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. 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 a new creation by faith. I am forgiven by faith. I appropriate the blood of Christ by faith. I simply believe that He has done what He said He would and I receive it by faith. 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.
I hate sin, reject even the thought of sin, I do not identify myself in any way shape or form with sin; God forbid! It would be the grossest contradiction to my faith in Christ to continue in sin! I identify myself with Jesus. The doctrine of grace and justification by faith in Christ results in the promotion of holiness, not sin.
The apostle John states the truth of the matter, “Those who continue to sin do not know the Lord and the truth is not in them”. “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 #runyourrace
To Learn More About Pastor Crystal please visit the Leadership Page
