Lets start with Truth. Grace does not excuse you to sin. Grace does not cover up sin. Grace empowers you to live righteously. Grace is not right doing, it’s right believing.
Romans 6:1-3 uses an almost rhetorical question to get the point across regarding the grace of God. It would be rhetorical if not for all those who reject the great grace available to us.
Look at these verses in the Easy to Read Version (ERV).
1 So do you think we should continue sinning so that God will give us more and more grace? 2 Of course not! Our old sinful life ended. It’s dead. So how can we continue living in sin?
Right there is the problem. People have not let the dead person stay dead. As a matter of fact, they go back to the grave and dig the old dead man back up and try to make him behave. You cannot teach a dead person anything. The only thing a dead person needs is life.
3 Did you forget that all of us became part of Christ Jesus when we were baptized? In our baptism we shared in his death.
Romans 5:20 reads in the ERV “The law was brought in so that more people would sin the way Adam did. But where sin increased, there was even more of God’s grace”.
In this scripture we see the declaration that all the law does when we focus on it is cause us to sin. Grace is unlimited. This proves you cannot take the truth about God’s grace too far. More on this later in this teaching.
Romans 6:14 reads “Sin will not be your master, because you are not under law. You now live under God’s grace”. Now if this bothers you, you have to get upset with God, not me. I didn’t say it. I just presented the truth of scripture to you. It says SIN will not. That’s good news.
Again, grace does not cover-up sin. Grace removes sin and empowers you to live righteously. Grace does not free you TO sin. Grace frees you FROM sin. If you notice these truths being repeated it’s because people are just not getting it.
If you have to do anything to be worthy of Grace, then it’s not Grace. If it demands your performance it’s not Grace. Grace is what God did for you, independent of you, before you were ever born.
Ephesians 2:8 in the NAS reads “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;” Just look at this verse. It says grace is a gift. Grace saves you through faith.
Why is this so difficult for people to grasp? The answer is that religion has engulfed the “church”. Pastors, teachers, and ministers are teaching works, effort, performance, and achieving because of their wrong believing. This serves only to put in bondage those who Christ came to set free.
Titus 2:11 reads “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men”. This confirms what Ephesians 2:8 says. It is the grace of God that brings salvation. Not works, not performance, not wasted efforts to live holy. Grace has made us holy.
Notice the verse says “Grace has appeared”. How is that possible? Because Grace is not intangible or an inanimate object. That is to say that grace is not lifeless or spiritless. It is someone, not something. That someone is Jesus Christ. Jesus is Grace and He is the gospel of grace. Grace is the true gospel, the good news.
Galatians 1:6 in the NAS reads “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel”.
So we can see clearly by this scripture that the gospel is the gospel of grace. It’s the grace of Christ. So the gospel is the gospel of grace, and Jesus is grace.
Here’s Galatians 1:6 in the Easy To Read (ERV) – “A short time ago God chose you to follow him. He chose you through his grace that came through Christ. But now I am amazed that you are already turning away and believing something different from the Good News we told you”.
Remember John 1:17 where it reads “That is, the law was given to us through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ”. So put all this together, and it’s only a small portion of absolute truth surrounding grace.
First, Titus 2:11 tells us grace has appeared. Then Galatians 1:6 tells us that God chose us to follow Him, and He did so through His grace. It was the grace that CAME through Jesus Christ. Now John 1:17 tell us and confirms with the other scriptures that grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Grace and truth are always together. Jesus said He was the way, the TRUTH and the Life. Well if grace and truth came together, then Jesus is grace also.
How much clearer does it have to be? Scripture totally confirms that it is by grace. Grace who is Jesus. Jesus who is the gospel of grace. Grace came, but the law was given. Grace appeared, but the law was forced. Grace empowers and the law demands. Grace frees us from sin. The law condemns you and puts you in bondage to sin.
Those who are in bondage to religion, legalism, works and performance based Christianity will make statements opposing grace to justify their efforts. They will say things like the title of this teaching. Also, they will say that grace can lead to a careless attitude toward sin. Legalistic Christians believe this because they think if you truly embrace a lifestyle of grace, you will go out and sin.
I mean, telling people all their sins have been forgiven and forgotten, even the ones they will commit in the future, will certainly cause them to live ungodly lives. Why should they try to live Godly?
This kind of thinking develops from a lack of revelation concerning the great grace of God. It is the essence of unbelief. They have not fully realized the power of their conversion and the finality of the cross. They live in fear that if they don’t DO something to earn God’s favor or gain God’s love, they will forever be lost.
The one who never sinned now lives in us to guide us and protect us and lead us into all truth. I think He can be trusted not to start sinning now. God’s grace is Christ’s enabling presence in our life to grant us the ability to be all that God called us to be and all that God called us to do. Grace will not cause you to go out and sin. To the contrary, grace will empower and motivate you to live a Godly lifestyle.
Then there are those that say “you can go too far with Grace”. You know what? I’ve heard the enemy whisper that to me, speak it to me through others, declare it to me from legalistic religious TV preachers. Every time that happens, God sends confirmation that it is absolutely impossible to take His Grace too far.
Just look at this scripture again. Romans 5:20 reads in the ERV “The law was brought in so that more people would sin the way Adam did. But where sin increased, there was even more of God’s grace”.
“There was even MORE of God’s grace.” God has the much more. Just read through Romans and highlight where it says much more. You will get a revelation of just how MUCH MORE God has for us in the new covenant of grace. In part two of this teaching we will continue to look at God's much more, because there is much more to present. Grace and Peace.
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