This Thing Called Grace

Romans 6

The world is moving at a rapid pace, and if you are like me, there are times when you may feel that things are spinning out of control.  There are so many things coming at us to occupy not only our time but also our minds that it can become challenging at times to discern those things that are good from those things that our not.  Even many our churches seem to be sending out mixed messages about right and wrong and how exactly grace fits into the whole equation.

According to Merriam Webster’s on-line dictionary, grace is defined as unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification.  I really like that word regeneration; it suggests that through grace we can be made new again.  And isn’t that exactly what we want to know will happen by grace, that when we sin and repent for our sins, we can be made new again in the eyes of God?  Does God extend us grace so that we can do what ever we want to do knowing that His grace will cover all of our sin?  Paul writes the following in Romans 6:1-2: What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?  By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? And that is the question, once we know Jesus, how can we go on sinning?

We go on sinning because we are imperfect, flawed humans motivated by our own selfish desires to have our needs met.  Only Jesus Christ lived a life free from sin.  Jesus’ life was sinless for two reasons.  The first reason is that He always chose to do the will of His Father.  Even though Jesus is the Son of God, He still came to earth in the flesh, tempted in all things, yet He never put His will or His desires above those of Father God.  The second reason Jesus was sinless was because He understood what it truly meant to serve others. There was no ego or selfish desires to get in His way of serving others. Not only did He know and understand the concept, it is something that He made a choice to do each day, but this is a topic for another day.

But what does Paul mean when he says that “We are those who have died to sin?”  If we are so flawed and imperfect, how can we die to sin?  The change comes in the heart.  Bill Johnson wrote in his book, Face to Face with God, “And because of who He is, to behold Him and remain unchanged is impossible.”  As we seek God and draw closer to Him, His desires become our desires.  As we allow God’s love to permeate our lives, to infiltrate every fiber of our being, He draws our hearts to Him and the things that used to entice us begin to lose their effect.  Those things become dead to us as we find new life in Christ Jesus.

Will we continue to sin, make mistakes and totally mess things up?  The answer to that is absolutely, but the next question is: Does God’s grace give us permission to sin?  We already know that Paul instructed against it, but we also read in the book of Jude, verse 4 the following:  “For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.”

Just as it was in those days, the perversion of the grace message continues today.  God has called us to come out of the world and draw close to Him, to choose His way over the ways of the world.  Only when we are seeking Him can we experience true freedom in this world and those times when we do fall, His grace is there to pick us up, clean us off and make us new again!

For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Titus 2:11-13