Licence to Sin?

Tuesday, 24th July 2007

Warning: this blog entry has "extremely disturbing" content. Please read with care and caution.

I got my copy of Pastor Prince's "Destined to Reign" and will be sharing nuggets of God's truth over the next few days (maybe weeks).

So those who are concerned with "extremely disturbing" content, you have been warned :-)

One of the concerns of legalistic people is that an overemphasis on grace will lead to licentiousness.

But frankly, does anyone need a "licence" to sin? Man, by his fallen nature, is sinful. He does not need a licence to sin, as it were. He goes ahead and sins anyway, whether there is a "licence" or not. Even from a very young age, you see that babies are selfish and self-serving. They do not need to be taught, because this is in their very nature.

Receiving grace does not make one go out and sin more. On the contrary, it is being under the law that keeps people in a sin trap, unable to break free. In 1 Cor 15:56, Paul says "the strength (or power) of sin is the law".

So the fear that preaching grace will cause people to go out and sin is not based on the Bible, but one's own prejudices. I may even go so far as to say that it is the lie of the devil that we have to tamper or mix grace with law. Like mentioned previously, this is tantamount to spiritual adultery, like Paul describes in Romans 7.

In Pastor Prince's book Destined to Reign, he recites a testimony of a person by the name of Victor King on pages 46-47. In that testimony, Victor says, "It is a lie that when God's grace is preached, people will go out and sin more. In fact, it was His grace that changed a wretch like me". Victor was born into a Christian family, but grew up to become a gangster, drinker, smoker, womaniser and pornography addict. It was only when grace was preached to him, that his life was gradually transformed.

So rather than speculating about the effect of preaching grace, let's hear it from a horse's mouth! Grace did not make him sin more. Instead, it made him realise how much Jesus loves him, and that knowledge made him want to sin less, and to reciprocate that love in return.

I shall talk about the"over emphasis on grace" in a future blog entry.