GRACE DOES NOT EXCUSE SIN!

 

Wednesday, March 3, 2021

 

GRACE DOES NOT EXCUSE SIN!

 

Jude 4

4 For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Prov 30:20

20 Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.

 

Grace is God's means of forgiving our sins, as well as transforming the sinner that he might sin less and less. Grace is not God's sanction by which we plan and excuse our personal indulgence. (Source Blue Letter Bible)

 

           Licentiousness is “lacking legal or moral restraints.” It is a misappropriation of grace! It views grace as a get-out-of-jail-free card that first forgives and forgets the sin and then facilitates its continuance. In plainer English, it allows the sinner to continue sinning while developing and maintaining a friendship with a Holy God. The serious thinker dismisses this as false.

 

           The true balance between grace and legalism finds Jesus writing in the sand with his finger. Self-righteous and stern men stand around a contrite woman ready to stone her to death because she was “taken in adulatory – in the very act of doing it.” Jesus, the judge, skips the evidentiary portion of the trial and begins the punishment phase. He asks that one without sin cast the first stone. Everyone walks away leaving the guilty and Jesus alone. Jesus says, “I will commute your sentence, but don’t ever do this again!”

 

           Our current culture condemns only those who condemn! While maintaining a strict and harsh legal position is unsustainable, so a position of declaring wrong to be right is untenable.

 

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth

Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow

Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside

 

Great is Thy faithfulness, great is Thy faithfulness

Morning by morning new mercies I see

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me

 

Dear Lord, I kneel today in the cool dust of open condemnation and view the words you have written which pronounces that I am to go free! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, Bless His Holy Name! AMEN