In 1997 Philip Yancey wrote a book called What’s So Amazing About Grace? In it Yancey used this definition of grace: “Grace means there is nothing we can do that will make God love us more. AND there is nothing we can do that will make God love us less.” That is…it’s all about God, and not us.

It’s been a formative idea, and book, for many people, including me. The entire book is full of story after story of people, events, Bible stories that exhibit God’s free, wide, deep and high grace more than explain it. There are many, many people, including some of us, who have grown up in rigid fundamentalism or legalist faith backgrounds. Often when they finally come back to faith, they will say that for the first time they understood…grace. That’s what made all the difference.

The Apostle Paul has been talking about it throughout the first five chapters of Romans, in words like this: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified (set right) by his GRACE as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Grace is the freeing, lifechanging experiencing of the forgiveness and love of God. It is everything.

So it’s funny this morning we need to ask the question: Can you overdo grace?

Reading: Romans 6:1-4

Paul continues our education of his favorite phrases. We’ve seen several, the most prominent being the one we talked about last week, the word “therefore.” Paul keeps using it to remind us that what we read is connected to what has come before. It’s at the start of this chapter as well. Though our NRSV says “then,” it’s the same word we’ve been talking about.

“What, then” or “What, therefore, are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound?” At first it seems like a silly question, but it’s actually not totally irrational. If our turning away from God calls forth the ultimate provision of God’s grace in Christ, why don’t we ask for more? If some grace is good, doggone it, why not get more?

If we simply continue on in our brokenness and don’t worry about how we live life, we’ll receive more and more grace. What could be better than that? No more stress, no more worry, we can just keep doing whatever we want in the wonderful, heart-warming confidence that God has forgiven us?

The first class I ever took at Princeton Seminary was a class on Romans taught by J.Christiaan Beker. Dr. Beker was one of the renowned experts in the world on Paul, and especially Paul’s letter to the Romans. Dr. Beker was quite a character. I unfortunately caught him quite a ways past his prime. He had a fascinating story, growing up in Holland as a boy, and had seeing his Jewish friends disappear with the invasion of the Nazis in World War II. He himself was forced to labor in German war industries, and it scarred him deeply.

Dr. Beker was brilliant. He was combative. He smoked cigars. He loved the Boston Red Sox. He loved to argue. He swore in class with such regularity I thought he was testing us in some way- he wasn’t. He could chew students up and spit them out. We went through Romans word by word and phrase by phrase. And Dr. Beker taught me the next favorite saying of Apostle Paul’s: “me genoito” in the Greek. What, therefore are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? ME GENOITO.

Our Bible renders this as “By no means!” Others translate it as “God forbid!” Or “No, no!” Or “Certainly not!” Or my favorite, “What a ghastly thought!” Dr. Beker felt like none of these were strong enough to express Paul’s emphatic answer. Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? “Hell, no!” Dr. Beker would shout. And since Paul uses it a number of times, we heard it frequently, and I still remember it thundering across our little classroom.

Dr. Beker’s fervency impressed on me a couple of things. One is that we can’t forget the passion which Paul is writing with. Paul is dealing with the building blocks of faith, he’s dealing with things that are life and death, issues that impact eternity, he’s dealing with the law and sin and grace. When Paul talks about grace covering our sins, he’s not talking about Jesus dying for some minor moral slipups. God did not need to send his son to die on a cross so that our small little mistakes would be covered. He’s talking about changing our fundamental orientation away from ourselves and towards God. For Paul there is nothing more important, and so he is passionate.

And the second is that this is in many ways the first time that Paul’s letter has moved from theological argument to practical application. How shall we live? There are many more things to come in later chapters in Romans, but he opens the door here to say that if we are people who have received the stunning grace of God, then far from continuing on in life as usual, or if we are thinking we just don’t have to worry about how we live because we know we’re forgiven…we are dreadfully mistaken. “By no means!” And no matter what the translation, it has an exclamation mark after it.

Can you overdo grace? No. But you can underdo it. You can count it as a right that you automatically deserve, or you can think it’s a warm fuzzy to cover over little mistakes you make, or you can use it as a license to justify all sorts of behavior that God would call us away from, resting in confidence that you are a recipient of grace.

We can’t overdo it, but we can sure underdo it. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German Lutheran pastor executed by the Nazis for a plot to assassinate Hitler during the atrocities of WWII has famously called this “cheap grace.” “…which amounts to the justification of sin without the justification of the repentant sinner who departs from sin and from whom sin departs…. “Cheap grace,” Bonhoeffer said, “ is the grace we bestow on ourselves…without confession, repentance, discipleship, the cross or even Jesus Christ, the living and incarnate one.”

Paul says when we use grace as a license to pursue our own agenda, we’re not overdoing it, we’re underdoing it. It’s not that grace runs out, or isn’t abundant enough to cover us repeatedly but it’s that we don’t understand it because we don’t understand who we are. It’s an identity problem.

Time Magazine, which seems to take a consistently greater delight in reporting things like this than most publications- ran an article in April that said the London-based “NSS” group, that is the National Secular Society is having a hard time keeping up with their most popular product- a paper certificate of DE-baptism. 100,000 former Christians have apparently downloaded these certificates, which by the way you can now get printed on parchment for $4.50 each.

Their web site invites you to “Liberate yourself from the Original Mumbo-Jumbo that liberated you from the Original Sin you never had,” and acquire a de-baptism certificate to reject your baptism. Don’t let the church mislead you, or count you as part of its community if you don’t agree with everything they teach. Reject your baptism.

The National Secular Society has been approached by people not just in Britain, but in Australia, Romania and Saudi Arabia and I’m sure all over the world by now. And by people of other faiths as well, not just Christians, wanting to “un-do” things. They’ve had Jewish people write in to ask “Can I have a certificate to undo my bar mitzvah?” They think they can un-do just about anything, though they seem to be temporarily at a loss over a request for “un-circumcision!”

Apparently, certificate sales have real boom weeks if the Pope says something controversial, or someone else identified as a Christian acts or speaks up in an unpopular way that makes the news.

Well, maybe getting de-baptized is a good way to protest an opinion the Pope has - if you are baptized in the name of the Pope. But no one is. Maybe getting de-baptized is a good way to protest a policy of the Methodist church or the Episcopal church or the Presbyterian church - if you are baptized in the name of those churches.

But the last time I checked, and that was last Sunday when we baptized Grace Mackie outside in the horse trough, and Charlie Montagner inside right here, we are baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We are baptized as Christians, into Christ Jesus.

And baptism signifies, among other things, the fact that we have an identity. We are people who belong to God. If you want to walk away from that, you need to deal with God- not the National Secular Society. Or Time Magazine.

When our kids were younger, one of our very favorite movies to watch was “Toy Story.” Remember that one from Pixar, with the animated toys, and the two stars- Sherrif Woody (Tom Hanks’ voice) and Buz Lightyear (Tim Allen)? Remember? “To infinity---and beyond!” I watched it last night after many years, and it’s still very entertaining. Sheriff Woody and Buz Lightyear are two toys that belong to a little boy named “Andy.”

For most of the movie, they are rivals, vying for Andy’s affection, both trying to convince others and themselves and that they are extraordinary toys who should be Andy’s #1 most treasured plaything. But when the chips are down, when things look blackest, when they doubt who they are or why they would have value to anyone, at different times they each look at the underside of their foot and see one word scribbled in a child’s handwriting in permanent marker: “Andy.” That identity…saves them. Reminds them. Rescues them. Heals them. They are toys that belong to Andy. That is who they are. We…are people who belong to Jesus. It’s who we are.

The Apostle Paul says if we are people who have experienced God’s grace, but its application to our lives makes no visible, tangible difference, then perhaps we have an identity problem. “How can we (note the personal, Paul includes himself) who died to sin go on living in it?” And Paul gives us two things to think in regards to our identity:

“Do you not know…that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Baptized into his death, what does that mean? It means something happened when Christ died---sin was conquered. Our sin. When someone is baptized and they are doused with water or go under the water, they symbolically die. Whatever they have done, whoever they have been, whatever identity-destroying, life-choking things they have been part of - born into or committed, whatever sin they have pursued, are pursuing, will pursue…they are baptized into the death of Christ, Christ gave his life to defeat sin, it is buried with Him. So sin does not own us.

And the second part- Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. Something happened when Christ rose from the dead---death was conquered. So in Christ’s death sin was conquered, and in his resurrection death is conquered. We come out of the water. Our future is filled with rising and resurrection, not darkness. Even though it’s not yet complete for us, it’s there in the future. So death does not own us.

We were baptized into Christ. This is who we are. This is our identity. This is what grace has done. And if that looks like a license to live in any way we want, confident of our forgiveness, Paul says “No!” Maybe even “Hell no!” We have been baptized into Christ’s death, into his resurrection. Because sin does not own us, because death does not own us…

“…we too might walk in newness of life.” Grace means we can live. Really live.

We can pursue beauty. We can be people moved by the beauty of God’s good creation, as we’ve enjoyed so much this week. Or the beauty of stimulating art work, the writing of deep poetry or listening to good music. We don’t have to accept our culture’s propensity for destruction or distortion of these things..

We can seek holiness. Did you know it’s okay to strive to live well, to try and live disciplined lives? We’re living in a funny time, aren’t we? Right now in Christendom it seems like we’ve exalted vulnerability. It sometimes seems the most important attribute we can have is to be vulnerable and open about where we fall short. And don’t get me wrong, that is a good thing. But I’m getting tired of it being the only thing.

Somehow striving to live well is often looked down at as trying to be holier-than-thou, or legalistic. May it not be! Becoming people who pray, or who read deeply or know scripture are good things that we can invest in not because they earn us something, but because we are free to respond to the God who has given us grace, and practicing things that help draw us closer to Him is a good thing.

We can try to live lives that honor God. One of the best parts of my job is that I get to be around some neat folks, and hear some amazing stories. Recently I’ve sat with someone who gives his life to people at the Immigration Detention Center. Someone who works to advocate for teens in trouble. Someone who is helping kids get to college, to be the first in their extended family to go to college. Someone who is pouring their life into their neighborhood. Someone who is functioning as almost another parent to their friends’ children.

We can do these things, not because we’re strong but because Christ is- and because of him we are not ruled by sin, and we’re not ruled by death. We can walk in newness of life.

Does that mean there is not sin? Of course not. And thank God that we can gather to confess, to God and one another, where we are off the mark, and be assured again of God’s grace, and have companions who will walk with us through those times and towards Christ.

Does that mean there is not temptation? Of course not. But we need to remember who we are. When the 16 th century reformer Martin Luther felt tempted, he would sometimes shout out “I have been baptized!” It didn’t mean he’d gone through a ritual, or received extra holy water. Maybe he was shouting at the devil, or maybe he was just reminding himself that he had an identity - graced by God.

This is something we do for one another in the body of Christ, you know. Simply remind someone who they are. Remind them of their identity. I wonder how you might simply remind someone, today, tonight, this week who they are. I wonder how you might remind your friend, your spouse, your children, who they are. I wonder how you might remind them of their identity. People baptized in Christ, who are not ruled by either sin or death.

Well. Don’t watch your mailbox, because I’m not going to send you a certificate in the mail this week. But I do want to ask you to learn something from this kids’ movie Toy Story. We have an identity problem. So tonight when you get ready for bed, check to see what’s written not on your feet, but on your heart. You belong to Christ.

Can you overdo grace? I don’t think so. But you can sure underdo it.

Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? Don’t be ridiculous.