The Life of Cheap Grace

The Lie of Cheap Grace

Romans 6:1–4

The gospel of grace gives the believer incredible assurance and security. Christ did not merely make salvation possible. He actually accomplished salvation for His people. Those whom Christ justifies, He keeps. That grip of grace never lets go of the believer.

But once someone hears about strong assurance and eternal security, another fear immediately arises: “Well then, what keeps someone from just living however they want?”

That is exactly the question Paul anticipates in Romans 6:1:

“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?”

This danger appears almost every time the true gospel of grace is preached clearly. Dietrich Bonhoeffer famously called it “cheap grace,” the false idea that a person can receive forgiveness without transformation, salvation without discipleship, grace without holiness.

In other words, “If God forgives me anyway, then why does sin matter all that much?”

To understand why Paul asks the question, remember where he has just been. In Romans 1 through 3, Paul establishes the universal problem of human guilt. From the middle of Romans 3 through the end of Romans 5, he unfolds the heart of the gospel: righteousness comes by grace alone through faith alone. Not law keeping, not ritual, not ethnicity, not works.

Then Romans 5 ends with an explosive statement: “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.”

Grace super abounds.

You can see why someone might ask, “Then why not sin more?” If my sin results in God displaying more grace, why not keep sinning?

Paul responds with the strongest possible rejection:

“By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?”

Paul has already corrected those who think they can earn salvation. Now he corrects those who think salvation leaves them unchanged. He refuses to abandon God’s grace to accommodate the legalist, but he also refuses to abandon God’s righteousness to accommodate the person who wants to abuse grace.

The gospel does not merely change our eternal destination. It changes us.

When you were justified by God through faith, you “died to sin.” Part of salvation involved vanquishing the tyrannical and dominating power of sin. Justification is by faith alone, but true justification never exists without sanctification. There is no such thing as divine life without divine living.

That does not mean the believer never sins. Sin still tempts us, deceives us, and appeals to our remaining flesh. But it no longer possesses rightful dominion over us.

Before conversion, sin was not merely something we occasionally did. It was the realm in which we lived. But our union with Christ fundamentally changes our relationship to sin.

That is why Paul turns to baptism.

“We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

Water baptism is an outward act of obedience that reflects the inward reality of regeneration. When a believer goes down into the water, it pictures identification with the death of Christ. When Christ died, our old man died in Him. Our guilt was judged in Him. Our condemnation ended in Him. The power of sin was broken in Him.

And when the believer comes up out of the water, that is a picture too.

Jesus did not stay dead. On the third day, He rose from the grave in victorious life. In the same way, the believer has been raised with Christ to “walk in newness of life.”

We call this union with Christ.

I died with Christ. I was buried with Christ. I was raised with Christ. Through faith in Jesus, He is in me and I am in Him.

That reality changes everything.

So when temptation comes, the Christian must learn to remember, “That is no longer who I am. I am not obligated to obey this anymore.”

This is not positive thinking. It is aligning our thinking with our spiritual reality. Sin’s authority has been broken. We died to it.

The person asking, “Should we continue in sin that grace may abound?” has misunderstood the very purpose of grace. Grace was never designed merely to keep someone out of hell while leaving them unchanged.

Grace regenerates.

Grace transforms.

Grace creates new affections, new desires, and a new relationship to sin.

To ask whether a Christian should continue living in sin is almost like asking whether a resurrected man should return to his grave. The old life has ended. New life has begun.

The lives of believers should be as different from their preconversion days as life is from death.

So do not believe the lie of cheap grace that says you can profess faith in Jesus, continue living a life characterized by wickedness, and simply presume upon eternal life.

True grace is transforming grace.

Will true grace keep a person saved forever? Yes. But the evidence of that true grace will be a transformed life. Not a perfect life, but a life increasingly marked by obedience, submission, and allegiance to a new Master, King Jesus.

Strong grace is never a license to sin.

It is the power of God that sets us free from it.