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About Jesus Steve Sweetman Let Us Do Evil So Good May Abound
Paul was being slandered by some because of the gospel he was preaching. (Rom. 3:8) They said that he was preaching that people could sin. The more we sin, the more grace there was for us. Paul was not condoning sin. He was not encouraging people to sin. He was merely stating the fact that God had grace for all mankind, no matter how serious the sin. Paul's emphasis on "faith in God's grace alone" caused the above reaction in people. It is easy for people to get this reaction. We always want to add conditions to God's salvation. We have a hard time believing that it is all free, that there is nothing we can do to earn it. It has been said before that if we do not get this same response there is a good chance that we are not preaching the pure gospel as Paul preached. We often preach in such a way that suggests that we need to do something to earn our salvation. We even more often suggest that we need to do certain things to keep our salvation, whether it is church attendance, obeying certain rules, or whatever. The simple fact of the gospel is that there is nothing we can do to earn our salvation, and there is nothing we can do to keep our salvation. Yes, we are called to do good works, but these good works are a product of true faith, they do not constitute our salvation.
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