June 10, 2006
Newsletter Archives

When we speak of a free salvation, many people think we mean that a Christian can do anything he pleases after salvation—he can sin as much as he wants and it doesn’t matter. Well it does matter! True, it does not affect his eternal destiny, but it certainly affects his enjoyment of salvation. Most of all it violates the purpose of salvation and brings discredit on the Christian message.
A very poorly understood Bible statement quoted every Christmas clarifies the issue. Concerning Mary, the angel of the Lord told Joseph, “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins.”Matthew 1:21. While we often quote this verse to show that salvation is free—and it is— yet it really means that the nation of Israel would be saved from the stranglehold of sin in daily life.
It needs to clearly be understood that the person who claims to be a Christian and continues engaging in a sinful lifestyle has not likely become a Christian at all. Christians will fail. Yet it is unlikely that the person whose life is marked by sinful indulgence has been born again in the first place. Christians do sin. Sinless perfection taught by some churches is a myth. The apostle John stated emphatically that “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. 1 John 1:10. But he also stated, “If ye know that He is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of Him” 1 John 2:29.
So the Lord Jesus has come to take away the power of sin as well as its penalty. While salvation is free, those who receive the free gift are changed by it and their lives are marked by righteous behavior afterwards. We do not have to pay for transportation to heaven, but the moment we step on board, we begin to travel down a different road from the one we were traveling on before.

Russ Nesbit