This is part 4 in the series on sin.  (See part 1 in Assumptions on Sin , part 2 in  Sin: Failure or Opportunity? , and part 3 in Our Greatest Strength.)

True Grace 
by Mike Rule

Over the past several weeks we have been looking at sin from God’s perspective. Many of us find this both a difficult and a challenging topic. For many, talking about freedom from sin and living in Grace stirs great insecurity and many questions. Recently I received an email from someone in Africa saying, “If we begin to teach God’s Amazing Grace we are telling people it is okay to become loose Christians! Soon our churches will start to develop problems.”

My first reaction to that statement was to say to myself, Brother, if you are not teaching God’s grace your church already has problems! My second reaction was to be grieved for both the pastor and his congregation. They all must be struggling horribly to live holy and righteous lives. Inside they must all feel they are not good enough for God, are not doing enough for God, and that God is ever displeased with them. My heart breaks for the bondage that ensues when people do not understand God’s grace. But I am also encouraged because those who live under law cannot help but come to Jesus: … the Law has become a trainer of us until Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Galatians 3:24

If we think that grace becomes a license for people to live in sin, we have absolutely no understanding of God’s grace. Romans 5 makes it clear that grace abounds because of sin and Romans 6 makes it clear that as we increasingly experience God’s grace we also will increasingly not want to abuse that grace.

God’s grace is both amazing and overwhelming. When we have experienced the life of Christ, which is God’s Grace in human flesh, sin sickens us when we fall into it. We absolutely cannot live in sin and be indefinitely happy doing it. I recently fell into some old sinful flesh patterns, and for the moment they were enjoyable. However, when I realized what I was doing I felt sick to my stomach over it. A believer simply cannot be happy while living in sin. It is TOTALLY impossible because of our new nature. Christ’s indwelling life will not allow us to rest in sin.

Grace is not true grace when it is a license for sin. True grace has a transforming power that becomes the motivation for us to depend more deeply upon Christ Jesus. True Grace IS the person of Christ Himself. How can we not preach the grace of God as found through the person of Christ? Without Him, we have nothing!

Let’s back up and look at the whole purpose of grace in the first place. Grace for grace’s sake IS license because it’s all about me -- making me feel better, look better, be better. The freedom grace provides in not an end in itself. That freedom has a point and a purpose: Love. Grace put to work as God intended has purpose and power. It displays itself through a child of God, expressing itself in love. The whole purpose is not my righteousness so I can be right with God and feel better and be happier and someday go to heaven. The point is not to be complete just so I can be complete. It’s that I would be a vessel through which He can continue to shower love in all its many components: grace, mercy, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, compassion, truth, light, hope, etc. OUR freedom is secondary to HIS freedom to live through us, exhibiting His love in a dark, hurting world. We, though, are going to love--love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first. (1 John 4:19 MSG)

Verse for Reflection

He makes his prayer to God, and he has mercy on him; he sees God's face with cries of joy; he gives news of his righteousness to men; He makes a song, saying, I did wrong, turning from the straight way, but he did not give me the reward of my sin. He kept my soul from the underworld, and my life sees the light in full measure. Truly, God does all these things to man, twice and three times, Keeping back his soul from the underworld, so that he may see the light of life. (Job 33:26-30 BBE)

For this cause the Lord will be waiting, so that he may be kind to you; and he will be lifted up, so that he may have mercy on you; for the Lord is a God of righteousness: there is a blessing on all whose hope is in him. (Isaiah 30:18 BBE)

So says Jehovah, Israel, the people, the survivors of the sword, have found grace in the wilderness, I will go to give rest to him. Jehovah has appeared to me from far away, saying, Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love! On account of this, with loving kindness I have drawn you. (Jeremiah 31:2-3 LITV)

For the Law of Moses could not make anything perfect. And now a better hope has been provided through which we come near to God. (Hebrews 7:19 GNB)

Yet we know that a person is put right with God only through faith in Jesus Christ, never by doing what the Law requires. We, too, have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be put right with God through our faith in Christ, and not by doing what the Law requires. For no one is put right with God by doing what the Law requires. If, then, as we try to be put right with God by our union with Christ, we are found to be sinners, as much as the Gentiles are---does this mean that Christ is serving the cause of sin? By no means! If I start to rebuild the system of Law that I tore down, then I show myself to be someone who breaks the Law. So far as the Law is concerned, however, I am dead---killed by the Law itself---in order that I might live for God. I have been put to death with Christ on his cross, so that it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. This life that I live now, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave his life for me. I refuse to reject the grace of God. But if a person is put right with God through the Law, it means that Christ died for nothing! (Galatians 2:16-21 GNB)

Think of our Lord's patience as an opportunity for us to be saved. This is what our dear brother Paul wrote to you about, using the wisdom God gave him. (2Peter 3:15 GW)

For you, brothers, were called to freedom. Only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity to gratify your flesh, but through love make it your habit to serve one another. For the whole law is summarized in a single statement: "You must love your neighbor as yourself." (Galatians 5:13-14 ISV)

For the grace of God has come, giving salvation to all men, Training us so that, turning away from evil and the desires of this world, we may be living wisely and uprightly in the knowledge of God in this present life; Looking for the glad hope, the revelation of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, so that he might make us free from all wrongdoing, and make for himself a people clean in heart and on fire with good works. (Titus 2:11-14 BBE)

Bear one another's burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:2 NASB)