Anyone hearing the messages I share here that come away from it thinking that I am saying sinning is ok because that makes grace abound have completely misunderstood what I am saying. I pray that no one does. Because Paul clearly answers this question when it was asked of him saying “God forbid.” So agreeing with Paul I also say God forbid. We do not and can not sin so that grace will abound.
Another thing that Paul was not saying is that grace is license to sin. And I mean sin in the sense Paul intended. And that is sin defined by the law. Grace is not a license to that sin any more than sinning is what makes grace abound.
Grace abounds because God is love. Grace is and has been misunderstood this way by many because when they hear Paul’s message of grace they understand it to mean not getting what one deserves.
But, grace is not a free pass for sinning with impunity. Nor does it mean that because of grace we don’t get what we deserve. Read Acts where Ananias and Saphira both died instantly when they lied to the Holy Spirit. Or in Paul’s epistles where he speaks of giving people over to Satan’s for the destruction of the flesh.
These are examples of God’s wrath being the no side of God’s love. And shows that there is greater responsibility in grace than there ever was under the law. Because to whom much is given much is required.
The Biblical meaning of Grace is God’s love in action. Shown most clearly in God sending Jesus to join with us in our mortality and death. So that by faith in Him and His resurrection we can join with Him in eternal life and immortality.
And when we humble ourselves before God He gives us more grace. That is, more of Himself in the sense of our relationship with Him and our growth in maturity and understanding as a child of God.
So grace has nothing to do with the perverted sense of justice that the pagan and gnostic doctrines of original sin and sin nature respectively promote. Rather, grace is the love of God shed abroad in the believer’s hearts that constrains him from the sins Paul says will enslave us if we practice them.
It is this enslavement characteristic that God hates most about sin. Because He wants us to be completely free from its influence so that by our free will we can love Him fully with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength in return for the love He has shown us. And this freedom Paul says can be ours by being completely free from the law.
Not in the sense of being lawless. But, in the sense of what it means to be righteous. Because Paul says to Timothy in 1Tim.1:8-10 saying, “8 But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully;
9 Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
10 For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine”
See that using the law lawfully is to use it as the means to promote a civil society. A culture in which men have rules that keep them from defrauding and destroying each other.
And we also see that when a man is righteous these laws have no power over him. Because he loves as God does so that he will not defraud and destroy others.
What makes a man righteous is his relationship with Jesus. And Paul tells us that a man who is in relationship with Jesus has no relationship with the law. Which makes him free from the power of sin. Because as 1Cor.15:56 says, “The strength of sin is the law.”
This is why in Rom.7:1-4 Paul said using marriage as an analogy that only when a woman’s husband is dead is she free from the law of her husband to marry another. Otherwise she will be an adulteress.
And by analogy says that in this same way a man must be free from the law to be joined with Jesus. So that there is no more need for the law because it is the righteousness of our relationship with Jesus that will keep us from lawlessness in the civil sense in which God gave it for Israel.
That is, just as Israel was to keep the law or suffer the consequences for violating it. So too are men punished who will not keep the laws of the society of which they are a part if they do not keep those laws. Otherwise there is chaos and lawlessness.
So when we encounter people who want to behave lawlessly as if the law does not apply to them this is when Rom.13 comes into play. So that those who would be abusive to others are made to behave in a civil manner or suffer the consequences.
Rom.13 makes it clear that those who behave lawlessly are to be punished by the power that God has established. And if we allow them to continue in their lawlessness it encourages more lawlessness. And good people suffer for it.
So it behooves the righteous to maintain the civil structure. Otherwise the innocent suffer while the lawless revel in their unrighteous behavior. The ruler must not bear the sword in vain as we have seen so much of in the world we live in today. But, he must punish the lawless and reward those who do good just as Paul says in Rom.13.
So when Paul says things like where there is no law there is no transgression. Or for until the law sin was in the world. But sin is not imputed when there is no law. Be careful not to take that to mean we can sin because grace abounds.
Because the man who sins as it is defined by the law of Moses will become a slave to it. This does not mean he will go to hell. But, it does mean that he will be miserable. Because his conscience knows the good he aught to do. And with the Holy Spirit reminding him there can be no peace.
But, when we walk in the spirit and not after the flesh we are free from the law because what we know from God’s love leads us and guides us. This is the righteousness for which there is no law. This is why Paul said for him all things are lawful.
Grace abounds because God is love. And to know this abounding grace we must trust in Jesus and His resurrection. Confessing with our mouth the Lord Jesus. And believing in our hearts by the that He has raised from the dead.
If we will do this then we will be made children of God by the spirit He creates in us when we are born again. If we will do this then we will have eternal life now. And immortality at the resurrection. If we will do this then we will inherit the kingdom of God our Father. If we will do this… then I will see you there or in the air!
