Throw off the old man....every single carnal bit of him

How many well-meaning, professing Christians preach "GRACE" while deliberately ignoring or without understanding Romans 6?

How many churches deliberately skip over that chapter in their teaching, pushing their flocks off the straight & narrow path that stands high above the destructive ditches of legalism on one side and license on the other?

Christ did not die on the cross so that we could live like pagans, committing every sin imaginable, worshiping the lusts of the flesh and the idols of this world instead of the one true God, all with the expectation that we can carry Jesus' blood in our pockets as our "get-out-of-hell free" card. He didn't die so that by sinning more, we could make His grace increase. That is backwards, heretical thinking that makes no sense. 

 His grace is infinite on it's own, and it's purpose is to draw us closer to God, not to push us into increasingly destructive behaviors. He died to make us holy. He died to FREE us from sin's grip, to lead us to REPENTANCE, to fill us with His Spirit, and to change our heart's desires, so we could live for Him, not for ourselves. He died to open a way for us to have fellowship with the all Holy God. To treat His sacrifice as a gift that merely removes the eternal consequences our sin deserves is as foolish as thinking abortion will remove the consequences of our own disobedience. 

As I was stewing over the liberal church's twisting of this Biblical truth, I came across this excellent post, "Loving Jesus but Living in Sin" by Melissa over at Loving Jesus Blog. She balances grace and truth so much better than I do. I highly recommend it.  

Here are a few teaser quotes from her post:

• "My sweet Jesus was not nailed to a cross for me to periodically acknowledge that there is always someone there who loves me, while still living in my sin."

• "My sweet Jesus was not nailed to a cross, killed and crucified, for me to, in vain, praise and utter His name as Lord and Savior while denying Him and continually nailing Him back to the cross with my sin."

• "My sweet Jesus was crucified to set me FREE from my sin."

• "God’s heart for your repentance from sin isn’t a heart of a dictator, of an authority who makes demands of you to conform to his way.  No, no, my sister, God’s heart behind his desire for you to repent is because your sin is going to kill you. He loves you."

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Romans 6What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ² By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ³ Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶ For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,^[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— ⁷ because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
⁸ Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹ For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. ¹⁰ The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
¹¹ In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. ¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. ¹³ Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. ¹⁴ For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

Slaves to Righteousness

¹⁵ What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶ Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. ¹⁸ You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
¹⁹ I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. ²⁰ When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. ²¹ What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! ²² But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in^[b] Christ Jesus our Lord.