- Joined
- May 13, 2025
- Messages
- 1,270
- Reaction score
- 1,679
- Points
- 113
- Age
- 67
- Location
- Charlestown, IN
- Website
- know-the-bible.com
- Gender
- Male
- Country
- United States
We hear people say, “We are all sinners,” and that is true. But does that mean a Christian can knowingly keep doing what God calls sin, refuse to repent, and excuse it by saying, “I am under grace”? Paul asked that very question: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (Romans 6:1–2, KJV).
Paul had just written about the abundance of God’s grace where sin abounded (Romans 5:20). He knew someone could twist that into an excuse to keep sinning. His answer was plain. Later in the same chapter he wrote, “What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid” (Romans 6:15). Being under grace does not make disobedience acceptable.
We do not earn salvation by cleaning ourselves up. Ephesians 2:8–9 says we are saved by grace through faith, “not of works, lest any man should boast.” But verse 10 also says we are “created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” We cannot use the first two verses to dismiss the next one. Good works do not purchase salvation, but God has not saved us so we can make peace with sin.
Titus tells us what grace actually teaches: “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world” (Titus 2:11–12). If I am using grace to defend the very thing grace teaches me to deny, I need to look honestly at what I am saying.
That does not mean a Christian never sins. John wrote, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). He also wrote, “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). The instruction is to avoid sin, and the provision when we sin is Jesus Christ. Both truths belong together.
There is a difference between a believer who falls into sin, acknowledges it, and seeks God’s forgiveness, and someone who defends it and refuses to turn from it. A struggle can be difficult and repeated. We should not pretend we can judge someone’s heart by counting how many times they have fallen. But we should not call a refusal to repent a struggle either. John says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Confession means acknowledging our sin, not finding a nicer name for it.
Peter knowingly denied Jesus. Afterward, he “went out, and wept bitterly” (Luke 22:62). His failure was serious, but he did not defend it as something grace allowed. His example should keep us from treating a believer’s terrible failure as proof that restoration is impossible. It should also keep us from treating sin as harmless.
Think of a person pulled from a burning house. Being rescued is no reason to walk back into the fire and insist it cannot hurt him. That illustration has limits, but the point is simple: why defend what Christ came to deliver us from? Jesus “gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity” (Titus 2:14).
So the answer is no. A Christian cannot rightly call unrepentant sin grace. We need God’s mercy when we fall, and we need to take His warnings seriously. “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy” (Proverbs 28:13).
How do we encourage someone who is struggling with sin without helping them make excuses for it?
Paul had just written about the abundance of God’s grace where sin abounded (Romans 5:20). He knew someone could twist that into an excuse to keep sinning. His answer was plain. Later in the same chapter he wrote, “What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid” (Romans 6:15). Being under grace does not make disobedience acceptable.
We do not earn salvation by cleaning ourselves up. Ephesians 2:8–9 says we are saved by grace through faith, “not of works, lest any man should boast.” But verse 10 also says we are “created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” We cannot use the first two verses to dismiss the next one. Good works do not purchase salvation, but God has not saved us so we can make peace with sin.
Titus tells us what grace actually teaches: “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world” (Titus 2:11–12). If I am using grace to defend the very thing grace teaches me to deny, I need to look honestly at what I am saying.
That does not mean a Christian never sins. John wrote, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). He also wrote, “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). The instruction is to avoid sin, and the provision when we sin is Jesus Christ. Both truths belong together.
There is a difference between a believer who falls into sin, acknowledges it, and seeks God’s forgiveness, and someone who defends it and refuses to turn from it. A struggle can be difficult and repeated. We should not pretend we can judge someone’s heart by counting how many times they have fallen. But we should not call a refusal to repent a struggle either. John says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Confession means acknowledging our sin, not finding a nicer name for it.
Peter knowingly denied Jesus. Afterward, he “went out, and wept bitterly” (Luke 22:62). His failure was serious, but he did not defend it as something grace allowed. His example should keep us from treating a believer’s terrible failure as proof that restoration is impossible. It should also keep us from treating sin as harmless.
Think of a person pulled from a burning house. Being rescued is no reason to walk back into the fire and insist it cannot hurt him. That illustration has limits, but the point is simple: why defend what Christ came to deliver us from? Jesus “gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity” (Titus 2:14).
So the answer is no. A Christian cannot rightly call unrepentant sin grace. We need God’s mercy when we fall, and we need to take His warnings seriously. “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy” (Proverbs 28:13).
How do we encourage someone who is struggling with sin without helping them make excuses for it?
