July 20

Grace Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Means

“God gets it, I know I mess up, but He’ll forgive me anyway.” This has become a new counterfeit form of grace in the Christian world. Grace is no longer being used as a way out of sin, but instead it is being used as an excuse to live in it. It’s not what grace is. It’s not what grace should do. It’s not what it does when you really know Christ as Savior. Romans 6:1-14 makes it abundantly clear.

Romans 6: 1-14 is a no-nonsense passage about the power of grace. If you claim to be in Christ, then your response to sin should never be “oh well, guess I’ll just keep sinning.” Instead it should be, “OH NO! I better repent of that sin before it causes a problem in my life.” Grace is not an excuse to continue sinning, it is the power to be delivered from it. But where does Romans 6:1-14 begin? It begins with a simple question. “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” (Rom 6:1) Stop right there. Say that question out loud and give it a moment of honest thought. What is your first reaction? Is your immediate response, “OH NO!”? The reason it should be “OH NO!” is that is exactly the answer that the text provides. “By no means!” (Rom 6:2)

In the act of coming to saving faith in Jesus Christ, you died. This isn’t some play on words or a cute little theology lesson. This is reality. Your old self, the self that was devoted to living for self, following the world, and obeying sinful desires, was crucified with Christ and put to death. If you are still living for self, following the world, and giving into sinful desires you should be concerned because that means you might not actually be a new creation to begin with (2 Corinthians 13:5).

This isn’t legalism this isn’t perfectionism this is about walking in the direction God created us to walk. Salvation is not sinless perfection, but it is sinless direction. A true child of God will not continue to dwell in sin. If you’re still walking in sin like nothing has changed then you might not be saved. If you are in Christ, you died and “Our old self was crucified with him, in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin” (Rom 6:6-7).

If you are in Christ, when Christ died on that cross, you died too. “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will never die again” (Rom 6:5-9).

When Christ rose from the dead, He will also raise us from the dead to a new life. “Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we also might walk in newness of life” (Rom 6:4). Grace does not leave you mired in your sin. Grace picks you up out of your mire, washes you clean, and then leads you out. “Consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom 6:11).

Dead people don’t continue to sin. If you died with Christ, your old self, then sin no longer has dominion over you. Jesus broke the power of sin over your life. “For the one who has died has been set free from sin” (Rom 6:7). Jesus didn’t die on that cross to leave you the same. He died to set you free. He died to make you new. He died to change your desires, your purpose, and your life.

Don’t continue to sin as if you are still enslaved to it. “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions” (Rom 6:12). A person who has truly been born again by the grace of God has no business continuing to sin. If sin is still ruling your life then you are not a new creation yet. If you are in Christ, your old self was crucified with Him. You are called to “present yourselves to God as those who have been raised from the dead and your members to God as instruments for righteousness” (Rom 6:13).

This is what grace really looks like. Grace sets you free. Grace brings life. Grace leads to holiness. Grace leads to newness of life not lawlessness. “For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace” (Rom 6:14).

If you are still living for self, following the world, and giving in to sinful desires, that is not grace. If grace continues to have no effect on your life then the only conclusion that is reasonable is that grace has no place in your life. That’s a problem. Stop living for yourself. Stop following the world. Stop giving in to sinful desires. Die with Christ. Be raised with Him. Walk in newness of life. This is the only kind of grace that saves. The rest is counterfeit.