Pastor David Jang
In Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, Jean Valjean is brought back by the police after stealing silverware from Bishop Myriel. Rather than demanding its return, the bishop insists that the silver was a gift and offers him two silver candlesticks as well. It is a moment of extraordinary mercy, one that raises a question extending far beyond the pages of the novel: What does forgiveness mean if the person who receives it continues to live exactly as before? In his sermon on Romans 6, Pastor David Jang, founder of Olivet University in the United States, approaches this question through the heart of the Christian gospel—the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the new life that flows from union with Him.
Christians often struggle between two opposing misunderstandings of salvation. On one side is the assumption that, because salvation comes by grace, resisting sin is no longer necessary. On the other is the belief that believers must continually prove themselves worthy of salvation through their progress in holiness. The first turns grace into an excuse for moral complacency; the second turns sanctification into an exhausting pursuit of personal merit.
Romans 6 offers a different understanding of the Christian life. Holiness is neither an optional addition to the gospel nor a condition by which salvation is earned. Rather, the gospel itself creates a new relationship with God, and that new relationship calls believers into a transformed way of living. We do not pursue holiness in order to obtain new life; we pursue holiness because, in Christ, new life has already begun.
United with Christ: The Gospel Comes Before the Command
In Romans 5, the apostle Paul contrasts the reign of sin and death that entered humanity through Adam with the righteousness and life made available through Jesus Christ. Having established the abundance of God's grace, he anticipates a troubling misunderstanding: If grace increases where sin abounds, should believers continue sinning so that grace may increase even more (Romans 6:1)?
Paul's answer is unmistakable: "By no means!" (Romans 6:2, ESV). His reasoning, however, goes deeper than a general appeal to moral responsibility. Christians must not continue living under the dominion of sin because their relationship with sin has fundamentally changed. Through Jesus Christ, they have entered a new reality. At the center of this transformation is union with Christ.
Paul explains that those baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death. They have been buried with Him so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, they too may walk in newness of life (Romans 6:3–4). Baptism is therefore not a declaration of personal moral perfection. It marks the believer's identification with Christ in His death and resurrection, bearing witness to the new life found in Him. The decisive change is not that human beings have finally made themselves righteous through their own efforts, but that they have been brought into a new relationship with Christ.
In his exposition, Pastor David Jang also draws connections to Noah's flood and Israel's passage through the Red Sea. These events illuminate the biblical pattern of deliverance, separation from an old condition, and entrance into a new beginning. The flood marks a decisive judgment upon the old world, while the crossing of the Red Sea signifies Israel's liberation from bondage. Though these passages have their own historical and theological contexts, they help illustrate the profound change of identity associated with salvation.
The gospel, then, is not simply the announcement that past sins have been forgiven. It declares that believers have been united with the crucified and risen Christ. Because Christ died and rose again, those who belong to Him are called to consider themselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:11). This does not mean that sinful desires or temptations have disappeared. It means that sin no longer possesses the same rightful claim over their lives.
Sanctification begins not with the determination to become a better person, but with the saving reality of belonging to the risen Christ. Paul's order is significant. Before calling believers to a new way of life, he reminds them of what God has already accomplished through Christ. The command to obey rests upon the reality of redemption.
Obedience does not create salvation. Salvation gives obedience its foundation, direction, and purpose. When this order is reversed, good works become burdensome attempts to establish one's worthiness before God. Every failure threatens one's confidence, and every accomplishment risks becoming a reason for spiritual pride. But when grace comes first, obedience becomes an expression of gratitude rather than an attempt to earn acceptance.
The believer can offer every part of life to God, not because divine love must still be secured, but because that love has already been revealed in Jesus Christ.
Justification and Sanctification: Distinct Yet Inseparable Works of Grace
An important theological distinction in Pastor David Jang's teaching is the relationship between justification and sanctification. Justification refers to God's gracious declaration that sinners who believe in Jesus Christ are righteous before Him. Its foundation is not human moral achievement, but the saving work of Christ received through faith.
Sanctification is the continuing work of God by which those who have been set apart for Him increasingly turn away from sin and grow in practical holiness. Glorification is the final consummation of salvation, when believers will be fully delivered from sin and death and brought into the fullness of life promised in Christ. These dimensions of salvation must be distinguished without being separated. Together, they help Christians understand what God has accomplished, what He is accomplishing, and what He has promised to complete.
When justification and sanctification are confused, the Christian life can become a daily examination of one's eligibility for salvation. A person may feel secure after a day of faithful prayer, generous service, and successful resistance to temptation, only to become overwhelmed by fear after repeating an old mistake. Such an understanding makes assurance dependent upon the shifting quality of personal performance.
The gospel points in another direction. God does not receive sinners because they have already achieved holiness. He receives them through Christ, and His grace begins transforming the lives of those He has received. This distinction does not diminish the seriousness of sin. Instead, it creates the proper foundation for confronting it.
Believers can acknowledge their weaknesses honestly because their standing before God is not something they must establish anew each day. They can repent without despair, pursue holiness without self-righteousness, and recognize spiritual progress without mistaking it for the source of their salvation. Sanctification is not an additional payment required to complete justification.
Nor, however, is sanctification an optional pursuit that believers may disregard. If the gospel truly announces liberation from sin's dominion, that liberation must have implications for how Christians live. A person who once considered anger an unquestionable personal right may begin to recognize how destructive anger can become when it governs speech and conduct. Someone accustomed to following every selfish impulse may still experience those desires but now understands that they need not be obeyed.
Old habits may persist, yet they no longer define the believer's identity or determine the proper direction of life. The struggle against sin becomes part of learning to live according to the new reality established in Christ. Sanctification is not the price of salvation. It is the unfolding fruit of a life that has received salvation by grace.
Justification establishes the believer's standing before God; sanctification brings the believer's daily conduct increasingly into harmony with that standing. The two are not competing paths to righteousness. They are distinct aspects of God's gracious work, inseparably connected in the life of those who belong to Christ.
Under Grace, Not Under Sin: The Freedom That Makes Obedience Possible
Paul's teaching moves from the reality of union with Christ to the responsibilities of Christian living. He urges believers not to let sin reign in their mortal bodies or allow its desires to dictate their actions (Romans 6:12). This command reveals an important truth: Being united with Christ does not mean that temptation, weakness, or deeply ingrained habits immediately disappear.
Even sincere believers may experience the pull of selfish desires. Anger can rise before patience has time to respond. Old patterns of thought may reappear unexpectedly. A habit formed over many years may not vanish simply because a person has come to faith. Sanctification therefore requires watchfulness, perseverance, and spiritual discipline.
Yet there is a danger in approaching this struggle as though victory depended entirely upon human willpower. When people believe that they must secure salvation through their own moral strength, every temptation becomes an unbearable test, and every failure becomes a threat to their acceptance before God. The resulting spiritual life is often marked by anxiety, exhaustion, and discouragement.
Paul directs believers to a different foundation: "For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace" (Romans 6:14, ESV). This statement does not mean that grace eliminates moral responsibility or makes obedience unnecessary. Rather, it means that believers live under a new order established through God's saving grace. Sin is no longer their rightful master, and its power no longer defines their ultimate destiny.
Grace does not excuse the continued rule of sin. It establishes the freedom in which sin can be resisted. This is why Christian obedience must arise from confidence in God's grace rather than from the fear of losing the possibility of divine acceptance through every personal failure. When believers stumble, they are not called to rationalize their wrongdoing. Neither are they called to remain trapped in endless self-condemnation.
They are called to repent, return to God, and renew their commitment to present themselves to Him. Pastor David Jang emphasizes that sanctification involves a continuing struggle against sin, but this struggle must be sustained by assurance in the grace of God. The believer's dependence upon Scripture, prayer, and the help of the Holy Spirit is not a religious effort to accumulate sufficient merit for salvation.
It is the response of someone who has already received grace and now desires to live in a manner consistent with that gift. Scripture renews the mind and reveals God's will. Prayer cultivates dependence upon Him rather than confidence in the self. The Holy Spirit strengthens believers as they resist sinful desires and learn to walk in obedience.
These practices do not replace the saving work of Christ. They belong to the life of faith that flows from it. Grace, therefore, does not stand in opposition to discipline. It gives discipline its proper meaning. Grace is the root of the Christian life; obedience is its fruit. This order changes the way believers understand both spiritual victory and spiritual failure.
Success is not an occasion to boast in personal righteousness. Failure need not become an excuse for despair. In either circumstance, the believer is called to depend upon the God whose grace began the work of salvation and whose faithfulness sustains the journey of sanctification. The Christian life is not a desperate attempt to make oneself worthy of God's love.
It is a growing response to the love already revealed in Christ.
Instruments of Righteousness: Offering Our Bodies to God
Romans 6 brings the call to sanctification into the concrete realities of everyday life. Paul instructs believers not to offer the members of their bodies to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but to present themselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, offering their bodies as instruments of righteousness (Romans 6:13).
The Greek word translated as "instruments" can also carry the sense of weapons. It suggests that the human body is not spiritually insignificant or morally neutral in its use. Our physical capacities can be placed in the service of sin or devoted to the purposes of God. Paul is not teaching that the body itself is evil. Rather, he calls believers to offer their embodied lives to God, allowing the righteousness they have received through Christ to shape what they actually do.
The eyes, ears, mouth, hands, and feet become places where allegiance is expressed. The same mouth that wounds another person with contempt can also speak words of truth, encouragement, and reconciliation. The same hands that grasp selfishly for personal advantage can carry out responsibilities with integrity or reach toward someone in need.
The same eyes that continually seek opportunities for envy or selfish desire can learn to regard others with compassion and respect. These choices may appear small, but they reveal the direction in which a life is moving. A single act of kindness does not complete sanctification. Nor does one failure erase every evidence of spiritual growth.
Yet the repeated choices of daily life gradually reveal which master a person is serving. Holiness is not limited to moments of intense religious emotion or extraordinary spiritual experience. It becomes visible in ordinary conduct—in the words we choose, the responsibilities we fulfill, the desires we resist, and the ways we treat other people.
To present ourselves as instruments of righteousness is to recognize that faith involves the whole person. It is not merely an inward conviction but a life increasingly made available for God's purposes. Paul develops this teaching through the contrast between slavery to sin and obedience to righteousness. He reminds believers that their former way of life produced fruit that now brings shame and ends in death. But having been set free from sin and brought into the service of God, they bear fruit that leads to sanctification, with eternal life as its end (Romans 6:21–22).
The language of becoming servants of righteousness may initially seem paradoxical. How can someone become free by becoming a servant? The answer lies in the nature of the two kinds of allegiance Paul describes. Sin promises freedom but ultimately enslaves. It places human desires at the center of life while gradually allowing those desires to exercise control.
By contrast, belonging to God is not a return to the bondage from which believers have been rescued. It is the restoration of life to its rightful purpose. Paul describes this new obedience as something that comes "from the heart" (Romans 6:17). It is not merely outward conformity to religious rules. It is the grateful response of a person whose deepest allegiance has been transformed by grace.
The believer no longer needs to live as though sin were an unavoidable master. Through Christ, a different way of life has become possible. The Fruit of Holiness and the Free Gift of Eternal Life The concluding verse of Romans 6 brings the entire argument into focus: "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23, ESV).
Paul places two fundamentally different realities side by side: wages and a gift. Sin pays wages. Its outcome is death. God, however, gives eternal life freely through Jesus Christ. The contrast is deliberate and theologically essential. Eternal life is not compensation paid to believers after they have accumulated enough acts of righteousness. It is not the reward of flawless spiritual discipline or the final payment for a lifetime of moral achievement.
It is the gift of God, received in Christ. This truth protects the relationship between the gospel and sanctification from being misunderstood. Christians do not strive for holiness in order to purchase eternal life. Rather, because eternal life is given through Christ, they are called to live in ways that reflect the life they have received.
The fruit of holiness is a consequence of belonging to God, not a substitute for the saving work of Jesus Christ. The distinction also gives Christian perseverance its proper foundation. Believers can take sin seriously without making their own performance the basis of salvation. They can pursue righteousness earnestly without claiming that their efforts have earned God's favor.
Their hope rests in the grace of Christ, while their lives are progressively shaped by that same grace through the work of the Holy Spirit. The gospel and sanctification, therefore, are neither identical nor separable. The gospel announces what Christ has accomplished. Sanctification describes the transforming effect of that saving work in those who belong to Him.
The gospel declares that sin's dominion has been broken. Sanctification teaches believers to live in the freedom that Christ has secured. The gospel establishes a new identity. Sanctification increasingly gives visible expression to that identity in the ordinary circumstances of life. The relationship can be understood through the image of a prisoner whose cell door has been opened.
It would make little sense for someone who has been released to continue living as though the prison were still home. Yet it would be equally mistaken to insist that freedom becomes genuine only after that person has walked every step beyond the prison perfectly, without weakness or error. The door has already been opened. The new journey begins because freedom has been granted, not because freedom must still be earned.
In much the same way, the gospel opens the way into new life through Jesus Christ. Sanctification is the lifelong journey of learning to live within that freedom, offering our thoughts, desires, words, and actions to God. This journey is not sustained by human determination alone. It unfolds through faith, repentance, obedience, and continual dependence upon the grace of God.
The Christian life is therefore neither passive acceptance of sin nor an endless struggle to prove oneself worthy of salvation. It is the life of someone who has been redeemed by Christ and now seeks, day by day, to reflect that redemption in the world. The mercy that forgives also calls us forward. The grace that sets us free also teaches us how to live.
And the life that has been given to us in Christ is meant to bear the fruit of righteousness. As we consider the words we speak, the attitudes we nurture, and the choices we make, Romans 6 invites us to examine the direction of our lives. In the way I look at others, in the words I speak, and in the small decisions I make today, am I still following the familiar patterns of sin—or am I responding to the grace of the One who has given me new life?
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.
David Jang Official Website: www.davidjang.org
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