Will people just keep sinning if you preach too much grace?

Posted by on Jan 16, 2012 | 8 comments

After getting a few very similar messages, I wanted to follow up on yesterday’s sermon with a quick post today.  In yesterday’s “Killing Guilt” sermon, we saw from Romans 3 that Jesus is our true “propitiation” that satisfies [all] of God’s punishment for our sin and our true “justification” that secures God’s moment-by-moment declaration of “not guilty” for us.  Then I made this statement…

A lot of people ask the question, “Then how does God feel toward me when I sin?”  The answer is, “Exactly how he felt toward Jesus when he did not sin.”

Then last night and this morning it seemed like a few people all had the same concern with this statement. All four people voiced it differently, but all of their concerns could be stated like this…

“OK, I get grace and I believe it.  But won’t people just keep on sinning if you preach too much grace!?”

The assumption is that what a person who’s walking in sin needs is to be threatened with the law and made to feel guilty in order to get them to obey. First, I just want to say that all of these people – and you, if you have that same concern – have a good desire. They desire to see people glorify God and not harm others in how they live – a desire that The Bible is very much for!  But Biblically, saying “If you give people too much grace, they’ll stop obeying!” is like saying, “If you give people too much oxygen, they’ll stop breathing!“.  A few things from Scripture…

  • Grace always comes before obedience in the Bible.  The Bible is so rich and true that we learn not just from what it says, but from how it says what it says.  Have you ever noticed that there is not a single command (imperative) about what we should do in the New Testament that isn’t preceded by a reminder about what God has already done (indicative)?  Seriously. Not one. In every epistle in the New Testament, the readers are FIRST reminded that because of their union with Christ, God is going to accept them regardless of their track record. Only AFTER that are people instructed about how to honor God with their lives.
  • Grace – not law – motivates a person to obey.  This is particularly clear in Titus 2:11-12. Here’s what it says: “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age”.  So, what is it that motivates (trains) a person to avoid ungodliness and run toward godliness?  We would expect it to be the law, fear of punishment, threats of wrath, etc.  But it’s not.  It’s THE GRACE OF GOD, according to Titus 2:11-12!
  • Small thoughts of grace – not small thoughts of law – cause a person to disobey.  Check out 2 Peter 1:5-9 HERE.  It says that if godliness is absent from the life of a Christian, the reason ISN’T that they’re “not afraid of God enough” and it ISN’T that they don’t feel guilty enough.  It says, “For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.”  So why do Christians sin?  They sin when the captivating reality of God’s radical acceptance of sinners grows small before their eyes!

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THE LAW AND GRACE: TRACKS AND A TRAIN

The best analogy to understand this is to think about the law and grace like a train and its tracks.  According to Scripture, the law is like a set of train tracks that shows us where to go, giving us right direction to bring fame to Jesus with our lives.  Grace, then, is like the engine that powers the train to move, and you’re the train.  If a train doesn’t have an engine you can scream “THERE ARE THE TRACKS, STUPID!” all you want and it’s never going to move… and you’re kind of insane for thinking so.  This is essentially what we’re doing when we try and motivate someone – our spouse, our kids, friends and coworkers who are walking in sin, other Christians in our HG’s – by reminding them of the law and guilt when they sin.  We’re standing in front of an engine-less train screaming, “Go that way!“.
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The example that Scripture gives us – over and over and over and over and over – is to labor to set on display the CRAZY riches of God’s grace to us in Jesus, dazzling them with its awesome and heart-capturing brilliance, and entrancing them with God’s radical acceptance of sinners. THIS will be like putting a powerful engine in a train that now WANTS to race and THEN it’s time to show them the tracks.  In blunt summary, if you’re beating sinners over the head with their wrong-ness and hoping they’ll change, they’re never going to… and you’re kind of insane for thinking so.

8 Comments

  1. Scott Grissom | January 16, 2012 at 9:46 am

    I haven’t listened to the message frm yesterday so I can’t speak with a full understanding of the context. I can say, however, that as much as I value grace, I am quick to place limitations on it that are grounded in my own experience and expectation of life, other people, God, etc.

    I’m grateful that when I do this God just gives me some more grace…

  2. becky | January 16, 2012 at 10:14 am

    Praise God some are questioning and want to know more of this thing called “Grace”!! In my humble opinion,that means that God is opening many eyes to his deep, rich, divine,nature which ,BTW, is about to blow some minds. Most people trained in the law would either gloss over your sermon points, like air through a wind tunnel, or in their minds eye hold up their proverbial hands to it. Thank you Pastor Josh for preaching, with love, unashamedly and without fear the Grace of our God and King. Only when we grasp his VAST grace, through which the Cross is made possible, will we dwell deep in his will and experience the true joy in which the scriptures speak of on this earth.

    Now here is what happened to me yesterday…. I left feeling guilty b/c I rarely feel guilty, LOL. Maybe this is what your emails were referring to:)) So with that I say, thank you for your reflection on the Holy Spirit and conviction. I LOVED how you explained the way the Spirit works in us to convict and reprove.This is where the believer needs to live. It is much easier to hear from the Holy Spirit on correction when there isn’t a wall of self inflicting guilt for him to break through.

  3. Jesse Hughes | January 16, 2012 at 5:55 pm

    I grew up in a church that taught that it is possible for a Christian to lose their salvation. One of the arguments given to support this false doctrine was that “If people believe that they can live in sin and still be saved, they will have no reason to repent.” I suppose that this mindset is similar to thinking that we can over emphasize grace to the point that someone will think he or she can sin without spiritual consequences. I say “spiritual” consequences for who does not understand that sin destroys. It destroys our bodies, marriages, friendships, etc.

    Romans 6, Galatians 5, the passages you mentioned above, as do many others address the question of whether it’s “okay” to sin after we have been saved by God’s grace.

    Josh, I have to admit that I did have thoughts about how probably you could have balanced your sermon by quoting from one of these passages, but then I realized you don’t have time in one sermon to say everything there is to say about one subject. I am so glad that The Bridge provides a forum for people to ask questions when they don’t understand something.

    Lastly. It sees to be a difficult thing for us hardheaded human beings to believe that there is nothing we can do to earn or to keep the love of Christ and the salvation of our souls. We are so full of pride. In the back of our minds we want to think we are at least partially worthy of God’s grace. So, to think that God looks at us as innocent and righteous when the facts scream otherwise somehow doesn’t seem right. It isn’t fair that Jesus suffered unspeakable torment and we go unpunished. But fair has nothing to do with it.

  4. Marty Duren | January 17, 2012 at 7:37 am

    Josh-
    Echoing what Jesse said about not having enough time in a single sermon to address everything, Romans 6:1, 2 are on the horizon for you. Paul nails this every issue of “Can we continue to sin?” by pointing out another reality. We are dead to sin.

    Our motivation is grace holds the power to overcome sin, not the permission to commit it. Sin holds no sway for a corpse.

    • Josh Howerton | January 17, 2012 at 8:47 am

      Yes, I totally agree with this, Marty. Did you think the blog post undermined that somehow?

    • Josh Howerton | January 17, 2012 at 9:54 am

      PS – I think I see the disconnect here.

      Grace is not just “pardon” from sin penalty, but “power” to overcome sin’s dominion in our lives. That fact is true, but not motivating. If I look at a Christian who wants to sin and say, “Hey bro, grace holds the power to overcome sin so you should stop!”, that’s true but does not *motivate* that person to want to turn from sin and toward righteousness. So what does?

      What I’m getting at in this blog post is a corollary to what you’re saying. I’m answering the question, “How do I grow grace in my life so that its power is increasingly effectual over my heart?” The answer Scripture gives is to stare into the objective reality of God’s radical acceptance of sinners in Christ in such a way that his kindness entrances my heart, leading me to repentance (Rom 2:4). “Be startled by grace!” is Scripture’s plea to sinners that will *motivate* them to turn from sin and toward righteousness.

      Does that make sense? Grace is power. But how do I feed and enlarge that power? By believing grace at a deeper and deeper level in such a way that my heart falls under the enchantment of God’s radical kindness to me in Christ.

  5. Marty Duren | January 17, 2012 at 9:02 am

    Not at all. I’m reaffirming your position. Not very clearly, it seems…