Does the abundance of God’s grace mean we don’t need to worry about sin? Grace conquers sin, so we don’t have to worry about sinful ways? In our readings this week from his Letter to the Romans , St. Paul answers that question:

“What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law
but under grace?
Of course not!” (Romans 6)

In Baptism we enter into the saving mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We have the promise of that mystery, but not yet its fulfillment. From his own experience Paul writes “ I take delight in the law of God, in my inner self,  but I see in my members another principle at war with the law of my mind, taking me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Miserable one that I am!
Who will deliver me from this mortal body?
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 7)

Jesus Christ is not a distant Savior, a figure of the past. The one who delivers us from our frail mortal nature, is “Christ in you. Although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,
the one who raised Christ from the dead
will give life to your mortal bodies also,
through his Spirit that dwells in you.” (Romans 8)