Home  Articles  Site map

"What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" (Ro.6:1,2). This is a most crucial matter we must examine ourselves about, if we consider ourselves believers in Jesus. Our attitude of mind here indicates whether we have entered into a relationship with Jesus as our Saviour. There is a strong chance that we may be wholly or partly deceived because of the predominance of false grace and false gospel being preached these days.

A distinguishing mark of a man who has been born again is that God is in him producing in his heart a hatred towards sin (1Jn.3:9). Due to this, he does not practise sin. What this means is that even though he may fall into sin, it is not his lifestyle. He desires not to sin, but he fails because of ignorance or weakness. When he realises that he has fallen, he rushes to the Lord asking for forgiveness and help not to repeat that sin (He.4:16). He then becomes watchful towards that sin and learns to overcome the next time he is tempted. Then he finds himself strengthened more and more until that sin no longer has dominion over him (Ro.6:12-14).

But this does not happen if we have misunderstood grace and imagine that it is a cover under which our sins are automatically hidden away. What that kind of an idea does to us is to make us think that sin is not such a serious matter. Then it follows that we continue to sin, but we do not think anything is abnormal with us. This could be the result of modern preaching which either misses the main point of the Gospel, which is to save us from our sins, or gets confused with the details.

'We who have died to sin no longer want to live in it.' This death to sin is one of the things that happen when we are born again. Before that, we were 'dead in sin' and used to sin as a very natural and normal thing, trying only not to get caught. That was our old man. The new man is from God, from His nature beginning to grow in us, which hates sin. Now we are dead towards sin in our heart, even though we may fail sometimes when we are tempted through the sinful desires that come up from our flesh (Ja.1:14,15).

If we are not dealing with temptations and sin in our own life, the chances are that we are blaming other people and God Himself for our problems. Then we are not addressing the main issue (Ja.4:1). It follows that our problems are not getting dealt with and our lives are becoming more entangled and complicated. Then we wonder why our fasting and prayers are not being answered in the way we expect. Perhaps this is the answer, that we must, first of all, learn to humble ourselves and deal with our own sins.

It is a sad situation, and the result of wrong preaching, that even believers are interested more in their earthly life than in their eternal welfare. Prayers are usually all for this, and testimonies too! Jesus came to save us from our sins, but who wants that?

Tweet