In Ephesians 2:5 we find the following message: Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)  Three teachings are in the verse to the Christians. One, they were dead in their sins; two they were made alive in Christ: and three, they are saved by grace. The last one is a continuing condition of salvation providing one continues in faith and shows that faith by continuing to stay away from the old sinful practices. The old practices are where the disagreement most generally begins and it involves a misunderstanding about the limits of grace.

The words “being dead in sin” mean that those in that condition have no hope of any salvation. Paul told the Gentiles in verses 12-13: That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: 13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.  The verses pertained to the Gentiles who weren’t under the law, but who were included in the new covenant put in force by God through Christ. Until they obeyed the gospel, they were dead in their sins. The same holds true for today. In Christ they were quickened (made alive to God, raised up) and thus saved when they obeyed the gospel.

God saves us through his grace and that means that he declared his love for us even though we don’t deserve it. As Paul wrote in Romans 5:8: But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  That is grace extended in Christ to a lost creation who needed salvation.

Grace is operative in the believer’s life as long as he or she does as John wrote in I John 1:7: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. The teaching is the continual cleansing from sin as long as one behaves according to Christ’s teaching and lives in the new redeemed life. Thus we see the limit of grace which is continuing in the faith by living for Christ.

There are those who claim that sinful practices aren’t damaging to the believer and his or her salvation. Nothing could be farther from the truth.  In 2 Peter 2:20-22, the message is plain and gives lie to those who deny the grace of God by continuing in sin: 20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. 21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. 22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

Paul asks a question in Romans 6:3 after explaining to the Romans the nature of grace being greater than the power of sin. 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? His answer is in verse 2: God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? The answer is that we can’t and be saved.

Grace has a limit and it doesn’t include sinful living. It requires that the believer live as a new creature. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17) A new way of life is taught by staying away from the sin of the old life. By so doing, the believer honors Christ and the limits of grace, giving glory to God for the great salvation he freely gave to a lost and dying world.

© 08-16-2007 DEC

                             Next Lesson Learning the Limits of Grace