Does Grace allow us to sin?

Does God’s grace allow us to sin? Sadly, the picture below is truly how many people feel.  First, what is grace? Grace is the free unmerited favor of God. It is kindness we don’t deserve. We can’t earn grace either. There are many, many people who believe sinning makes no difference in our salvation. Can one truly say they are a Christ follower and still be consumed in sin? If we read the bible we will find that this is NOT what it teaches. It teaches us that we are to be a new creation. Our old self will be dead to sin.  When we pick and choose verses in the bible we can twist it to say what we want. That is why it is important to read the text around the verse too. Christ was sinless, if Christ dwells in us sin cannot. Jesus died because of our sin, not so we could sin.

Romans 6:1-14  New International Version (NIV)

Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ

6 What 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, 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.