Do we then overthrow the Law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the Law.
Romans 3:31

Some people say, “If God is ready to forgive sin for Jesus’ sake, then it doesn’t matter what I do, right? After all, it’s all by grace; I’m forgiven; I get  a free pass to heaven!”

That’s the twisted human thinking that the Lord’s Apostle is addressing here. Do we abandon the need to obey God’s standard of right and wrong by believing in His forgiveness? That’s a complete misunderstanding of the Gospel.

God calls us, who live in rebellion against Him, to turn back to Him: to recognize that we’re wrong and He is right. He calls me to return to His definition of right and wrong, good and evil.

And when I do this, I find that He’s ready to receive me with abundant forgiveness, wipe away my guilt and look upon me as though I had never done anything wrong, for Jesus’ sake. I get a fresh start.

And because He knows all too well the weakness of my human nature, He is ready to do this again and again, as many times as it takes, every time that I do indeed return in repentance to Him. In the process, I find that He’s also healing me, changing my broken, twisted, perverted tendency-to-cling-to-my-sin so that I want to be as clean in my actual experience as He has declared me to be.

To the outsider, it looks like I “got religion.” To the religious legalist, it sounds like I think I got a free pass. To God, it’s a rescue operation, a redemption. To me, it feels like a conversion: my old, broken, twisted heart has been replaced by a new one, and the new one is getting stronger, day by day, repentance after repentance.

O Father, thank You for receiving me with forgiveness once again as I come to You. Thank You for giving me a new heart. Strengthen and establish what You’ve begun in me, so that I live the clean life that You have called me to live, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Pastor Dan Giles