The Bible tells us that salvation is a free gift. Some professing Christians keep living happily in sin and seem to think that’s okay because we’re saved by grace and not by works. But the Bible also tells us that we’re not supposed to be greedy, sexually immoral, and so on, and that there are consequences for our sin.
How do these things go together? How can grace be a free gift when the Bible also says that Christians must obey God?
It grieves me that those who profess faith in Jesus Christ often live in ways that dishonor him. Sometimes, they don’t even seem to care. They’ll say, “I’m saved. I asked Jesus into my heart.” There’s a lot of confusion out there about this issue.
We need to begin by saying yes, our salvation is the work of God’s grace. The gospel is a free gift. The word gospel means good news. The good news is that Jesus died on the cross and rose again to save sinners. The gospel isn’t what we do. God’s salvation isn’t something we can merit by living a good life or trying our best. The good news isn’t that God gives us a little bit of grace and then we need to do our part. We’re not cooperating with God in the hope that finally, one day, we’ll earn our way to heaven. The Bible says salvation is all of grace (Rom. 3:21–26; Gal. 2:15–16; Eph. 2:8–10).
So, the gospel is the free gift of God’s Spirit. But those whose sins are forgiven, who have experienced the grace of God and believe in Christ, will hate their sin. The Christian life is a battle, and every day Christians struggle with sin in their thoughts, words, and actions. Sinless perfectionism isn’t something we’ll know in this life. And yet our faith leads—over time, through many ups and downs—to holiness. That’s called sanctification. God began to sanctify each one of us the day we believed the gospel of free grace. This transformation is the work of the Holy Spirit, who will “bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6).
The fight against sin, then, begins every day through repentance and trust in God’s free grace. If we’re getting beaten again and again by sin, we need to be reminded of God’s grace, our new life and holy status in Jesus Christ, and how we’re called by God to live according to this reality. The apostle Paul knew that some people would respond to his message of grace by saying, “Well, if it’s all of grace, we can do whatever we want. God will forgive us.” He wrote, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (Rom. 6:1).
If we’re Christians, we died to sin. We struggle against it. We’re still putting sin to death in our lives. But it’s defeated. In fact, our repentance puts it to death, as we turn each day in faith from sin to Christ, seeing ourselves and our lives in light of what Christ has done for us.
Some people, of course, are just deceived. They said the sinner’s prayer once, maybe many years ago, but they don’t go to church and don’t know much about Jesus. They say they’re Christians, but they just keep doing whatever they want because they don’t understand the gospel. They need to be taught the truth and called to true repentance.
But there are other people who are genuine believers and seem to be defeated by sin. They’re really struggling and are losing hope. They too need to repent, each day turning from sin and asking God for grace overcome the sin in their lives. But telling them their salvation depends on themselves won’t help. We need to come alongside them to plead with them and remind them of the grace of Christ, calling them to repent and press on.
This article is part of our Frequently Asked Questions series. Listen to Pastor Adriel answer this question on Core Radio here.
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