A Blog from Pastor Zack

As Paul begins chapter 6 of Romans, he knows that he is going to be accused of antinomianism from his earlier statements in Romans. Which basically means because of GRACE we can keep on sinning and it only makes Jesus’ work on the cross bigger. This is not what Paul is saying at all. Verse 12 says, “Do not let sin reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.” Most likely, he was already experiencing the backlash in other epistles that he had written. The human mind has a hard time not separating law and grace. We tend to look at them as two completely separate issues.  It is very hard for some people to look at them as going hand in hand.  When we have grace, we can’t help but want to follow the law.  A true conversion is not growing to maturity unless we have inner drive to do what the Lord commands.  I can never earn my way to justification. When we die to sin and are reborn into Christ, we are justified. We are no longer slaves to sin (Romans 6:6). However, our faith should drive us to attempt to live sinless lives because of our love for Jesus.            

I have often contemplated how living in sin works in the grand scheme of faith.  I know I am going into a controversial topic, but can we live in sin and still go to heaven?  The answer is most definitely yes, but only if we are able to quit the act out of obedience to Christ.  But the real question is, can we still go to heaven when we never have victory over the sin we are living in?            

Let’s look at two hypotheticals. We have two people living in sin who would call themselves Christians. One has made his lifestyle his god. The other has made God his God but struggles every day with the battles of living in sin. I understand it is a fine line and I am open for disagreements, but I believe the first one is still a slave to his sin. He is, therefore, not found justified; while the other is justified and wants to live by God’s commandments every day and is, therefore, free from that sin when he has a setback.

We all struggle with difficult sins, some of us struggle with pride, filthy words, or anger. What about difficult sins like somebody who struggles with porn or alcohol but has a repentant heart and understands they are committing a sin? Are we still saved when we lust after another woman? I hope so because I am guilty. Are we still saved when we mess up and yell at our kids out of anger? I struggle often in this area, over and over, guilty, guilty, guilty. Sometimes we look at somebody else’s sin like it is the ultimate sin when in reality, all sin separates us from God. The last time I checked none of us have completely conquered sin without the help of Jesus.            

The first step in salvation is to admit we are sinners, whatever the sin may be. If we deny sin, then how can we ever be saved from it, or more correctly, saved to a life in Jesus. When we deny sin, we become the head of our life and not God.  When we deny sin, we may be free from conviction of the Spirit, we may sleep at night, but this life is temporal. In contrast, when sin bothers us. When we have a desire to repent and be redeemed, then I believe we are a slave to righteousness. The second example demonstrates a deep desire to do what God wants us to do, and not what we want to do. We are in a constant fight between the conviction of the Spirit and worldly desires. We, as a church, should welcome all people into the church and love all people enough to still speak truth about sin; but, also be honest enough with ourselves to realize that we are black-hearted, wretched sinners washed by the blood of an all-loving Savior.

I would challenge you to go back and read this blog over again. This time, instead of anger, our tongue, or pride maybe be more specific. Insert cohabitation, abortion, or maybe homosexuality into the equation and see if you begin to disagree with my argument. A Christian argument cannot breakdown over certain sins because we worship a God Who can allow no sin. He is perfect. No sin is permissible in God’s Kingdom and my Jesus’ death on the cross was sufficient to account for all sins, even the really difficult ones. Because of this grace, we should have a desire to live a life devoted to the One Who willingly offered overwhelming grace. We should strive for sinless lives while, at the same time, giving others grace. We should strive to live sinless lives in our own lives, even giving ourselves grace when we fail.