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According to Strong's Concordance Greek Dictionary; GRACE
#5485 means a benefit, favour or gift. Grace simply means, that Christ has paid the penalty for our sins on our behalf through
the gift of His sacrifice. Since the penalty for our sin has been paid as a free gift, we are no longer required to pay
that penalty for ourselves. There is one small requirement: WE MUST REPENT Acts 2:38, before that gift will be
given. To REPENT means to CHANGE, to be sorry enough to stop sinning! Now sin is the transgression of the law 1
Joh 3:4. To stop sinning, we must STOP TRANSGRESSING THE LAW!
Grace or a pardon, covers
sins REPENTED of. It does not justify continuing in sin Rom 6:1-2 and Romans 6:15-16. Also read the entire
book of James, as well as 1, 2 and 3 John. We MUST stop sinning and become like Christ, who had no sin.
If you are pardoned by a judge for some crime, does that then, give you the right to go out and repeat the crime at will?
Of course not! Why try to use such ridiculous reasoning to try and avoid doing God's will?
God's
will is; that we keep His commandments. The commandments of God are an expression of what God wants us to do. The
commandments are an expression of His will. They are His instructions, concerning what He expects of us, and how
He wants us to behave.
How is it, that some people dare to pray to the Father, Your will be done and then REFUSE
TO DO HIS WILL THEMSELVES? To do this is to MOCK GOD!
It is written that, sin is the transgression of
the law 1 Joh 3:4. If we break God's law, if we transgress His commandments, we have sinned. Now Paul tells
us that if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains NO MORE SACRIFICE FOR
SINS, Heb 10:26-31. There is NO GRACE, NO FORGIVENESS, NO SACRIFICE WITHOUT REPENTANCE.
REPENTANCE means to be SORRY enough to CHANGE BEHAVIOUR. When you correct your child and he is sorry and resolves not
to repeat his error, do you not forgive him? If that child repeats his folly again and again and says sorry without
any intention of stopping his bad behaviour, he is just mouthing words and is not really sorry. In fact, he is a liar
for claiming to be sorry when he is not. This kind of behaviour reflects a complete lack of respect for the parent,
and his judgement. WE ARE THE CHILDREN OF GOD, He will not respect such behaviour any more than we would. He will NOT
BE MOCKED. Why; Because He loves us. He is love, His Word is love and His commandments are love. He loves
all of us. His commandments reveal how to love Him and one another. They reveal how to avoid harming ourselves
or one another. For the Law is Just and Holy and Good Rom 7:12.
Yes, we are saved by grace which is the free
gift that has been given by Jesus Christ, who gave Himself in our place, making possible the forgiveness of God. No,
we are not saved by works, since no works can make right, those things that we have done wrong. Grace is the forgiveness
of those things that we have done wrong, our sins. Such grace, such forgiveness, is made possible because Jesus Christ paid
the penalty for our sins in our place. Nevertheless we make a MOCKERY of GRACE if we continue to do those things that
required such a gift of GRACE in the first place. Indeed, if we use the forgiveness of God as an excuse to remain
in sin, we make a MOCKERY of the sacrifice of JESUS CHRIST, who gave His life for us, so that we could be freed from
the burden of sin. Rom 6:1-2 and Rom 6:15-16.
Jesus Christ was nailed to the stake, He was made sin for us 2 Cor
5:21, paying the penalty that we owed for our wickedness. The list of the commandments that we had broken, our indictment,
was nailed to the stake with Him, blotting out the list of our crimes against God, our sins Col 2:14. His sinless life
and death paid for every sin on that list. If we then continue to break those laws, we make a mockery of what he
did for us. WE MUST STOP DOING THOSE THINGS THAT REQUIRED SUCH A TERRIBLE SACRIFICE.
If we do not STOP, there is no longer a sacrifice remaining for us Heb 10:26; and we
are doomed to pay the penalty that we have so richly earned.
What then was done away, by the sacrifice? Why
those sins the we have REPENTED of and resolved with the help of God, not to repeat. The Old Covenant was ended
by the death of one of the parties of that Covenant, Jesus Christ, who was the God of the Old Covenant before He became flesh
Joh 1. The Levitical Priesthood ended and was replaced by the Eternal Priesthood of the Melchisedek order, the
whole book of Hebrews. The WILL OF GOD REMAINS. GOD DOES NOT CHANGE Mal 3:6, therefore His will, His desire
for us, His Commandments DO NOT CHANGE!
The idea, that because a penalty has been paid for past lawbreaking,
it somehow justifies continuing to break the law, is simply a rather pathetic attempt at self-justification. There is
NO REMOVAL OF SIN EXCEPT BY DEATH Heb 9:22, for the wages of sin is death Rom 6:23. Either we STOP our commandment
breaking, which is sin and accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to ATONE for our sins, or we must die for our own sins.
The penalty MUST BE PAID and we MUST STOP doing those things that require such a penalty! Those who do not stop will
be destroyed Rev 20:15, for ONLY those who keep ALL THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD shall be given access to ETERNAL LIFE Rev 22:14.
"Only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient, believes." [Dietrich Bonhoeffer]
"Cheap grace is the theology that expects the
benefits of grace without the sacrifice of obedience." [Dietrich Bonhoeffer]
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