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I will never forget a conversation I had with a friend of mine when we were both in our early twenties. Even though neither of us was serving the Lord, we had both grown up in church. From time to time, this friend would want to discuss spiritual issues with me.
One evening, our conversation went something like this:
“Did you know that no matter how much we sin, God still forgives us?” my friend stated.
“Yeah, I know. But I still wonder where I’ll end up if I die. I’m not exactly serving God right now.”
“But that’s what grace is, Cari. It means we can sin all we want and God will forgive us each and every time.”
“So, we can just live our lives in sin because we’re covered by grace?” I replied, in complete confusion.
“Exactly!”
But…what about repentance?
I have since learned that although my friend meant well, he was flat out wrong. While it’s true that God will forgive our sins, there should come a time in our Christian walk when we want to turn away from them. That is, if we truly love God and desire to follow Him.
While I don’t think any of us has the ability to be perfectly perfect like Jesus, it doesn’t mean we aren’t supposed to try. Look at what 1 John 3:4-6 says:
“Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.”
Grace is a gift, not a license.
In today’s world, there seems to be a lot of preaching on grace and not nearly enough on holiness. (And people wonder why the church seems to have lost its power and influence.) There seems to be a “false-grace message” going forth that says exactly what my friend had tried to tell me nearly twenty years ago – that it’s okay to sin as much as we want because we’re covered by grace.
But what happens when you continue living in sin? What happens when you continue living the life you want to live instead of submitting your life to God? What happens is you never experience the freedom that Christ died for to give you.
Some Christians think sin is no big deal. They say things like, “Well, we’ve all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” But sin is a big deal, because it’s what separates us from God. Holiness, being the opposite of sin, brings us closer to Him. When we repent and commit to live as Jesus did, we grow in holiness.
God didn’t put commandments in place to keep us bound in chains. He gave them to us to set us free. When we think of grace as a gift from our Heavenly Father instead of a license to do whatever we want, there will be much more freedom in our walk with Christ.
Do you think it’s okay to have the attitude that we can sin all we want to because we’re covered by grace? What are some ways sin can separate us from God? Do you long to feel more freedom in your walk with Christ?
Cari Bousfield is a freelance writer and blogger. Besides blogging for JOY, Cari blogs at Faith's Mom's Blog and writes on a variety of articles at HubPages. She is also the author of Having Faith. Cari has a strong desire to help people connect with one another and to God. She prays that through her writing, she can reach the hearts of others and help to bring hope, inspiration and courage to "walk by faith not by sight". See all JOY Blog posts by Cari.
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