THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE DO NOT LEAD TO SIN – Charles Spurgeon
THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE DO NOT LEAD TO SIN
“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.” Romans 6:14, 15.
LAST Sabbath morning I tried to show that the substance and essence of the true gospel is the doctrine of God’s grace. In fact, if you take away the grace of God from the gospel, you have extracted from it its very life-blood, and there is nothing left worth preaching, worth believing, or worth contending for. Grace is the soul of the gospel; without it, the gospel is dead. Grace is the music of the gospel; without it, the gospel is silent as to all comfort.
I endeavored also to set forth the doctrine of grace in brief terms, teaching that God deals with sinful men upon the footing of pure mercy. Finding them guilty and condemned, He gives free pardons, altogether irrespective of past character, or of any good works which may be foreseen. Moved only by pity, He devises a plan for their rescue from sin and its consequences—a plan in which grace is the leading feature. Out of free favor, He has provided, in the death of His dear Son, an atonement by means of which His mercy can be justly bestowed. He accepts all those who place their trust in this atonement, selecting faith as the way of salvation, that it may be all of grace. In this, He acts from a motive found within Himself, and not because of any reason found in the sinner’s conduct, past, present, or future.
I tried to show that this grace of God flows towards the sinner from of old, and begins its operations upon him when there is nothing good in him. It works in him that which is good and acceptable, and continues so to work in him till the deed of grace is complete, and the believer is received up into the glory for which he is made meet. Grace commences to save, and it perseveres till all is done. From first to last, from the “A” to the “Z” of the heavenly alphabet, everything in salvation is of grace and grace alone. All is of free favor, nothing of merit. “By grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” “So then it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy.”
No sooner is this doctrine set forth in a clear light than men begin to quibble at it. It is the target for all carnal logic to shoot at. Unrenewed minds never liked it, and they never will. It is too humbling to human pride, making so light of the nobility of human nature. That men are to be saved by divine charity, that they must as condemned criminals receive pardon by the exercise of the royal prerogative, or else perish in their sins, is a teaching which they cannot endure. God alone is exalted in the sovereignty of His mercy, and the sinner can do no better than meekly touch the silver scepter and accept undeserved favor just because God wills to give it—this is not pleasant to the great minds of our philosophers, and the broad phylacteries of our moralists, and therefore they turn aside and fight against the empire of grace.
Straightway, the unrenewed man seeks out artillery with which to fight against the gospel of the grace of God, and one of the biggest guns he has ever brought to the front is the declaration that the doctrine of the grace of God must lead to licentiousness. If great sinners are freely saved, then men will more readily become great sinners, and if when God’s grace regenerates a man, it abides with him, then men will infer that they may live as they like and yet be saved. This is the constantly repeated objection which I have heard till it wearies me with its vain and false noise. I am almost ashamed to have to refute so rotten an argument. They dare to assert that men will take license to be guilty because God is gracious, and they do not hesitate to say that if men are not to be saved by their works, they will come to the conclusion that their conduct is a matter of indifference, and that they may as well sin that grace may abound.
This morning I want to talk a little about this notion, for in part it is a great mistake, and in part it is a great lie. In part, it is a mistake because it arises from misconception, and in part it is a lie because men know better, or might know better if they pleased. I begin by admitting that the charge does appear somewhat probable. It does seem very likely that if we are to go up and down the country and say, “The very chief of sinners may be forgiven through believing in Jesus Christ, for God is displaying mercy to the very vilest of the vile,” then sin will seem to be a cheap thing. If we are everywhere to cry, “Come, you sinners, come and welcome, and receive free and immediate pardon through the sovereign grace of God,” it does seem probable that some may basely reply, “Let us sin without ceasing, for we can easily obtain forgiveness.”
But that which looks to be probable is not, therefore, certain. On the contrary, the improbable and the unexpected full often come to pass. In questions of moral influence, nothing is more deceptive than theory. The ways of the human mind are not to be laid down with a pencil and compasses; man is a singular being. Even that which is logical is not always inevitable, for men’s minds are not governed by the rules of the schools. I believe that the inference which would lead men to sin because grace reigns is not logical, but the very reverse, and I venture to assert that, as a matter of fact, ungodly men do not, as a rule, plead the grace of God as an excuse for their sin. As a rule, they are too indifferent to care about reasons at all. And if they do offer an excuse, it is usually more flimsy and superficial.
There may be a few men of perverse minds who have used this argument, but there is no accounting for the freaks of the fallen understanding. I shrewdly suspect that in any cases in which such reasoning has been put forward, it was a mere pretense, and by no means a plea which satisfied the sinner’s own conscience. If men do excuse themselves, it is generally in some veiled manner, for most of them would be utterly ashamed to state the argument in plain terms. I question whether the devil himself would be found reasoning thus—“God is merciful, therefore let us be more sinful.” It is so diabolical an inference that I do not like to charge my fellow men with it, though our moralist opposers do not hesitate thus to degrade them. Surely, no intelligent being can really persuade itself that the goodness of God is a reason for offending Him more than ever. Moral insanity produces strange reasoning, but it is my solemn conviction that very rarely do men practically consider the grace of God to be a motive for sin.
That which seems so probable at the first blush, is not so when we come to consider it. I have admitted that a few human beings have turned the grace of God into lasciviousness, but I trust no one will ever argue against any doctrine on account of the perverse use made of it by the baser sort. Cannot every truth be perverted? Is there a single doctrine of Scripture which graceless hands have not twisted into mischief? Is there not an almost infinite ingenuity in wicked men for making evil out of good? If we are to condemn a truth because of the misbehavior of individuals who profess to believe it, we would be found condemning our Lord Himself for what Judas did, and our holy faith would die at the hands of apostates and hypocrites. Let us act like rational men.
We do not find fault with ropes because poor insane creatures have hanged themselves with them. Nor do we ask that the wares of Sheffield may be destroyed because edged tools are the murderer’s instruments. It may appear probable that the doctrine of free grace will be made into a license for sin, but a better acquaintance with the curious working of the human mind corrects the notion. Fallen as human nature is, it is still human, and therefore does not take kindly to certain forms of evil—such, for instance, as inhuman ingratitude. It is hardly human to multiply injuries upon those who return us continued benefits.
The Story of Grace’s Power
It reminds me of the story of half-a-dozen boys who had severe fathers, accustomed to flogging them within an inch of their lives. Another boy, who was tenderly beloved by his parents and known to be so, was with them. These young gentlemen met together to hold a council of war about robbing an orchard. They were, all of them, anxious to get about it except the favored youth, who did not agree with the proposal. One of them cried out, “You need not be afraid. If our fathers catch us at this work, we shall be half-killed, but your father won’t lay a hand upon you.” The little boy answered, “And do you think because my father is kind to me, that therefore I will do wrong and grieve him? I will do nothing of the sort to my dear father. He is so good to me that I cannot vex him.”
It would appear that the argument of the many boys was not overpoweringly convincing to their companion. The opposite conclusion was quite as logical and evidently carried weight with it. If God is good to the undeserving, some men will go into sin, but there are others of a nobler order whom the goodness of God leads to repentance. They scorn the beast-like argument—that the more loving God is, the more rebellious we may be, and they feel that against the God of goodness it is an evil thing to rebel.
The Effect of God’s Grace on Moral Character
By the way, I cannot help observing that I have known persons object to the evil influence of the doctrines of grace that were by no means qualified by their own morality to be judges of the subject. Morals must be in a poor way when immoral persons become their guardians. The doctrine of justification by faith is frequently objected to as injurious to morals. A newspaper some time ago quoted a verse from one of our popular hymns—
“Weary, working, plodding one,
Why toil you so?
Cease your doing; all was done
Long, long ago!
‘Till to Jesus’ work you cling
By a simple faith,
Doing’ is a deadly thing,
Doing’ ends in death.”
This is styled mischievous teaching. When I read the article, I felt a deep interest in this corrector of Luther and Paul, and I wondered how much he had drunk in order to elevate his mind to such a pitch of theological knowledge. I have found men pleading against the doctrines of grace on the ground that they did not promote morality, to whom I could have justly replied, “What has morality to do with you, or you with it?”
These sticklers for good works are not often the doers of them. Let legalists look to their own hands and tongues, and leave the gospel of grace and its advocates to answer for themselves. Looking back in history, I see upon its pages a refutation of the oft-repeated slander. Who dares to suggest that the men who believed in the grace of God have been sinners above other sinners? With all their faults, those who throw stones at them will be few if they first prove themselves to be their superiors in character.
When have they been the patrons of vice, or the defenders of injustice? Pitch upon the point in English history when this doctrine was very strong in the land. Who were the men that held these doctrines most firmly?
Men like Owen, Charnock, Manton, Howe, and I hesitate not, to add Oliver Cromwell. What kind of men were these? Did they pander to the licentiousness of a court? Did they invent a Book of Sports for Sabbath diversion? Did they haunt ale-houses and places of revelry? Every historian will tell you, the greatest fault of these men in the eyes of their enemies was that they were too precise for the generation in which they lived, so they called them Puritans, and condemned them as holding a gloomy theology.
Sirs, if there was iniquity in the land in that day, it was to be found with the theological party which preached up salvation by works. The gentlemen with their womanish locks and perfumed hair, whose speech savored of profanity, were the advocates of salvation by works, and all bedabbled with lust, they pleaded for human merit. But the men who believed in grace alone were of another style. They were not in the chambers of rioting and wantonness. Where were they? They might be found on their knees crying to God for help in temptation, and in persecuting times they might be found in prison, cheerfully suffering the loss of all things for the truth’s sake.
The Puritans were the godliest men on the face of the earth. Are men so inconsistent as to nickname them for their purity, and yet say that their doctrines lead to sin? Nor is this a solitary instance—this instance of Puritanism. All history confirms the rule, and when it is said that these doctrines will create sin, I appeal to facts, and leave the oracle to answer as it may. If we are ever to see a pure and godly England, we must have a gospelized England. If we are to put down drunkenness and the social evil, it must be by the proclamation of the grace of God. Men must be forgiven by grace, renewed by grace, transformed by grace, sanctified by grace, preserved by grace, and when that comes to pass, the golden age will dawn. But while they are merely taught their duty, and left to do it of themselves in their own strength, it is labor in vain.
You may flog a dead horse a long while before it will stir, you need to put life into it, or else all your flogging will fail. To teach men to walk who have no feet is poor work, and so is instruction in morals before grace gives a heart to love holiness. The gospel alone supplies men with motive and strength, and therefore it is to the gospel that we must look as the real reformer of men.
The Gospel as a Reforming Agent
I shall fight this morning with the objection before us as I shall find strength. The doctrine of grace, the whole plan of salvation by grace, is most promotive of holiness. Wherever it comes, it helps us to say, “God forbid,” to the question, “Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace?” This I would set out in the clear sunlight.
I. THE SALVATION WHICH IT BRINGS IS SALVATION FROM THE POWER OF SIN
When we preach salvation to the vilest of men, some suppose we mean by that a mere deliverance from hell and an entrance into heaven. It includes all that, and results in that, but that is not what we mean. What we mean by salvation is this—deliverance from the love of sin, rescue from the habit of sin, setting free from the desire to sin. Now listen. If it is so that that gift of deliverance from sin is the gift of divine grace, in what way will that gift, or the free distribution of it, produce sin? I fail to see any such danger.
II. THE PRINCIPLE OF LOVE HAS BEEN FOUND TO POSSESS VERY GREAT POWER OVER MEN
In the infancy of history, nations dream that crime can be put down by severity, and they rely upon fierce punishments, but experience corrects the error. Our forefathers dreaded forgery, which is a troublesome fraud, and interferes with the confidence which should exist between man and man. To put it down, they made forgery a capital offense. Alas for the murders committed by that law! Yet the constant use of the gallows was never sufficient to stamp out the crime.
Many offenses have been created and multiplied by the penalty which was meant to suppress them. Some offenses have almost ceased when the penalty against them has been lightened. It is a notable fact as to men that if they are forbidden to do a thing, they straightway pine to do it, though they had never thought of doing it before. Law commands obedience, but does not promote it; it often creates disobedience, and an over-weighted penalty has been known to provoke an offense.
III. THE SPECIAL REVELATION OF THE EVIL OF SIN
Iniquity is made to be exceedingly bitter before it is forgiven or when it is forgiven. When God begins to deal with a man with a view of blotting out his sins and making him His child, He usually causes him to see his evil ways in all their heinousness. He makes him look on sin with fixed eyes, till he cries with David, “My sin is ever before me.”
IV. EVERY MAN WHO TASTES OF THE SAVING GRACE OF GOD IS MADE A NEW CREATURE IN CHRIST JESUS
Now if the doctrine of grace in the hands of an ordinary man might be dangerous, yet it would cease to be so in the hands of one who is quickened by the Spirit, and created anew in the image of God. The Holy Spirit comes upon the chosen one, and transforms him; his ignorance is removed, his affections are changed, his understanding is enlightened, his will is subdued, his desires are refined, his life is changed—in fact, he is as one new-born, to whom all things have become new.
V. CLEANSING THROUGH ATONEMENT
The blood of Jesus sanctifies as well as pardons. The sinner learns that his free pardon cost the life of his best Friend, that in order to his salvation the Son of God Himself agonized even to a bloody sweat, and died forsaken of His God. This causes a sacred mourning for sin, as he looks upon the Lord whom he pierced.
VI. DAILY HELPS FROM GOD’S HOLY SPIRIT
A man who becomes a partaker of divine grace and receives the new nature is ever afterward a partaker of daily helps from God’s Holy Spirit. The Ever-blessed Spirit leads believers to be much in prayer, and what a power for holiness is found in the child of grace speaking to the heavenly Father!
VII. THE ENTIRE ELEVATION OF THE MAN WHO IS MADE A PARTAKER OF THE GRACE OF GOD
I venture to say, though it may be controverted, that the man who believes the glorious doctrines of grace is usually a much higher style of man than the person who has no opinion upon the matter.
May the Lord help us to walk in this grace that leads to holiness, and that no one shall accuse us of taking advantage of it for sin. God bless you. Amen.