We often hear Christians characterize themselves as “sinners saved by grace.” While I understand the intent behind the statement (to remind us who and what we were apart from the Lord), but the fact is that the word “sinner” is used several times in scripture, but never in reference to the saints, those of us who have repented, trusted the Lord, and called on Him to save us. The danger in this misnomer lies in its tendency toward confusion for those who are inclined to what I call a “good ol’ boy” Christianity (because I’m from the South). The basis of this religion is that I get to decide that some sins are worse than others, and that because God loves me, He will overlook what I consider to be “the small stuff.” It is the belief that, if I will acknowledge God with my mouth, that my life does not have to change. That being the case, for those of you reading this now who are born again Biblical Christians, with whom my only disagreement is a semantic one, you are dismissed. The rest of you good ol’ boys, stay with me.

The Bible makes abundantly clear that not only are we not saved by works, but that we’re not even capable of Biblical goodness, which is moral perfection. Only Jesus fulfilled the righteous requirements of the Law. Once we’ve become His disciples though, we are to become like Him and to learn to live according His Spirit instead of what scripture calls “the flesh,” which is our sinful nature. Romans 6:1-14 asks: “How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” The passage goes on to explain that our flesh died with Jesus, so that we will also be raised with Him to “walk in newness of life.” We should “no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin…Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”

In Ephesians 1:17-23, Paul fervently declares the majesty and the glory of God and His desire to share that with us. To open chapter 2, Paul shifts his focus to us, writing of how we were dead in our sin. I encourage you to read through verse 5, noting how he exclusively uses past-tense verbs to describe our shameful relationships with sin. And just when he points out that we “were by nature children of wrath,” he makes the declaration: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)…” In essence, we need to understand that we are not capable of saving ourselves through our own righteousness. But, since we have entrusted ourselves to Jesus life, substituted for our own, we have parted ways with sin, calling it what it is and learning to live the new life that Jesus purchased and the Holy Spirit teaches and enables.

“And Jesus said, ‘I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.”-John 8:11