The Permission Givers

God’s grace means that our salvation is not dependent on whether we avoid giving ourselves permission to sin, but on God’s saving act on our behalf in Christ.

Read this list of statements and think about what they have in common:

• “You only go around once so you should grab every opportunity you get.”
• “I deserve to be happy.”
• “Surely God didn’t mean that to apply to everybody.”
• “It can’t be wrong when it feels so right.”
• “Those rules are made for the peons, not for someone of my caliber.”
• “I’m giving so much, exceptions to the commands need to be made in my case.”
• “I can do this [wrong] thing without letting it touch my soul.”
• “God knows I’m weak, and he will excuse me.”
• “It cannot just be the devil’s work.”
• “Everybody’s doing it.”
• “Just this once.”
• “These are special circumstances, so normal rules don’t apply.”

 

If it strikes you that the common thread in all these is that they sound like excuses to do something outside of standard...