Many holiness-minded individuals fear the doctrine of grace by faith because they think it leads to antinomianism. I have no doubt that some have used grace as a pretext for sin, but they do so without the support of Scripture. Scripture is clear that the grace that saves is the same grace that teaches us to deny ungodliness (Titus 2:12), and empowers us for holiness (Romans 6:14). To calm the minds of grace-fearers, and to correct the minds of grace-abusers, let me offer the following medical analogy.
Sin is like a cancer. It destroys the good cells in our body, and eventually leads to death. To treat this deadly disease one must undergo chemotherapy (grace). But would anyone in their right mind willingly inject their body with cancerous cells simply because a treatment for the ensuing cancer is available? Of course not! So why would anyone intentionally sin simply because grace is available to treat it? The purpose of the New Covenant was not to provide us with a license to sin, but to provide us with grace that would not only wipe away our past transgressions, but give us the power to avoid future transgressions.
Thinking to Believe 
June 16, 2008 at 9:28 pm
i comment on your blogs because you comment back. i like the dialog.
bonhoeffer calls the grace used to justify sin rather than the sinner “cheap grace,” which isn’t biblical. i’m sure you’ve read “the cost of discipleship,” so i won’t recite it here. but his discussion in the first couple of chapters really deals with this issue quite well.
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June 17, 2008 at 1:16 pm
I like the analogy. The only weakness that it could possibly have is that chemo can actually be hard thing for the person to go through. I imagine the grace of God to inspire more joy and peace in us.
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June 17, 2008 at 11:41 pm
b,
Yes, I try to respond as much as possible.
I like that phrase: justifying the sin rather than sinner. I have not read Bonhoeffer’s book. They made a movie about his life recently. I didn’t see it, though.
Jason
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June 17, 2008 at 11:50 pm
That is true. There’s a reason why they say all analogies break down somewhere. As John of Damascus wrote in On the Orthodox Faith, “Examples are not similar in all respects to the things they exemplify. For if all things were the same, they would no longer be called examples but rather would be the very things themselves which are under discussion.”
Jason
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