Is Grace a License To Kill or Sin?

I have seen a new philosophy or “norm” going around in the body of Christ and it sort of reminds me of playing basketball and the defensive player slams into you on the court, and then they yell, “Foul, foul.” So we have Christians slamming into each other and then they yell “Foul/foul – you have to forgive me brother.”

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?  By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Romans 6:2

It goes back to Christians should adopt the physician’s Hippocratic Oath, do no harm:

Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. Romans 13:10

Dead people have no rights.  I had a number of creditors calling me up when my husband died about his bills in his name, and with not enough assets to open up an estate those credit cards/collectors had to eat the debt.   They would tell me on the phone that his credit rating was going to bad and I told them, “I really don’t think he is dead now he cares about his credit rating.”  If we are dead to sin, it is a “final” matter, we just have renew our minds that we are new creatures in Christ Jesus.

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. Galatians 6:15

I know for any debts with man in my name, the Bible says that I am to pay them:

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.  Romans 13:8

That is what is neat about Jesus is that he paid the penalty of my sin with God so I don’t have to pay for them!

Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. Hebrews 13:3

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:29

So a better question is why do you want to sin?  The only reason I can think that you want to commit sin is that you have one foot in the world and one foot with God and then when you get double-minded is then you even want to sin.   If you are “submitting” to God ---resisting the devil and he will flee from you and so will avoid the temptation to sin.

So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. James 4:7

You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. James 4:4

There are people who can drag you down to sin and Jesus “warned” about wolves in sheep clothes.  He talked about if we stumble another person we should just go put a rock around our neck and throw ourselves into the sea!  It’s sort of like how Jonah was causing almost everyone to perish in the boat so he told the ship crew to throw him overboard.

It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. Luke 17:2

Paul warned that in the last days people would be covenant breakers:

Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Romans 1:31

Robert Frost wrote: The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep. “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”

My husband and I kept our covenant (promise) of marriage/have and to hold until death do we part to each other that we made before God.  Sometimes that is an impossibility to live peaceably with another person and we can ask God to forgive us for breaking our covenant (Roman 12:18).  There are certain lines I refused to cross in marriage and that is marital infidelity.  I can see why people fall into that trap, but even though I was in a loveless marriage in the past, I poured myself into my children and the ministry.  Jesus said that divorce and remarriage is adultery is what he taught so the Lord lead me when I went through a divorce to pray that he forgives me for committing adultery.  I don’t see any conditions in there if you are at fault in the marriage or not.  God takes promises (covenants) very seriously.

Above all, my brothers, do not swear--not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your "Yes" be yes, and your "No," no, or you will be condemned. James 5:12

"Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.  Luke 16:18

Saul broke a promise/covenant and it brought famine upon the land during the reign of David:

During the reign of David, there was a famine for three successive years; so David sought the face of the Lord. The Lord said, "It is on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death." 2 Samuel 21:1

Commentary: In the days of Joshua - more than 400 years before David's time - Israel swore not to harm the Gibeonites, a neighboring tribe (Joshua 9). God expected Israel to keep their promise, even though the Gibeonites tricked Israel into making the agreement. Saul's crime was not only in the killing of the Gibeonites but also in breaking this ancient and important oath.

ii. This emphasizes many important principles:

God expects us to keep our promises

God expects nations to keep their promises

Time does not diminish our obligation to promises

God's correction may come a long time after the offense

iii. If God has such a high expectation that men keep their covenants, we can have great confidence that He will keep His covenant with us. There is an emerald rainbow around the throne of God to proclaim His remembrance to His everlasting covenant with His people.

God’s grace follows repentance. 

Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance. Romans 2:4

"God overlooked people's ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him. Acts 17:30

and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. Luke 24:47

I have learned the hard way to forgive people in my heart, but that does not mean I can reconcile every relationship.  I find that without repentance reconciliation does not work because the person you forgive will go out and do the same thing over and over, similar to the book of Hosea. If they were unfaithful once some will repent or some will continue in a pattern of marital unfaithfulness.  That does not mean after several episodes of unfaithfulness or going through several ex-wives/ex-husbands, they don’t eventually come around.

That may explain that although David did receive forgiveness of God in the Bible, there was a still a consequence for his action as far as his first baby still died. It’s sort of like there are consequences of contacting a venereal disease.  You can be a Christian and still have consequences for a wrong action.   Sometimes without consequences people do not change “unfortunately.”  

Jesus told the woman caught in the adultery----go and sin no more.  We know that she was going to sin again, but not a habitual life of sin.

"No one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin." John 8:11

I mess up as God’s kid like my children make mistakes.  The blood of Jesus is there to cleanse me from all sin and unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9

Oh the power of the blood of Jesus!

Here is a good commentary:   

And Nathan said to David, "The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die."

a. The Lord also has put away your sin: God's forgiveness was immediate. God did not demand a time of probation. You shall not die meant that David would be spared the penalty for adultery commanded under the Law of Moses.

i. It was because David believed the word, You are the man! That he could also believe the word, The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.

b. You have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme: David did this by doing just what those enemies of the Lord would do in the same situation. What David did was not unusual among the kings and rulers of the world, but it should be unusual among God's people.

i. "Hitherto all the king's care had been to conceal his sin from the world, - which yet he could not do with all his skill, for the enemies had got it by the end." (Trapp)

c. The child who is born to you shall surely die: There is a difference in judgment for sin and judgment by sin. God forgave David's sin, but He would not shield him from every consequence of the sin. David must face the consequences of his sin, beginning with the death of the child born by Bathsheba.

i. This shows that God didn't only want to heal David of the guilt of his sin; He also wanted to heal David of the presence of this sin. We never read of David committing adultery again because God used these chastisements to drive such impurities far from David.

ii. "Long before his sin with Bathsheba, there were various indications as to David’s special liability to temptation. That sin only threw out upon the surface the evil that was always within him; and now God, having is him see that the deadly cancer is there, begins to use the knife to cut it out of him." (Spurgeon)