Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.”
– John 8:34
When then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
– Romans 6:15-16
Matthew 1:21 promised that the Messiah would be called Jesus for He would save His people from their sins. Sadly, in our day and age, many want to be called “His people” but reject the notion of being saved from their sins. Even worse, much of what passes today in modern evangelicalism is nothing more than antinomianism, which teaches that since Christ has redeemed us from the curse of sin, we are now free to live in sin.
Herein lies the danger of teaching people “once saved, always saved” apart from instruction in godliness (1 Timothy 6:3). How often have people been taught that nothing can separate them from the love of Christ (which is biblical; see Romans 8:37-39) and that no one is able to take us out of His hands (John 10:27-29), but then they are never taught holiness when the Bible equally calls for God’s people to abandon sin and live holy lives (1 Peter 1:15-16; Revelation 1:5-6). How sad that people are taught that even sin does not completely separate us from God but only breaks fellowship (Isaiah 59:2). While I agree that sin does break fellowship, sin, if not forsaken through the grace of God, will destroy our souls (James 1:12-15; 1 John 5:16-17). We are to forsake a life of sin as disciples of the Lord Jesus (John 8:11).
Antinomianism rises up from time to time without anyone questioning it. For instance, I was listening to a national call in program in which the host believes strongly in eternal security. He believes that since Christ died for sins (2 Corinthians 5:18-19; Galatians 1:4), then when we come to Christ all our sins are forgiven forever (Hebrews 8:12) and we are free by the grace of God. The only sin now that God sees is the sin of unbelief (John 16:8-11). Therefore, when a believer sins, they need not confess their sins since Christ has already redeemed us from sin and the power and penalty of sin; so sin is not the issue but unbelief is. When we sin, we need to thank God that He has already forgiven us in Christ Jesus.
The problem with such a teaching is that it majors on the doctrine of justification but ignores the work of sanctification. It bases its entire theology on the biblical truth that Jesus died for our sins. I agree. But once Jesus sets us free from sin, are we now free to sin or free from sin? In many, such as this man’s view, we are free to sin since Jesus has already forgiven us. At the moment of regeneration, we are free to sin if we want to.
But the Bible over and over again calls us to holiness. The antinomian would say that we are holy in Christ (Hebrews 10:10), but while it is true that we are holy positionally in Christ, we are also in the process of being made holy (Hebrews 10:14). Romans 6:1-4 points us to baptism as an illustration of the fact that we have been buried with Christ and raised to walk in the newness of life (what a wonderful picture of immersion). Paul uses baptism in answering the question, “Are we to sin that grace may increase?” How can we sin if we have been baptized with Christ in His death and raised to walk in His resurrection power? The grace of God is not given to us so that we can sin but so that we can avoid sinning (Titus 2:12). Jude 4 says that there are false teachers who turn the grace of God into a license for sin. This shouldn’t be! True grace does not give us a license to live in sin, but true grace turns our passions into a fire for Jesus our Lord.
By no means am I sinless (Proverbs 20:9; Romans 3:23), but I do hate my sins and I do have a passion to be like Jesus (2 Peter 3:18). I don’t want to abuse God’s grace but rather I want to walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lusts of the flesh (Galatians 5:16-17). I want to die to self and not seek my own selfish and sinful desires (Colossians 3:1-4). I want to be holy as He is holy (Matthew 5:48). May God grant me a hatred for sin and a passionate desire to exalt the name of Jesus in all the earth and for His glory alone.
[Link to original post and comments at Roy Ingle’s website.]
