"Become sober-minded ... stop sinning; for some have no knowledge of God" (1Co.15:34). "Wake up from your drunken stupor ... and do not go on sinning" (ESV). This warning was addressed not to unbelievers but to the people in the church in Corinth. It may well be needed for us too. We too need to wake up from our stupor and become sober if we have drunk from the false doctrine of hyper-grace. This exaggeration of grace does not say so explicitly, but it implies that since God's favour towards us is entirely undeserved and nothing we do can earn it or lose it, it doesn't really matter how we live. These teachers may not actually say that we can sin freely now because we are under grace (Ro.6:15), but they imply that if we sin it doesn't really count against us!
One variation of this teaching is to emphasise that since Jesus died just once for the sins of the world, it necessarily means that even our future sins have already been paid for and forgiven. While it is true that there is provision in the death of Christ for the forgiveness of sins that might come up in the future, we should not imagine by implication that there is no need for us to be concerned about sin.
What appears on the surface to glorify God by proclaiming the riches of His grace has turned out for some people, just as the apostle Paul saw in those early days, to be like a proclamation of a licence for sin. That is where they have become 'drunk' and got into a stupor! In that state, their actual sins don't really worry them and they don't seem to take any serious effort to avoid sinning.
How are things with us? Has this false doctrine managed to bewitch us? In our desire to follow Jesus, are we taking care to avoid sinning (1Jn.2:1) – to avoid doing what we know to be sin and to please God instead, or is that something that rarely concerns us? Falling into sin inadvertently is different. God knows that we might fall, and He has promised that He will forgive us if we confess our failures (1Jn.1:9). But if we cannot identify any conscious effort on our part to stop sinning, we must conclude that we have become drunk with this wrong spirit and that we need to wake up urgently. In some cases we may even need to check to see if we are really born again and have come to a relationship with God.
Some people believe that it is entirely God's work to deliver them from sin. But it is very clear that only if we, with the help of the Holy Spirit, put to death (and not allow to take life) the sinful things our flesh wants to do that we will live the life of God (Ro.8:13). God helps us by working inside us, but it is for us to choose not to sin, overcome the temptations to sin and do what is pleasing to Him (Php.2:12,13). If we don't do our part, we may either not succeed in getting victory or, worse still, make ourselves imagine that we have victory when everybody else can see it's not real!
Real grace includes mercy for forgiveness and help to overcome (He.4:16)
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