Grace

Part 2- Does grace give us the right to sin? Who gets access to God’s grace?

2 Timothy 1:9

8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God,

9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began…..”

Romans 6:1-4,15

1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 

2 Certainly not! How shall we who have died to sin live any longer in it?

3 Or do you not know that as many of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in the newness of life.

15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? Certainly not!

Titus 2:11-14

11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 

12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age,

13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,

14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.

In part 1 of this study, I focused on how God’s grace has been here since before time began. I looked at several examples of how God’s grace worked in the lives of people in the Old Testament and connected that to us today. God’s grace was reaching out for us before time began! What a mind-boggling thought! Now I would like to focus on Romans 6:1-4, 15 and answer the question, does grace give us the right to willfully sin? I also want to use Titus 2:11 along with the verses in Romans to explain who is eligible to experience God’s saving grace. Is it for every person regardless of their actions, behavior, or lifestyle?

First of all, I want to say this very plainly……..grace is not a free pass to sin. This way of thinking is a blatant abuse of God’s grace. We can’t willfully sin and then say, “well God will forgive me because I have His grace”. God will forgive us, but not with that kind of attitude. The world has this attitude running rampant, thinking that it doesn’t matter what you do, that God’s grace will cover you no matter what. Sometimes we in the Lord’s church can get this mindset if we aren’t grounded in truth. I know I have been guilty of this kind of thinking in my younger days. I’m talking about continuing in willful sin and knowing day after day that you are doing wrong and just keeping on doing it without trying to change. I’m talking about planning ahead to do something that I knew was wrong, and then doing it anyway. Friends, this just isn’t logical at all. It is not logical that God’s grace would work this way. Paul hits this subject hard in Romans 6! He is writing to the Christians in Rome. He makes this perfectly clear in verses 1-2, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” And again for good measure in verse 15 Paul says again, “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!” Paul says guys you died to sin when you were baptized into Christ and now you’re supposed to be walking in newness of life! (Romans 6:3-4) Walking in newness of life does not mean going back and forth from walking in darkness to walking in the light. That is lukewarm behavior and it is of the world. Do we all remember what Jesus said in Revelation 3:16 about people who are lukewarm in their Christianity? He says He will spew us out of His mouth because we are neither hot nor cold. We are lukewarm and are useless in His kingdom. Hot and cold water are both useful. Lukewarm water is useless. This is a wonderful analogy to show us that we can’t be useless in His kingdom and still expect to receive His grace. We are walking in darkness if we are lukewarm. We can’t walk in darkness on Friday and Saturday night and then attempt to walk in the light as we walk in the church building on Sunday morning. Friends, we can’t take advantage of God’s grace in a worldly way and think this gives us a pass to do anything we want. We are walking in darkness when we do this, not walking in the light. There is no stepping back and forth from light to darkness. We have to stay in the light. Hopefully, Romans 6 helps make my point clear on that. But…..what about people who are not Christians and are walking in darkness on the daily? How does Jesus want us to treat people who are living in sin? There is a really good case study about this very thing in John 8.

In John chapter 8, a woman who was caught in adultery was brought to Jesus by the scribes and Pharisees. They were ready to stone her according to the old law. Jesus was actually with a group of people in the temple teaching them. The scribes and Pharisees were actually trying to test Jesus to see how He would handle this situation. Of course, they would want to put Jesus on the spot in front of a group of people that He was teaching. They asked Jesus what He had to say about this woman and what should be done to her. How did Jesus handle it? Well first, He convicted the people who were ready to stone her by telling them they could only throw stones at her if they had no sin. Of course no one could throw a single stone because all have sinned. Even they knew that. So all of the scribes and Pharisees dropped their stones and went away. Then when He was alone with the woman he asked her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you? She said, “No one Lord.” (John 8:10-11a) The next part of verse 11 is what I am really focusing on. “And Jesus said to her, ” Neither do I condemn you……” So here is grace coming from Jesus towards this woman caught in sin. But does Jesus stop there? No, He does not! Jesus has a stipulation. He says, “go and sin no more.” What does this tell us about grace? He forgave this woman, but He did not give her a free pass to go and continue in sin. This story is a wonderful example of how grace works for us today if we are in Christ. Now all of this happened in front of people as Jesus was teaching in the temple. Jesus then turned to the people and said, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” (John 8:12) This was a wonderful thing for Jesus to say to the people after what happened with this woman. The woman had obviously been walking in darkness. No one can follow Jesus and walk in darkness. With the statement that He made to the woman in verse 11, he taught them to have compassion and love for others who are in sin, but not to accept and uphold their sin. He told her she was not condemned, but to stop what she was doing. This is a lesson for us today. In our world, sin is literally celebrated every day of the year, but especially this past month. But should we look down on or treat others who are living in sin with contempt and disrespect? No, we treat them the way Jesus treated the woman caught in adultery. We show them the same kindness that we would anyone else, but without condoning the sin they are in. We will never be able to reach anyone by being rude or disrespectful to them. The world says that in order to love others, we have to accept whatever way they want to live even if it is against what the Bible teaches. But this is not love. Love is trying to help others to not be lost for eternity by telling them the truth. Love tries to save people, not keep them in darkness. Grace is for every person who is willing to transform their life, and every person has the potential to change. I believe this because I believe that with God all things are possible. ( Matthew 19:26, Luke 1:37) Let’s never forget that so many have not had the opportunities that we have had to know God’s word. My Christian friends, let’s never take it for granted.

So….can I sin while walking in the light? Of course I can!! I do!! When I refer to “lukewarm” and “walking in darkness”, I’m not referring to mistakes we make because of our human weaknesses. We are not perfect and we are all going to sin. (Romans 3:23) Because of this fact, we need God’s grace. We may try our very best but still have weak moments where we simply just mess up. It happens to all of us sometimes. And…I know I do things wrong that I don’t even realize I’ve done!! Let’s face it, we all do. However, if we are truly “in Christ”, then we have God’s grace and we have Jesus’ blood which cleanses us daily of our sins as we strive to “walk in the light as He is in the light”. (1 John 1:7) Striving is the key. To strive means to make great efforts to achieve or obtain something. It also means to struggle or fight vigorously. Does this sound like a lukewarm Christian? In Luke 13:24 of NKJV Jesus says, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” Will we enter through that narrow gate if we are abusing God’s grace by being lukewarm, by trying to ride the fence between darkness and light? I think we all know the answer to that question. And boy have I ever been there, lukewarm I mean. I was absolutely useless in His kingdom and doing more harm than good at times in my life. I never want to be that person again. And because of Christ I don’t have to ever be in that bondage again. None of us have to. The freedom we feel because we are in Christ and have fully given everything in our lives over to Him is a freedom that the world just doesn’t understand. Christ and His sacrifice for us is the definition of God’s grace. And just a reminder, by “in Christ”, I mean people who are Christians, who have followed God’s plan of salvation and have been baptized into Christ for the remission of sins. “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Galatians 3:26-27) Please, if you are not in Christ, reach out for help to understand the truth of the gospel so that you can feel this freedom. And if you are in Christ, but are struggling to stay in the light with Jesus, please reach out for help as well, so that you can have complete freedom from the bondage of sin. I know what it’s like to feel the way you feel. You feel basically trapped. BUT, I now know what it feels like to finally break free and let Jesus do His work on me and heal me when I am broken. He is the Great Physician and He will put us back together when we are broken if we follow what He says in Matthew 11:28-30 where He tells us to come unto Him and lay all our burdens on Him and He will give us rest.

What does Paul mean in Titus 2:11? Let’s first remember that verse 11 says that God’s grace that leads to salvation has appeared unto all men. This means that God’s grace is available to every person on earth. And salvation is also available to everyone as well. God is no respecter of persons therefore the same opportunity for grace and salvation is offered to everyone. (Romans 2:11) 2 Peter 3:9 beautifully says that God doesn’t want anyone to be lost and that He is longsuffering toward us. Do we understand the word longsuffering? It is not just showing patience, but it is showing patience toward someone who has wronged us. We have wronged God with our sinfulness, but He is waiting on us to repent if we haven’t. What an amazing God and Father we have!! However, just because grace and salvation is available to me, does that mean I automatically receive it no matter what I do? Like Paul said in Romans 6:2, 15, certainly not!! Let’s use a simple worldly analogy. Tickets to a concert may be available but that doesn’t mean I’m going to get them and get into the concert. I have to first go through the steps to buy the tickets to get to go. In the same way of thinking, just because God’s grace that leads to salvation is available to me, doesn’t mean that I will automatically receive that saving grace and be able to enter heaven. I have to go through the proper steps of God’s plan to receive that grace that leads to the salvation of my soul so that I can then enter my heavenly home with God. The day we are baptized into Christ is when we receive salvation through the grace of God. We receive that grace that leads to salvation only because of what Jesus did on the cross for us. When we make the commitment to follow Christ, by completing God’s plan for salvation, with baptism being that final step, we are then eligible to receive God’s saving grace. Not before. Unless we have come into contact with Christ’s blood through baptism, we can’t accept God’s grace. It’s a process that we go through. Once we have accepted God’s grace on His terms, not ours, we then allow God’s grace to transform us as we grow and mature as Christians. The process for becoming a Christian is the same for everyone. The world disagrees with this, but we don’t follow the world, we follow God’s word. His word speaks of only one way to be saved. Now, as far as the process for maturing as a Christian goes, it is different for every person. God sees our efforts and is patient with us as we fall and get back up again over and over again in our Christian walks. Actually the maturing process continues throughout our entire life. We never fully mature because if we did, we would be sinless, like Jesus. The image of Jesus is our goal that we strive for every day. His image is what we are supposed to show the world. Oh how thankful I am to have Him as my example to follow and how thankful I am for God’s saving grace through Jesus. Here is a challenge if we need it and I feel like we all do sometimes. Let’s be hot or cold in our Christian walk starting this week my Christian friends, not lukewarm, so that we can walk in the light with Jesus and show the world how wonderful God’s saving grace can be. If we do, then maybe…..just maybe, someone we cross paths with will notice something different about us, and want to have the joy and freedom that we have. We never know who is watching or listening. Let’s show others Jesus this week!! I hope you all have a wonderful Lord’s day and a blessed week ahead. I truly appreciate all of you who read my blog! Please feel free to share!

Well friends, this post has turned into three parts. I will look at Titus 2:12-14 in my next post. Our question will be, “what does grace teach us?” We will look at how grace helps us to learn how to live the Christian life. It teaches us what to deny, what to look for, and what type of people God wants us to be. Grace is a powerful word and is at the heart of Christianity. Without grace, where would we be?

If you are someone who needs to obey the gospel, so that you can experience God’s saving grace through Jesus, the plan that you need to follow is below.

• We have to hear His word. (Romans 10:17) 
• Upon hearing the message of Jesus, we believe it. (Mark 16:16) 
• Then, we confess Jesus’ name before men. (Matthew 10:32) 
• Next, we repent of our sins. (Acts 2:38, Acts 3:19) 
• Finally, we are baptized into Christ for the remission of our sins. (Acts 2:38, Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:16, Romans 6:3-4, Acts 22:16, 1 Corinthians 12:13, Galatians 3:26-27) After baptism, God adds us to His church. (Acts 2:47)
• Then, we remain faithful in our commitment to Christ until death. (Revelation 2:10, 2 Peter 2:20-22)