GOD FORBID! “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? GOD FORBID. By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” Romans 6:1-2
Antinomians taught and still teach that you can continue to live in sin and inherit eternal life. Many preachers today refuse to even talk about sin, let alone tell their congregations the consequences of returning to a life of sin after having been set free. In most churches, you are being told that you have to continue to sin, God is ok with it because we are under grace, and God doesn’t even see it anymore. The apostle Paul harshly refutes this false doctrine.
Paul speaks of two great root-ideas, justification by faith and union with Christ. The connecting-link which unites them is faith. Faith in Christ, and especially in the death of Christ, is the instrument of justification. Faith is simple and childlike. Faith takes God at His Word. It needs no coercing to believe, faith just believes.
I am born again of the Holy Spirit and become a new creation by faith in His finished work. I am forgiven by faith. I appropriate the blood of Christ by faith. I believe that He has done what He said He would and I receive it by faith. This is all the work of God and I must appropriate His death and resurrection by faith. There is no other way. All have sinned and all fall short. My own works of righteousness are filthy menstrual rags.
“But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
Romans 3:21-26
Yet, carried a degree further, faith involves an actual identification with the Redeemer Himself. Now, I must identify myself with Jesus. I have a work to do. Since I have repented and turned away from my old man, I must crucify my flesh daily. I must take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ and renew my mind to His Word. I must come out of the world and it’s wicked ways and identify myself with Jesus who went outside the camp (Heb 13:12-13).
I hate sin, reject even the thought of sin, I do not identify myself in any way shape or form with sin. God forbid! As the psalmist said, “Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way” (Ps 119:104)
“Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God.
As God has said: “I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people.” Therefore “Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.” “I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the Lord Almighty.””
II Corinthians 6:14-18
It would be the grossest contradiction to my faith in Christ to continue a life of sin. I identify myself with Jesus. The doctrine of grace and justification by faith in Christ results in the promotion of holiness, not sin. Please read that again. The apostle John states the truth of the matter,
“Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.”
I John 3:4-9
“Let the thought be abhorred, of continuing in sin that grace may abound. True believers are dead to sin, therefore they ought not to follow it. No man can at the same time be both dead and alive. He is a fool who, desiring to be dead unto sin, thinks he may live in it.” Matthew Henry
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