| Johann Grobler’s comments: Don’t be thrown by the title! Your first reaction may be: “What? I don’t believe it! Is this author serious? I’m not going to waste my time by reading this nonsense! ”Please keep on reading. I believe most of the readers, if not all, will after finish reading with an open mind, agree with the title. Maybe you’ll have to read it more than once, to let the truth sink in and dispel the burdens of shame and guilt imposed on us by religion – especially legalistic Christianity. |
Romans 5:20 declares a shocking truth: “Where sin increases, grace superexceeds.” Let that sink in. The worse the sin, the more grace abounds. You can sin as much as you want, and grace will cover it. You cannot out-sin grace.
Here’s the kicker: there would be no grace without sin. Christianity often glosses over this reality, avoiding Romans 5:20 like it’s a pothole in their perfect theology. They argue this message gives people a “license to sin.” But think about it: have you ever needed a license to sin? No one does. We all sin constantly, whether or not we believe in hell.
The truth is, humanity was designed to fail. We were subjected to vanity, and sin is woven into the fabric of our lives. But Christianity keeps ruling out its “How to Stop Sinning” programs, as if grace is a backup plan for those who didn’t follow the steps. This misses the point entirely.
Grace isn’t a plan B. It’s THE plan.
GOD WROTE THE SCRIPT
Here’s something even more foundational: God wrote your life before you were born. Every moment, every success, and yes, every failure was scripted by Him. That means your sins, as much as they grieve you, were written into the story by the same God who delights in you.
If that makes you uncomfortable, consider this: if God is sovereign, He’s sovereign over every thing – including your sin. Your failures are not surprises to Him. They’re not curveballs disrupting His plan. They’re part of the plan.
In fact, your failures are His failures in the sense that He caused them and placed them in the story for His purposes. Why? To keep you humble, to remind you of your need for Him, and to demonstrate His incredible grace. When we fail, it’s an opportunity for His love to shine even brighter.
The beauty of this truth is that it removes the crushing burden of guilt and shame. You’re not a broken cog in the machine. You’re a beloved child , living out the life that Gid carefully crafted for you. And because He’s the Author, you can rest in the assurance that nothing – not even your worst mistakes – can derail His plan.
THE FOUNDATION OF TOTAL FREEDOM
If we are ever going to truly live in freedom, we must grasp this basic truth: grace has no limits. The depth of this truth changes everything. Until we understand that grace is bigger than sin – any sin – we will always live with guilt and fear in the back of our minds.
Think about it: if there’s a limit to grace, we’re never really free. We’re always walking on eggshells, afraid of crossing some invisible line where God’s patience runs out. But that’s not the God of the Bible. Grace is limitless because God’s love is limitless. Once you realize that, you’re free. Free from guilt. Free from shame. Free from the exhausting need to perform, to measure up, to earn His favor.
When this truth settles into your heart, you can live without fear – without wondering if you’ve done enough, been good enough, or prayed hard enough to keep God on your side.
TRANSFORMATION THROUGH LOVE, NOT FEAR
Once you stop living in fear of hell, you can begin to live in the love of Gid. It’s amazing how love changes you. When you experience God’s grace and love, you suddenly find that you don’t want to rob banks, cheat on your spouse, or lie to your neighbor. The transformation comes not because you’re scared of hellfire, but because you’re overwhelmed by love.
And the journey does not end there. Even our sins – the moments we miss the mark – bring Him glory. They humble us and remind us of our need for Him. Sin doesn’t destroy your relationship with God; it only changes what you think He thinks about you. But here’s the good news: His thoughts about you never change. He’s already completely delighted in you because He made you.
THE PROBLEM WITH RELIGION
Religion loves to keep us trapped in the cycle of sin and guilt. It says, “Focus harder, try harder, and you’ll stop sinning.” But the more you focus on sin, the bigger it looms in your mind. Even Paul, the apostle, admitted that he struggled with sin: “For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out” (Romans 7:18). Sound familiar? We’ve all been there, promising to do better, only to fail five minutes later.
What’s the answer? It’s not prayer marathons, fasting, accountability partners, or white-knuckled self-discipline. The answer is grace. Struggling against sin is the essence of religion, and religion never works.
DYING TO SIN, LIVING IN GRACE
Grace doesn’t magically erase your flesh or its struggles. It frees you from the constant war with it. Deliverance from sin doesn’t come from winning battles; it comes from dying to the fight altogether. Grace changes the way you see sin. You realize that it no longer has power over you, not because you’ve conquered it, but because Christ has.
This is where true freedom begins. When you stop focusing on your failures and start focusing on His grace, you discover something incredible: you’re free. Free to live. Free to love. Free to trust that God’s got this – even your sin.
Grasping this basic truth is essential if you’re ever going to live in total freedom. Grace is not a theological concept or a pretty word. It’s the foundation of our relationship with God. Until we believe in the unlimited, all-encompassing grace of God, we’ll always be stuck- striving, failing and wondering if we’re enough.
But you are enough, because He is enough. Grace is bigger than sin, and it’s time we stop pretending otherwise. We don’t live in fear; we live in freedom – and freedom, my friends, is the beginning of real transformation.
If you ain’t free to sin, then you ain’t free.
That’s a bold statement, and one that might make some folks uncomfortable, but it’s the truth. If grace doesn’t set you free to sin, then it hasn’t really set you free at all.
However, there’s another side to this coin: freedom doesn’t mean you want to sin – at least not forever. That’s the beautiful paradox of grace.
Let’s focus on the word “want.”
My mom used to have a saying whenever I grumbled about chores. “Do I have to do the dishes?” I’d ask. Her response was classic: “You don’t have to if you want to.”
At the time, it drove me nuts, but as I grew older, I realized that she was on to something. The real issue wasn’t about whether I had to do the dishes – it was about what I wanted to do. If I didn’t want to help out, that revealed something about me, not about the dishes.
This applies to sin, too. The question isn’t whether you’re free to sin. You are. Grace has made sure of that. The question is:
Why would you want to?
WHAT CHANGES OUR WANTS?
Grace, of course.
Rules don’t change hearts – fear doesn’t either – but grace does. When you know that you’re already justified, loved and accepted, you’re no longer driven by guilt, shame or fear of hell. You’re free to live – not because you’re afraid of messing up, but because you want to live in the freedom that grace has given you.
Paul wrote in Titus 2:11-12,
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives.
Did you catch that? It’s grace – not guilt – that trains us to turn away from sin and toward God.
Grace doesn’t just set us free from the law’s condemnation – it sets us free to become someone new. It’s not a rule book or a guilt trip. Grace is God’s unearned, unrelenting favor that changes us from the inside out. And one of the ways grace works is by reshaping what we want.
Think about it: When you truly understand grace – that God has justified you, accepted you, and loves you with no strings attached – it begins to change your heart. It’s not about behavior modification; it’s about transformation. You stop asking, “How much can I get away with?” and start asking, “Why would I want to do that in the first place?”
Then, when grace does its work, you’ll find that the answer to that question becomes clearer and clearer. The more you experience God’s love, the less you’ll want to settle for the empty promises of sin. Grace changes your heart, and as it does, it changes your wants.
THE FREEDOM TO WANT SOMETHING BETTER
Freedom isn’t about doing whatever you want. It’s about being free to want something better. Grace doesn’t make you less free to sin; it makes you more free to choose life, joy and peace instead, because true freedom isn’t just about escaping consequences: it’s about discovering the fulness of life for which God created you. It’s about living with a heart that’s free to love, free to grow, and free to flourish in the unshakeable security of God’s grace.
(Originally published in Bible Student’s Notebook)
| Johann Grobler’s concluding comments: The apostle Paul made this seemingly outrageous statement in 1 Corinthians 10:23: “All things are lawful for me…” Again, one might react: “What? Is Paul serious?” But if you read on, you’ll see what he means:“…but not all things are helpful [expedient – CV]; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well-being. ”In Ephesians 4:1 Paul wrote, “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you are called…”Paul, in the first three chapters of Ephesians, first described the wonderful calling of believers of this present administration, before he pleads – note, not commands – with them about their conduct. It is in view of God’s grace toward us, that we are beseeched to walk worthy of our calling. |