

They believe that if you tell people that God saves and accepts them apart from what they deserve, then they will have no motive to be obedient. This is why many people don’t really teach or believe in grace and instead emphasize living by law. From a purely natural or secular viewpoint, grace is dangerous. Is the plan of grace “safe”? Won’t people abuse grace? If God’s salvation and approval are given on the basis of faith instead of works, won’t we just say “I believe” and then live any way we please? But in a less extreme way, the question still confronts us. This is an extreme example of the idea behind Paul’s question “ Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?”

Therefore, Rasputin lived in notorious sin and taught that this was the way to salvation. He believed that because those who sin the most require the most forgiveness, therefore a sinner who continues to sin without restraint enjoys more of God’s grace (when he repents for the moment) than the ordinary sinner. In the early part of the 20th century the Russian monk Gregory Rasputin taught and lived the idea of salvation through repeated experiences of sin and repentance. After all, if God loves sinners, then why worry about sin? If God gives grace to sinners, then why not sin more and receive more grace? Some people think that their job is to sin and God’s job is to forgive, so they will do their job and God will do His job! He now wonders if someone might take this truth to imply that it doesn’t matter if a Christian lives a life of sin, because God will always overcome greater sin with greater grace. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Paul introduced the idea that where sin abounded, grace abounded much more (Romans 5:20). What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?Ī. (1) Should we live a life of sin so we can receive more grace?

The believer under grace and the problem of habitual sin.
