Grace to Sin No More

Bill Wahl

Sunday, March 19, 2017

Amazing Grace

John Matthew Romans

Grace Obedience

His grace empowers us to remain faithful!

The past several decades, we have seen a dramatic decline in doctrinal and biblical preaching. In addition to this, whole churches and movements have conformed themselves to a distorted understanding of the gospel by embracing a “hypergrace” approach that trickles down to not only what they preach but who they allow to minister, lead and teach.

For centuries the body of Christ has wrestled with something called antinomianism (anti means “against”; nomos means “law”). This is the belief that the moral law of the Old Testament has been done away with and that, once we are in Christ, there is free grace in which we can almost live any way we want since we are not under the Law but under grace. Thus, according to this view, the Old Testament is not that important to read except for metaphors, types and symbols regarding the coming of Christ. The New Testament is all about grace and does away with the Old Testament Law!

Matthew 5:17 NLT

“Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose.

Jude 1:4 NLT

I say this because some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches, saying that God’s marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives. The condemnation of such people was recorded long ago, for they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

John 8:1‭-‬11 NLT

Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd. “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?” They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust. When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

Romans 6:1‭-‬4 NLT

Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.

Romans 6:15‭-‬16 NLT

Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.

We do not keep God’s commands in order to improve our relationships with God, to win His love, or to receive more of His love.

I have found that there is a difference between you grasping the concept of grace and grace grasping you.

3 Motives for Obedience

The first is gratitude. We obey the commands of God because our hearts overflow with gratefulness that was birthed in the grace extended to us.

Keeping God’s commands as an expression of love is the second motive for obedience. It brings us pleasure to obey God because we love Him.

The third motive is obedience as an act of devotion. This motive can’t be separated from the first two, or it becomes begrudging submission. And begrudgingly submitting to someone is very different from obeying as an act of devotion because the latter is loyalty birthed out of grateful love.