Is grace a license to sin?

Hello everyone, welcome back to my blog. I hope you are doing very well. The feedback from my last post about eternal security has been amazing. I know many people still opine that others especially young believers use the doctrine of eternal security as a means to live a life that isn’t fruitful as a believer. The truth is this, anyone that understands what grace truly is will never use it as an excuse to live a questionable life. This is why today’s post is focusing on grace as the liberty from sin rather than the excuse to sin.

Romans 6:1-2 (TPT) So what do we do, then? Do we persist in sin so that God’s kindness and grace will increase? ² What a terrible thought! We have died to sin once and for all, as a dead man passes away from this life. So how could we live under sin’s rule a moment longer?  ³ Or have you forgotten that all of us who were immersed into union with Jesus, the Anointed One, were immersed into union with his death? ⁴ Sharing in his death by our baptism means that we were co-buried and entombed with him, so that when the Father’s glory raised Christ from the dead, we were also raised with him. We have been co-resurrected with him so that we could be empowered to walk in the freshness of new life.

When you understand what grace means, it helps you to live a life above sin. A life that bears good fruit. A life that glorifies God. Prior to becoming a new creation, it was impossible not to sin because of the nature of Adam. Even if you had good intentions in your heart, you still felt like you were tied together with sin. However now that you gave your life to Jesus, you died with Him, you were buried with Him and you resurrected with Him. The power of Sin over your life was destroyed forever. You now have the power to look sin in the eye and tell it “get away from me, I don’t know you and you have no power over me.”

Colossians 2:11-15 (AMP) In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, but by the [spiritual] circumcision of Christ in the stripping off of the body of the flesh [the sinful carnal nature], 12 having been buried with Him in baptism and raised with Him [to a new life] through [your] faith in the working of God, [as displayed] when He raised Christ from the dead. 13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh (worldliness, manner of life), God made you alive together with Christ, having [freely] forgiven us all our sins, 14 having canceled out the [a]certificate of debt consisting of [b]legal demands [which were in force] against us and which were hostile to us. And this certificate He has set aside and completely removed by nailing it to the cross.

I really love the above verses and I’d like us to analyze it verse by verse. These are my explanations:

Verse 11: This verse tells every believer that the sinful, carnal and world-loving nature has been taken away from us. Now begs the question; did you know this? Now that you know, how does it affect your mindset about sin? Do you still think you can’t help yourself?

Verse 12: This verse shows proof that sin is indeed a nature, not an act. Every man born of Adam is a sinner (which is the whole world), only when you give your life to Jesus is when you lose the sinful nature that brings about sinful acts. The Adamic nature was buried with Jesus and you received a new life because you put your faith in Jesus.

Verse 13: Granted, before you gave your life to Jesus you were spiritually dead but God made you alive and forgave all your sins. Tell, what is your business with sin again?

Verse 14: God even went one step further and cancelled the accusing voice of Satan. God showed Satan that we are righteous because His son paid the price for us. You are no longer a sinner, there is no legal document calling you a sinner. Nobody is allowed to call you a sinner because God has cancelled every voice accusing you of sin! Pastors in the house, you are not allowed to call God’s children sinners! That is the voice of accusation. You can rebuke and correct their sinful actions but understand that anyone who has accepted Jesus is a new creation, the nature of sin has been dropped and cancelled forever.

I personally, don’t think many people know these realities of a believer or the fundamentals of salvation. The first time I found out how much God had done for me to help me live a good life, I was shocked. I mean, I was born and raised in a Christian family but I didn’t even know the true meaning of God’s grace. Learning about grace made me realize that a lot has been given to me not cause of anything I did or I will ever do.

Romans 8:9-11 (NLT) But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.)

Let me give you a list of all God has given us as believers just because we believe in His son:

• A straight ticket to heaven (John 3:16)
• Freedom sin and death (Romans 8:2)
• Placed me next to Him above principalities and powers meaning I can only be oppressed by demons, if I permit it (Colossians 2:15)
• Made me His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21)
• Made me His son, I am not a slave to God (Galatians 3:26)
• Check out other things, He gave every believer in this post (Key identities of a believer)

After thinking deep about all God has done for me, excluding the things with physical benefit (like provision, protection, healing etc.), why will I ever hurt Him intentionally? Why will I ever throw His grace back in His face? Why?

This is how I see it and it has helped me a lot more than the fear of hell. Before I understood the gospel, the fear of hell was not a strong motivation to stop me from committing sin. If you are being honest with yourself, has hell ever stopped you from committing that sin? But when I knew the depths of God’s love for humanity, that broke me. Understanding that love has been the driving and compelling force for me to do better. I took away the condemnation that had been drummed in my ears about God and focused on His greatest show of love, Jesus. His love compels me!

This is the best explanation for salvation that I have ever heard: Imagine one day you collected loan from the bank and you lost all the money. The bank came took your house, seized everything you had, you were homeless and there was an arrest warrant out there for you to be sent to life imprisonment. After hiding for a few months, you got caught and was thrown in jail pending your case in the court. A stranger from nowhere showed up, heard your story and decided to pay the bank times 10 of what you owed. After that, he bought you a new home, gave you another business and restored everything else that you lost. This is a total stranger and he has said you don’t have to pay him back. It is too good to be true, right? That someone will do this for a stranger? This is exactly what Christ did for us. He saved us from death and overpaid for our sins. Imagine this stranger, after all, he has done, will you ever in your life struggle to please him? If he says jump, you will ask how high? Nobody should beg and beg you to please him. Your natural dispensation should be to please him forever because he bought back your life. I hope this illustration has helped reshape our minds about our salvation. Christ gave us everything!

Upon belief of the Gospel (at salvation), we received the life of Christ and we now have changed desires, we are dead to sin and we now have the ability to live the life of Christ, our old nature which has sin as its disposition, is now dead, buried and gone, we would see this in the scriptures subsequently stated.

2 Corinthians 5:17 (AMP) Therefore if anyone is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life].

Philippians 2:12-13 (AMP) So then, my dear ones, just as you have always obeyed [my instructions with enthusiasm], not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation [that is, cultivate it, bring it to full effect, actively pursue spiritual maturity] with awe-inspired fear and trembling [using serious caution and critical self-evaluation to avoid anything that might offend God or discredit the name of Christ]. ¹³ For it is [not your strength, but it is] ^[a]God who is effectively at work in you, both to will and to work [that is, strengthening, energizing, and creating in you the longing and the ability to fulfill your purpose] for His good pleasure.

See the above scripture, after He saved us he also tells us that the pressure is on Him to do good works in our lives. All we have to do is keep our eyes on Him. The pressure to bear fruits and please God is not on you, it’s on Him. You walk in His marvellous power.

In situations we find ourselves committing sin, we don’t feel condemned, we remind ourselves of our true nature; we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, our status has not changed, we still have our Salvation secured and eternal because our Salvation is a gift and not a reward for the works that we do. We are forever sons of God, we are in Christ and therefore we are a new creature.

Romans 4:4-5 (TPT) When people work, they earn wages. It can’t be considered a free gift, because they earned it. ⁵ But no one earns God’s righteousness. It can only be transferred when we no longer rely on our own works, but believe in the one who powerfully declares the ungodly to be righteous^[b]in his eyes. It is faith that transfers God’s righteousness into your account!

The believer’s Salvation is Eternal. The believer has certainty of his salvation, if his/her salvation is not forever then Jesus did not save such person, when he saves, it is forever; to the uttermost; once and for all.

If you find yourself constantly committing a certain sin, maybe the devil has whispered lies that you are addicted! I don’t care what the devil is saying, he is a big liar because scriptures say in the book of John 8:36 (AMPC) So if the Son liberates you [makes you free men], then you are really and unquestionably free.

You have to take control of that situation (not addiction) whether it is masturbation or pornographic materials or fornication/adultery or drunkenness or pride or rebellion. You have to speak words loudly into your spirit, words that declare your freedom and reaffirms your identity. You have to keep drumming it into your ears that:

• I am above sin
• Sin has no legal hold or control over me
• God is not angry with me
• I can do better because God Himself is in me teaching me how to do things that please Him
• God has set me free from sin
• There is no condemnation towards me

Next week, I will talk about righteousness consciousness versus sin consciousness. I will also take some time to explain the effect of sin to the person saved. don't worry your salvation is not going anywhere unless you reject the spirit that saves you. That is committing apostasy and that is a discussion for another day. Till next week, bye.

As Coartem is to Malaria, So is Grace to Sin.  But will you submit yourself to mosquitoes because you have coartem? God forbid!- Anonymous

With love,

Bibi

Let’s be friends, follow me on Twitter. Click this - @Bibilamour04