January 29

What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey: whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?—Romans 6:15, 16.

SAVING grace gives no encouragement to the practice of sin. For the principal aim of our Redeemer's love in dying for us, was to sanctify and cleanse us by the washing of water and the word. And accordingly all the promises of pardon and salvation are conditional. The holy mercy of the gospel offers forgiveness only to penitent believers that return from sin to obedience. We are commanded to repent and be converted, that our sins may be blotted out, in the time of refreshment, from the presence of the Lord. And heaven is the reward of persevering obedience; To them who by patient continuance in well-doing, seek glory, and honor, and immortality, eternal life. There can not be the least ground of a rational, just hope in any person without holiness: Whosoever hath this hope in him, purifies himself even as he is pure. By which it appears, that the genuine and proper use we are to make of the exceeding great and precious promises, is, That by them we may be partakers of the divine nature, and escape the pollution that is in the world through lust. Yet the corrupt hearts of men are so strongly inclined to their lusts, that they turn the grace of God into wantonness, and make an advantage of mercy to assist their security; presuming to sin with less fear and more license, upon the account of the glorious revelation of it by our Redeemer. The most live as if they might be saved without being saints, and enjoy the paradise of the flesh here, and not be excluded from that of the Spirit hereafter. But grace does not in the least degree authorize and favor their lusts, nor relax the sinews of obedience; it is perfectly innocent of their unnatural abuse of it. The poison is not in the flower, but the spider. Therefore the apostle propounds it with indignation, Shall we sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. He uses this form of speech to express an extreme abhorrence of a thing that is either impious and dishonorable to God, or pernicious and destructive to men. As when he puts the question, Is God unjust, who taketh vengeance? God forbid, and, Is there iniquity in God? God forbid. He rejects the mention of it with infinite aversion. Indeed, what greater disparagement can there be of the Divine purity, than to indulge ourselves in sin upon confidence of an easy forgiveness? As if the Son of God had been consecrated by such terrible sufferings, to purchase and prepare a pardon for those who sin securely. What an inexpressible indignity is it, to make a monstrous alliance between Christ and Belial?

And this abuse of grace is pernicious to men. If the antidote be turned into poison, and the remedy cherish the disease, the case is desperate. The apostle tells us, of Those that do evil that good may come thereby, their damnation is just. Suppose a presuming sinner were assured, that after he had gratified his carnal vile desires, he should repent and be pardoned; yet it were an unreasonable defect of self-love to do so. What Israelite was so foolhardy as to provoke a fiery serpent to bite him, though he knew he should be healed by the brazen serpent? But it is a degree beyond madness, for a man to live in a course of sin upon the hopes of salvation, making the mercy of God to be his bondage, as if he could not be happy without them. An unrenewed sinner may be the object of God's compassion, but while he remains so, he is incapable of communion with him here, much more hereafter. Under the law the lepers were excluded the camp of Israel, where the presence of God was in a special manner; much more shall those who are covered with moral pollutions be kept out from the habitation of his holiness. It is a mortal delusion for any to pretend that electing mercy will bring them to glory; or that the all-sufficient sacrifice of Christ will atone God's displeasure towards them, although they indulge themselves in a course of sin. The book of life is secret; only the Lamb, with whose blood the names of the elect are written there, can open the seals of it. But the Gospel, that is a lower book of life, tells us the qualifications of those who are vessels of mercy, they are by grace prepared for glory; and that there can be no benefit by the death of Christ without conformity to his life. Those who abuse mercy now, shall have justice hereafter.