths in Scripture.” Trey Turner writes, “It is important to remember, grace in Jesus allows the Christian to live in righteousness not merely to be forgiven for unrighteousness. Paul says, come out and be free because you have a new lifestyle.”

Key to success in this new lifestyle is how to follow the Spirit’s leadership by faith on a moment-by-moment basis? By grace, God’s Spirit is available to lead us, but will we take the responsibility to seek His direction? Will we follow it?

Have the class share examples of instances where they took advantage of God’s grace and asked the Spirit for life direction, received it, and then followed it. Ask, “What advice can you offer to help others do this more often?”

Here is a Following God’s Will Maze puzzle. To illustrate the idea of “listening and following directions”, have people work it in pairs. One person gives directions—“go left, right, straight, or back”. The other makes the marks on the puzzle to follow the directions.