Daniel
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An article by Justin Johnson at graceambassadors.com
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GRACE AMBASSADORS MINISTRY UPDATE
July 30th, 2011
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“You mean I can sin all I want and God’s grace will cover it?”
Not exactly. It is at this point in the conversation where most people are placed back under the law. Resist this temptation. The law will not help here. Press the cross even harder.
Though it is a wrong to think we are “allowed” to sin, when I hear this response it tells me the person understands something about God’s grace: it abounds more than sin (Rom 5:20).
It means that I’ve explained the gospel correctly, because they are asking the same question Paul
addresses in Romans 6:1,15:
Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
Romans 6:15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
When you’re teaching the gospel to someone don’t shy from this question like you have said something wrong. You are right on track, but your job is not done.
When grace is understood then we need to progress to what grace teaches: our old man is dead on the cross:
Romans 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
We are now free to live soberly, righteously, and godly in Christ:
Titus 2:12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
Under the law sin abounded, but now grace abounds more. The way we treat our old man is by reckoning it dead, and reckoning our life to be in Christ:
Romans 6:11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Sin continues when people think they are in bondage to it. Christ has liberated us from its power. We now walk by faith in what he has done. God forbid that we should “sin all we want”, because we are no longer subject to the body of sin. We ought to live like it.
For your edification,
Justin Curtis Johnson
ROMANS thru PHILEMON 