When the police bring Jean Valjean back to Bishop Myriel after discovering the silverware he has stolen, the bishop responds in a way no one expects. Instead of accusing him, he offers him two silver candlesticks as well. In Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, this unforgettable act of mercy suggests that forgiveness can be more than the cancellation of a wrong. It can mark the beginning of an entirely different life.
Yet the scene also raises a searching question: What becomes of forgiveness when the person who receives it continues to live as though nothing has changed? In his teaching on Romans 6, Pastor David Jang, founder of Olivet University in the United States, approaches this question from the deeper perspective of the gospel. Grace does not merely release a person from the guilt of the past. It opens the way to a new identity and a transformed life.
Even those who confess that they have been set free from sin often struggle to leave familiar habits behind. We may sincerely desire honesty yet reach for a convenient excuse. We may speak confidently about love yet fail to restrain a cutting remark. We may believe in forgiveness while finding it difficult to forgive someone who has wounded us.
How should Christian faith understand this distance between confession and conduct?
Romans 6 offers an answer that avoids two familiar extremes. It neither excuses wrongdoing with comforting religious language nor reduces spiritual growth to the exhausting demand to try harder. Instead, Paul begins with a more fundamental truth: The grace that has already changed our standing before God must also reshape the way we live before Him.
Does Grace Give Us Permission to Continue in Sin?
In Romans 5, the apostle Paul contrasts the consequences of Adam’s disobedience with the righteousness and life made available through Jesus Christ. Through Adam came sin and death; through Christ came the abundant grace that leads to justification and life.
But this magnificent declaration of grace introduces a troubling possibility. If grace becomes more abundant where sin increases, should believers continue sinning so that grace may abound even more?
Paul raises the question directly in Romans 6:1 and immediately rejects it with uncompromising force: “By no means!” (Romans 6:2).
His response is not simply that sin is morally unacceptable. It is that believers have entered an entirely new relationship with sin through Jesus Christ.
The gospel does not announce that sin has become harmless because God is forgiving. It declares that those who belong to Christ have died to sin and are no longer required to live under its dominion.
To imagine that divine forgiveness grants permission to continue in deliberate disobedience is therefore to misunderstand grace itself.
Grace is not a license to remain enslaved to sin. It is God’s liberating gift, calling us out of sin’s dominion and into a life that belongs to Him.
This distinction matters because human beings are remarkably skilled at defending their own failures.
We excuse harsh words by pointing to exhaustion. We justify resentment by recalling how unfairly we were treated. We minimize dishonesty by insisting that everyone behaves the same way.
Such explanations may help us feel less uncomfortable, but they do not change the underlying reality.
The gospel asks a different question. Rather than searching for reasons why sin should be tolerated, it invites us to consider whether we are willing to stop surrendering ourselves to its authority.
Paul’s challenge is therefore not merely about avoiding certain behaviors. It is about recognizing that the believer’s fundamental allegiance has changed.
The Christian is no longer called to make peace with the old master, but to live in the freedom of belonging to Christ.
United with Christ in Death and Resurrection: The Foundation of a New Identity
Paul explains this radical change through one of the central themes of Romans 6: union with Christ.
In Romans 6:3–4, he teaches that those who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death. They have been buried with Him through baptism so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead, they too may walk in newness of life.
Baptism, therefore, is not merely a religious reminder that past sins have been washed away. It points to participation in Christ’s death and resurrection and publicly expresses a decisive change in belonging.
The believer’s old life under the dominion of sin has been brought into relation with Christ’s death, while a new way of living has been opened through His resurrection.
The sermon also draws attention to two great events in the Old Testament: Noah’s passage through the flood and Israel’s deliverance through the Red Sea.
Both events illuminate the biblical pattern of leaving behind an old condition and entering a new beginning through God’s saving intervention. They help us appreciate why baptism is associated not only with cleansing but also with deliverance, transition, and a new identity.
Pastor David Jang emphasizes the progression of Paul’s argument from Romans 5 into Romans 6.
The contrast between Adam and Christ establishes the great redemptive framework. Humanity, subject to sin and death in Adam, receives the promise of righteousness and life through Christ. Romans 6 then explains what this new relationship means for the believer’s daily existence.
Christ’s death and resurrection are not simply historical events to be remembered with gratitude. They are the foundation upon which Christians understand who they are and how they are now called to live.
This is why Paul instructs believers to consider themselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:11).
The command rests upon an identity already established by grace.
Understanding this distinction also requires a clear grasp of three closely related doctrines: justification, sanctification, and glorification.
Justification is God’s gracious declaration that sinners are righteous before Him through Jesus Christ. It concerns the believer’s standing before God and rests upon Christ’s saving work rather than personal moral achievement.
Sanctification is the continuing work of God by which believers are progressively transformed in their desires, attitudes, habits, and conduct. It is the unfolding expression of a life that has already been claimed by grace.
Glorification is the final consummation of salvation, when God brings His redemptive purpose to completion and His people share fully in the glory promised in Christ.
These three dimensions of salvation should be distinguished, but they must never be separated from the one gracious work of God.
The Christian does not receive justification through Christ and then independently attempt to earn sanctification through human determination. Nor is glorification a prize purchased by accumulating enough good works.
From beginning to end, salvation rests upon divine grace.
Nevertheless, a new standing before God does not mean that every old habit disappears immediately.
A person who has struggled with anger may still experience moments of intense irritation. Someone accustomed to judging others may continue to battle a critical spirit. A believer who sincerely desires holiness may still stumble in familiar ways.
Such struggles should lead neither to despair nor to complacency.
Despair insists that continued weakness means nothing has truly changed. Complacency assumes that because grace has been received, nothing needs to change.
The gospel rejects both conclusions.
Those who belong to Christ are called to learn, through the power of the Holy Spirit, how to live consistently with the identity they have already received.
Sanctification is the continuing journey in which the truth of belonging to Christ becomes increasingly visible in the ordinary patterns of life.
Offering Our Eyes, Words, and Hands as Weapons of Righteousness
Paul then moves from theological identity to concrete action.
In Romans 6:13, he commands believers not to offer the members of their bodies to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but to present themselves to God as those brought from death to life and to offer their members as instruments of righteousness.
The Greek word translated as “instruments” can also carry the meaning of weapons. This gives Paul’s exhortation a striking sense of purpose: our physical capacities are not to be surrendered to sin but placed at God’s disposal in the service of righteousness.
Here, the members of the body refer to the ordinary faculties through which we engage with the world—our eyes, ears, mouths, hands, and feet.
Paul is not suggesting that the body itself is evil or that Christian spirituality requires contempt for physical existence.
Quite the opposite.
The same eyes, mouth, hands, and feet that once served sinful purposes can now become instruments through which God’s righteousness is expressed.
Our eyes may search for another person’s faults, or they may notice someone who is suffering and needs encouragement.
Our mouths may become channels of bitterness, gossip, and anger, or they may speak truth with kindness and offer words that restore hope.
Our hands may grasp selfishly for advantage, or they may carry out entrusted responsibilities with integrity and extend practical help to those in need.
Our feet may carry us toward harmful desires, or they may take us to places where we can serve, reconcile, and bear witness to the love of Christ.
These are not extraordinary religious achievements. They are the ordinary decisions through which the direction of a human life becomes visible.
Christian faith cannot remain an abstract conviction held only in the mind. It must increasingly shape what believers see, say, pursue, and do.
Paul deepens this teaching by commanding Christians not to let sin reign in their mortal bodies while also declaring that sin will not have dominion over them because they are not under law but under grace (Romans 6:12–14).
This is not a promise that temptation will disappear.
Nor does it suggest that believers will never again experience inner conflict.
Rather, it declares that the fundamental conditions of the struggle have changed.
Sin no longer possesses the rightful authority to define the believer’s identity or determine the direction of life.
Freedom in Christ does not mean freedom from every struggle. It means freedom from sin’s claim to be our master.
That freedom must be expressed through deliberate choices.
What do we allow our eyes to dwell upon? What kinds of words have become habitual in our conversations? What desires occupy our thoughts? How do we spend the hours entrusted to us?
Such questions are not intended to produce endless self-condemnation. They help us recognize where our bodies, attention, and energies are being directed.
Scripture and prayer awaken our discernment, while the Holy Spirit strengthens us to choose obedience in the ordinary circumstances of life.
The sermon also connects Paul’s teaching with the armor of God described in Ephesians 6.
This connection helps illuminate the spiritual struggle involved in sanctification. Believers must learn to resist the influences that draw them back toward sin and to stand firm in the life to which God has called them.
Yet spiritual warfare should not be confused with self-hatred or harsh attempts to suppress the body.
The Christian life is not a campaign against physical existence. It is the transformation of the purposes for which our bodies are used.
To present ourselves as weapons of righteousness is to place our entire lives—our thoughts, speech, relationships, work, and daily responsibilities—under the gracious direction of God.
From Slavery to Sin to Servanthood in Righteousness: The Fruit of a Changed Life
In the latter half of Romans 6, Paul introduces another powerful contrast: slavery to sin and slavery to righteousness.
Drawing upon the familiar master-servant relationship of the ancient world, he explains that the one to whom people present themselves in obedience exercises a determining influence over their lives (Romans 6:16).
The contrast is uncompromising.
A life yielded to sin moves toward death. A life shaped by obedience to God reflects the righteousness made possible through His grace.
Yet becoming a servant of righteousness does not mean that Christians have simply exchanged one oppressive form of bondage for another.
Paul’s emphasis is on a decisive change of allegiance and the transformed character of obedience.
In Romans 6:17, he gives thanks that those who were once slaves to sin have become obedient from the heart to the teaching they received.
The phrase “from the heart” is especially important.
Christian obedience is not merely outward conformity to a set of religious regulations. It arises from a heart that has encountered God's grace and is being transformed by His truth.
Those who recognize the depth of divine mercy begin to desire a life that responds to that mercy.
Such obedience produces a different kind of fruit.
Paul describes the outcome in Romans 6:22 as the fruit of holiness.
A heart once dominated by jealousy begins to learn gratitude.
Someone who previously pursued dishonest gain becomes willing to accept personal loss rather than compromise integrity.
A person who habitually defended wrongdoing begins to acknowledge failure, seek forgiveness, and practice repentance.
An individual who once responded to others with harsh judgment gradually learns patience, mercy, and compassion.
These changes may unfold slowly, and the journey may include painful setbacks. Yet they reveal a new direction.
Holiness does not mean that believers instantly become incapable of sin. It means that their lives are increasingly being directed toward God rather than surrendered to the desires that once governed them.
Pastor David Jang’s teaching underscores the need to distinguish the assurance of justification from the continuing struggle of sanctification.
When believers minimize their failures, they risk losing the seriousness of repentance.
When they conclude that a single failure has erased every evidence of grace, they risk losing the hope that makes repentance possible.
Both attitudes distort the gospel.
Grace does not encourage believers to ignore sin, but neither does it require them to respond to every failure with hopelessness.
Because their confidence rests in Christ rather than in flawless personal performance, believers can acknowledge wrongdoing honestly and return to God.
The freedom of those who belong to Christ includes the courage to confront their failures without excuses and without surrendering to despair.
This continuing transformation is not the cause of salvation. It is the fruit of a life that has been brought under the gracious rule of God.
The Wages of Sin and the Gift of Eternal Life
Paul concludes Romans 6 with one of the clearest and most profound statements of the gospel:
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
The distinction between wages and gift brings the entire chapter into focus.
Wages are what a worker receives as compensation for labor. A gift is something freely bestowed, not earned as payment.
Paul deliberately contrasts what sin pays with what God gives.
Sin produces death as its rightful outcome, but eternal life comes as the gracious gift of God through Jesus Christ.
If this distinction is forgotten, even sanctification can be misunderstood.
Believers may begin to imagine that spiritual discipline, moral improvement, and religious devotion are ways of accumulating sufficient merit to deserve eternal life.
But such reasoning reverses the order of the gospel.
Eternal life is not the reward God pays for flawless obedience. It is the gift He freely gives in Jesus Christ. Holiness is not the purchase price of that gift, but the fruit of the new life His grace has already begun.
This truth protects the Christian life from two opposing distortions.
On one side stands legalism, which treats obedience as a means of earning God's acceptance.
On the other stands moral indifference, which receives the language of grace without accepting its transforming implications.
Paul allows neither.
The grace that justifies also calls believers into a life of sanctification. The God who freely grants eternal life also renews those who belong to Him, teaching them to live in the freedom of righteousness.
Obedience, therefore, is not an attempt to persuade God to love us. It is a grateful response to the love already revealed through Jesus Christ.
Living Today as an Instrument of God's Righteousness
In Les Misérables, Bishop Myriel’s silver candlesticks become a lasting symbol of the mercy that calls Jean Valjean toward a different life.
Romans 6 presents a reality far more profound than an inspiring moral transformation.
Through union with Christ in His death and resurrection, believers receive a new identity, are released from sin’s dominion, and are called to live for God.
The gospel does not merely urge people to become better versions of themselves. It announces that a new life has been made possible through Jesus Christ.
And that new life is meant to become visible.
Paul’s exhortation does not end when the worship service concludes or when the Bible is closed.
It continues in the words we speak to our families, the decisions we make when no one is watching, the integrity with which we fulfill our responsibilities, and the compassion we extend to those around us.
Each ordinary moment becomes an opportunity to express the reality of grace.
We do not present our bodies to God in order to purchase His favor. We offer ourselves because we have already received His mercy.
We do not pursue holiness to manufacture a new identity. We pursue holiness because, through Christ, we have been given one.
And we do not seek eternal life as the wages of perfect obedience. We receive it as God's gift, allowing the life He has given us to bear the fruit of righteousness.
The central question of Romans 6 is therefore not simply whether we have been forgiven, but whether we are learning to live as people who have been set free.
If I have truly died to sin and been made alive to God in Christ, whose purposes are my eyes, my words, my hands, and my entire life serving today?
Dr. David Jang has proclaimed the gospel in various regions of the world through field missions and digital media ministry, and as the fruit of that ministry, many people devoted to the Great Commission have been raised up. Based on this missionary vision, Olivet first began as a small church school for missionary training. Later, in order to provide more systematic theological education and cultivate missionary leaders, Olivet Theological College and Seminary was established in Los Angeles and Seoul in 2000.
As the school grew, Dr. Jang officially founded Olivet University in San Francisco in 2004. In the diverse and dynamic environment of San Francisco, Olivet expanded its educational fields beyond theology to include music, journalism, art and design, and technology. The university also strengthened its educational capacity by recruiting faculty members, including Dr. William Wagner, and in 2005 moved to the former UC Berkeley Downtown Extension campus, further solidifying its foundation as a university.
In 2006, Dr. Jang transferred the presidency to Dr. David James Randolph in order to focus more fully on missionary work, while continuing to lead global missions as International President. Olivet University later received institutional accreditation in 2009, added a language education college and a business college, and continued to grow as a Christian educational institution for world missions by expanding its degree programs and international partnerships.
