It's grace... not grace plus

Romans 4:24-25 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification.

Why is this important? Jesus was delivered for our offenses. He was on the cross for them, because we know the wages of sin are death. That means that because of our sin, we should be delivered to death. Jesus did that for us. The part that we need to recognize however is not the death, but the raising again. How could Jesus be raised again if he is made guilty of our sin? Because our sin is forgiven! You see he was raised again for our justification, because by raising Jesus from the dead God showed us that our sins that he died for, are now forgiven! Are we required to then do this, and that, and this and that to receive it? No! We are imputed (that is we are now given) the righteousness of Christ! Not because we do this or that, but because we believe!

Now some will use this as an opportunity to say that we are teaching free grace, that we are saying that you can do whatever you want and get to heaven. God forbid! We are saying that you are forgiven simply for your belief! Yet because of your belief, you will stop sinning! Once you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit sin will no longer have a hold of us! We are free from it! We will no longer sin, not because it gets us to Heaven, we are already on our way! We will no longer sin because we love God and want to make Him happy! Do not let anyone tell you that you can't do this or must do that, because God has already paid that price for us! Anything you chose to do or not to do, make sure it is for God!