God knew that the teaching of His complete forgiveness of our past, present and future sins would appear to be a license to give Christians the OK from God to sin.  That is why He clearly addresses it showing the complete opposite.  Let’s look at why the Gospel of Grace leads us to live a righteous life instead of a sinful one.

God’s grace is greater than the sins of any unbeliever.  Romans 5:20-21  says, The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. God is clearly saying that His grace is greater than the sin of the most despicable sinner so that he/she can be saved.  In 1Timothy 1:12-16 Paul shows this saying God saved him as the foremost of sinners.  His point was that if God could save a persecutor of Christians to the point of giving hearty approval of the murder of Stephen in Acts 8:1, He could save anyone.

God’s grace is also greater than the sins of any Christian.  No Christian can commit any sin Jesus did not already forgive through the death of Jesus according to these Scriptures:  Colossians 2:13, When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions.  Ephesians 1:7, In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace. Ephesians 4:32, Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.  Hebrew 8:12, “For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And I will remember their sins no more.” Hebrews 10:12, But He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God.  Hebrews 10:14, For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.  Hebrew 10:17-18, “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.

God knows that His complete forgiveness is going to appear to mean that a Christian can just go out and sin because of grace.  He answers why this is absolutely not true in Romans 6:1-2, What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?  God’s answer is that anyone who believes God’s forgiveness gives a Christian permission to sin is dead wrong and doesn’t understand the Gospel completely.  The reason grace is not a license to sin is that we died to sin and were made alive to Him.  Romans 6 spends the remainder explaining what this means.  God tells how our old nature, our sinful identity in Adam, which loved to sin, was once and for all put to death with Jesus on the cross.  He shows clearly that we are no longer a slave of sin but of righteousness.  In other words, a complete understanding of grace will never lead the believer into sin but will give him/her the desire and power to overcome it.  Another way of saying this is that our new nature, our identity in Christ, hates to sin and desires to live a righteous life which glorifies God. 

Neither I nor Grace Life International teach or believe that God’s complete forgiveness is a license to sin.  To the contrary, we believe and teach that when the Gospel is understood in its entirety, a person will see their sins more clearly and confess them to God (meaning they are in agreement with God that they did not act like who they are) being assured of their forgiveness by God through the blood of Jesus.   We also believe that God’s grace will lead a person to turn from sin and live a righteous, holy life consistent with who they already are in Christ and Who Christ is in them.  That’s repentance leading to real freedom. We see freedom from all kinds of sins happen every week at GLI from believing the truth.

Truth sets people free.  Error keeps them in bondage.