Do you continue to watch pornography because you believe in cheap grace? Do you think, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer puts it, that the essence of God’s grace is that your account has been paid in advance, and that you can now have whatever you want in the store without paying? Do you believe that, because the cost of God’s grace is infinite, the possibilities for you to use it and spend it are equally infinite?
In other words, do you believe that your sins of sexual immorality are already paid for and taken care of by the infinite sacrifice of Christ, and that you can continue in your habitual sexual sin because God’s grace towards you is guaranteed? Then I have bad news for you. Read it for yourself in the letter of Paul the Apostle to the Romans, chapter six:
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”
Romans 6:1-2
Cheap grace was an issue in Paul’s day. Christians in Rome thought they could carry on sinning because God’s grace would cover it, no problem. So Paul set them straight by questioning them on their belief. “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” asks Paul. And then he answers his own question with an emphatic, “Certainly not!” If you want to understand the weight of this emphatic “no,” read this passage in other Bible translations.
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
- “God forbid.” King James Bible
- “May it never be!” New International Version
- “Far from it!” New American Standard Bible
- “Absolutely not!” Holman Christian Standard Bible
- “Of course not!” International Standard Version
- “By no means.” Webster’s Bible Translation
Do you get the idea? You are not to continue watching pornography, lusting after women, committing adultery, and committing fornication, expecting grace to cover your sins. You are not to continue in sin that grace may abound towards you. This is absolutely, positively, certainly something that you are not to do by any means, ever. Why not? Because, if you are a Christian, you are dead to sin. You have died with Christ, been buried with Him, and risen again with Him to walk in newness of life. The grace that saved you is also the grace that keeps you. It cost Christ His life.
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