GRACE AND SECURITY

SALVATION BY GRACE AND SECURITY

“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” Rom. 6:1 “God forbid.”

“What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.” Rom. 6:15

Does the doctrine of salvation by grace encourage men to go on sinning, while thinking they maintain their salvation? For the true believer, the suggestion is unthinkable. Cf. Rom. 6:1, 15. For the true believer, victory over sin comes through grace, cf. Rom. 6:14. “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”

For the true believer, grace, leads away from sin, not into sin. Titus 2:11-12. “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.”

But suppose the professed believer does presume upon the grace of God, by continuing to sin with a high hand, what should we think?  Cf. 2 Pet. 2:20-22 “For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.”

Where a dog is always a dog and a sow is always a sow - no change in nature, and 1 John 3:9 “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” Here again it teaches those who have been born of God do not live in a practice of sin. These verses only prove that such a person has not yet experienced the results of grace, who is a mere professing believer in whom no change of nature has taken place, and who therefore is interpreting everything about grace in terms of the unregenerate flesh.