February 22
“And by the fear of the Lord one keeps away from evil.” (Proverbs 16:6b)
Now we will begin going through the twenty four principles on Overcoming Temptation that are described in the booklet by that name which is viewable and available for download on the websites www.overcomingtemptation.org or www.overcomingtemptation.net . The first twelve are centered around activities related to drawing near to God and purifying our hearts. The second twelve are focused on activities related to resisting temptation when is rears its head.
I personally think that one of the main reasons we allow ourselves to sin is that we don’t think the consequences will be all that bad. We believe in a God of grace and mercy, One Who is slow to anger and doesn’t pour out all of His wrath on His children the way He does with unbelievers. We think that we will get a pass, of sorts, and if we sin we can quickly repent and make everything good. This is one of the arguments against grace, that if God’s grace was really free, if all of our sins are covered forever in Christ, then we could keep on sinning and with just a prayer or two repent and everything will be okay again with God.
Some would argue that the best way to keep Christians from sinning is to teach that God’s grace is not free, it must be earned, and if we keep on sinning we can lose our salvation. They teach that salvation must be earned and kept up by continued good performance. In this way, people would fear God and be afraid of sinning against Him, because they would be afraid of being sent to hell itself.
I certainly do not believe that the scriptures teach that we have to do good works to earn and maintain our salvation. I think that doctrine is not only not supported by scripture (although some misinterpret and distort some scriptures to try to make the case for this) but flies in the face of many other scriptures. We are saved by grace alone, God’s free gift that He generously and permanently gives to all who believe in Jesus, and we are maintained in Christ by His grace and His working in us. But having said this, I do agree with the objections that people raise about grace, that it can lead to a laxity with sin and a laziness to root it out. They are correct, that God is patient and long-suffering; He does not strike us down every time we sin, nor does He give us anything close to what we deserve. He is love, and He demonstrates this in numerous ways, each and every day, even when we sin against Him.
In short, when we really understand the grace of God, it is a great temptation to take advantage of it, and I for one am guilty of this on a number of occasions. So what is the key to walking in the wonderful security and grace that Jesus has secured for us while maintaining humility before God and a healthy fear of the Lord? How can we ensure that we don’t let His grace become in our minds a license to sin that we repeatedly take advantage of? We will look at this in more detail tomorrow.