I remember when I was 18 years old, receiving great favor from a Judge who really should have taken away my driver’s license.  I had been pulled over twice by the same officer in the same spot for doing the same thing in two days back to back. That was on top of all the other citations I had accumulated until then.  The judge gave me mercy.

Interesting though.  The favor the Judge gave me did not mean my actions were no longer wrong.  It meant I was not being sentenced according to those actions in that instance.

I clearly understood that to continue driving the way I did to end up before the judge in the first place would bring me right back before him again.  My driving habit needed to change.  The judge did not order that all speed limit signs be changed to a speed of my preference and that all policemen stop issuing tickets for illegal driving.  He told me to begin driving civilized.

Being forgiven of something doesn’t make the wrong right.  It doesn’t make sin good.  The beauty of justification in Christ is that even though we were justly guilty of sin, by turning to Jesus as our Advocate, the things we could justly be punished for are wiped away.  They are not transformed into being thought of now as being good. They are simply removed so that we are not judged for them.

Some speak of grace and mercy in a way that leads someone to imagine that sin was turned into something good.  That somehow wrongdoing is now our friend.  Such an idea is absurd.  To think such is to be mistaken about who God is and what He is truly like.

Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, we also should walk in newness of life.

Just as some are mistaken about how grace works concerning sin and wrongdoing, others are mistaken when they read this passage and think it means we must double down on instructing others about right and wrong.  But is that really what is being communicated here?  When you look at it and consider what it is saying, this passage speaks about who we are now in Christ and why the idea of being committed to sin is way out of step with who we are now.

It tells us that sin will not cause grace to increase on our behalf.  Sinning is not what keeps grace around, either.  We are meant to understand that we died to sin so that the power of it would no longer rule us.  That old self that was so in tune with self-interest and sin died and was buried with Jesus.  Just as Jesus was raised from the dead, we were spiritually raised from death and were given new life in Christ.  We are free now to live according to the new life we have received.

The new life is not given so that we can go back under the law and keep it better than before so that we can remain in the favor of God.  The Spirit now leads us, and He sanctifies us.

The new life gives us a different drive, view of life, and set of motivations and desires.  Sin nature is no longer in the driver’s seat doing as it pleases.  Grace has come, the Father has bestowed upon us His favor, and we are empowered to live according to the life Jesus has given to us.  Let’s not be mistaken about what grace does for us.  Let’s understand how favor works to our benefit without making sin attractive.  Let’s also not be mistaken into thinking that grace just gave us a fresh start to begin trying to keep the law all over again.  Let’s allow grace to reidentify us as who God says we are and begin to walk in what He says we can be.