Sin and Grace

The Sunday morning message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish.  The Bible verses used are Romans 6:1-18.

            We are saved, not by our good works, but by faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.  If we believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior, it does not matter what we have done.  God, by God’s grace, will forgive all of our sins.  More than that, it will be like our sins never happened.  Even though we are not truly righteous, God’s grace will cover our sins.  We will be treated as righteous, and we will receive salvation and eternal life.

            Now, all that is absolutely true, and in fact it’s the basis of Christian faith.  So, then, why do we talk so much in church about the things God calls us to do?  Why do we talk so much about loving our neighbor?  Why do we talk so much about treating others as we would like to be treated?  Why do we talk so much about needing to forgive others?  If God’s grace covers all of our sins, if it does not matter what we have done as long as we believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior, then what difference does all this other stuff make?

            That’s one of the questions the Apostle Paul was facing when he wrote his letter to the Romans.  People basically said, well, if God’s grace is going to cover our sins, why can we not just go on sinning and depend on God’s grace?  In fact, we can sin all the more, because all that does is give God more chances to use God’s grace.  What could be wrong with giving God the chance to use His grace?

            Now, you say it like that, and maybe it sounds kind of silly.  But people were seriously making that argument.  And in fact, we still make that argument, or at least a variation of it.  No one puts it that bluntly, of course.  And in fact, we may not even say it at all.  But you can tell it by the way we live.  If our Christian faith does not make us change our behavior, if our lives are not particularly different from what they would be if we were not Christians, then we’re basically saying what people were saying in Paul’s time.  We’re saying it does not really matter what we do.  God will forgive us, God’s grace will cover us, and we’ll be fine.  So we don’t need to change anything.  We’ll just keep living the way we have been living.

            Paul says it does not work that way.  In fact, Paul says that if we truly believe in Jesus Christ, we have been set free from sin.  We should no longer have any desire to sin, because sin no longer has any control over us.  Paul says that before we knew Jesus, we were slaves to sin.  But now we’re not.  Our faith in Jesus sets us free from that.

            It’s simple, right?  Well, yeah, it is simple.  But that does not make it easy.  Because I know a lot of people who believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior, but I don’t know anyone who is totally free from sin.  I don’t know anyone who no longer has any desire to sin, because of their faith in Jesus.  Most definitely including me.

            We are all tempted to sin.  Each and every one of us.  Even Jesus was tempted to sin–you may remember in Matthew Chapter Four how Jesus was tempted by Satan.  Now Jesus did not give in to that temptation.  But he was Jesus.  He was the divine Son of God.  I’m not Jesus.  And neither are you.  We’re tempted to sin, too.  But, because we are weak, fallible, imperfect human beings, who have a sinful nature, we sometimes give in to that temptation.

            That’s why repentance is so important.  That’s another argument the people of Paul’s time were making, and it’s an argument we make sometimes, too.  If we believe in Jesus as the Savior, our sins are forgiven and we go on to salvation and eternal life, so why do we need to repent of our sins?  After all, God knows we’re weak.  God knows we’re imperfect.  God knows that better than we do, because God made us.  Because God knows us so well, God will forgive our sins, so we don’t need to repent of them.

            It does not work that way, either.  Why?  Well, for one thing, Jesus told us to repent.  In fact, it was the first thing Jesus said when he started His ministry.  In Matthew Chapter Four, right after Jesus is tempted by Satan, we’re told, “From that time on, Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’”  Again, when Jesus started His ministry, the first thing he did was tell people to repent.  So I think repentance must be pretty important.

            The thing is, I think sometimes we don’t really understand what repentance is.  It’s more than just asking for forgiveness of our sins.  Repentance is a turning away.  It’s a turning away from sin, but it’s even more than that.  It’s a turning away from ourselves, and instead turning to God.

            When you think about it, most of our sins–maybe all of our sins–are rooted in our selves.  Selfishness.  Self-centeredness.  Self-righteousness.  Doing what we want to do, saying what we want to say, regardless of how that might affect someone else and even regardless of how, long-term, it will affect ourselves.  Wanting to have our way, regardless of the consequences.  Convincing ourselves that we are always right, and that anyone who disagrees is not only wrong but stupid and/or evil.  That’s where pretty much all of our sins come from–focusing on ourselves rather than focusing on others or focusing on God.

            Paul says that, when we do that, we are slaves to sin.  And, he says, when we are slaves to sin, that leads to death.  

            You see, if we truly believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior, if we truly believe He was and is the divine Son of God, then we need to live our lives the way He told us to live them.  If we don’t, we cannot really say that we believe in Him, can we?  I mean, how can we honestly say we believe in Jesus if we feel free to just ignore what he told us?   If we believe in Jesus, we need to do the things Jesus told us to do.

            Paul says we are either slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness.  He does not seem to leave room for any middle ground.  He does not allow for us to do both.  We are either slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness.  As Bob Dylan put it, you’re gonna have to serve somebody.  It may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.

            When we give our lives to Christ, when we say we believe in Jesus as the Savior, we are saying we will become slaves to righteousness.  Not because we’re trying to earn our way into heaven.  But because that is what God deserves from us.

            Think about what God did for us.  God saw human beings.  God saw human beings living only for the self.  He saw human beings living in destructive ways, destructive of others and destructive of themselves.  God had offered to bless human beings.  God had offered to take care of them and give them everything they needed.  And human beings refused His offer and went their own way.  And the result was that human beings were living in selfishness and sin.  And that left human beings in misery.

            God could have just turned His back on humanity.  But instead, God offered us a way out.  God offered us the chance for salvation and eternal life through belief in the divine Son, Jesus Christ.  God sent His Son to earth to teach us the right way to live.  To show us the right way to live.  And to take the punishment we should receive for our sins, so that we can have the chance to go to heaven for eternity.

            That’s an incredible gift God has given us.  It’s a gift we don’t deserve.  It’s a gift we could never earn.  Because of that gift, we should want to serve God.  We should want to be slaves to God’s righteousness.  God deserves that from us.  For all that God has done for us, God deserves to have us be faithful to Him.  God deserves to have us serve Him.  God deserves to have us show love to Him.  Again, it’s not that we’re trying to earn our way into heaven–our faith does that.  But our faith also requires us to show our gratitude to God for all God has done for us.  Our faith requires us to serve God’s righteousness because God deserves that from us.

            Again, we will not do it perfectly.  We remain imperfect, flawed human beings with a sinful nature.  Even if we determine to be slaves to righteousness, even slaves make mistakes sometimes.  But when we do make mistakes, when we do sin, we need to repent of our sins and start again.  

We are saved by faith in Jesus Christ and by God’s incredible, loving grace.  That grace truly does cover our sins.  But it does not give us a license to go on sinning.  Instead, God’s grace sets us free from slavery to sin, and allows us to be slaves to righteousness.  It allows us to stop focusing on ourselves, and instead focus on others and on God.  Not because we’re trying to earn our way into heaven.  Because that’s what God deserves from us.

The holy, righteous, perfect God has blessed us.  He has offered us the incredible gift of salvation and eternal life.  Let’s accept that gift, and humbly give God the faith and love God deserves.