Misunderstood Grace

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God 

I’ve been asked on many occasions if I believe that once you’re saved you’re always saved and it doesn’t matter what you do. My typical tongue-in-cheek response is, “No, I believe once you’re saved you’re always saved and it matters what you do!”

Many people, from Paul’s day until now, think the gospel of grace is a license to sin. The idea being: Once grace covers all your sin, you can live any way you want to live. 

The very idea of a Christ follower living in habitual sin was abhorrent to Paul. It should horrify us too. Paul addressed this when he rhetorically asked if we should live in sin because we are under grace. His answer is found in Romans 6.2, “God forbid!” Or, “Certainly not!” Or, “May it never be,” depending on your translation. In the Greek text, he used the most emphatic expression of “no” possible. Today, we might say it like this, “Are you kidding? That’s ridiculous.” Or, “No way, that’s impossible!” Later in the chapter, he would argue that no one can be a slave to two masters at the same time. Just as Jesus said in Matthew 6.24, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon [mammon is the personification of wealth]. 

Don’t be deceived into thinking you can sin as much as you want to because you live in grace. A true Christ follower understands living in grace is not a license to sin. Freedom from sin does not mean freedom to sin.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age. Titus 2.11-12