No License to Sin
In Romans 1–5, Paul explains justification by faith. We are saved by grace, not by works. But that raises a question:
If grace covers sin…
Should we just keep sinning?
Pause — Ask someone to read: Romans 6:1–2 (KJV)
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Paul does not hesitate.
“God forbid.”
The Heart That Was Given
A man was dying.
His heart was failing. Every breath was effort. Every step felt like collapse.
He knew it was his poor decisions that had ended him in this hospital bed. Years of abusing his own body had finally stacked up to this moment.
“I’ve probably lived a poor life,” he thought to himself.
None of the people he used to run with were around him now.
Only the beeping of the machine hooked up to him… and some ruckus and noise from down the hall.
He could hear weeping and muffled conversations.
Then silence again.
Nothing but the ventilator.
The doctors had said there was no hope unless a donor could be found.
Then one was.
A young man had died suddenly. His family, in the middle of their grief, chose to donate his organs.
It was the young man down the hall.
He had been on his way home from a youth conference to see his own family.
But he never made it home.
He was hit by a vehicle whose driver was not paying attention.
He had done everything right.
But there was no avoiding the crash.
The dying man received that young man’s heart.
Surgery was long. Recovery was painful. But he lived.
He woke up with someone else’s heart beating inside his chest.
He was told:
“This heart cost someone their life. A family buried their son. You are alive because of him.”
Pause — Ask someone to read: Romans 5:8 (KJV)
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Now imagine this man, a few months later, saying:
“Well… since I have a new heart, I guess I can go back to chain-smoking. I’ll eat whatever I want. I’ll ignore the medications. If something goes wrong, maybe I’ll just get another transplant.”
What would we say?
We would say he does not understand what he was given.
He doesn’t understand the cost.
He doesn’t understand the gift.
He doesn’t understand that this new heart was not given so he could destroy it.
Grace Is a Transplant
Romans 6 says we didn’t just get forgiven.
We were made new.
Not patched up.
Not adjusted.
Not morally coached.
Made alive.
Pause — Ask someone to read: Romans 6:4 (KJV)
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Grace is not a legal loophole.
It is a resurrection.
Pause — Ask someone to read: Ezekiel 36:26 (KJV)
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
If grace only meant, “Your record is cleared,” then someone might think, “Fine, I’ll sin again.”
But grace means: Your old heart of stone was replaced. You are not who you were.
Pause — Ask someone to read: 2 Corinthians 5:17 (KJV)
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
So the question becomes strange:
Should someone with a new heart try to live like they still have the old one?
Should someone who lives because another died treat that gift lightly?
The Real Answer
If someone says, “If grace covers sin, why not keep sinning?”
It’s like saying, “If I’ve been given a new heart, why not poison it?”
Because you love the one who gave it.
Because you value the cost.
Because you are alive now in a way you weren’t before.
Pause — Ask someone to read: Romans 6:11–12 (KJV)
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
Grace does not create recklessness.
It creates gratitude.
And gratitude changes how a person lives.