Many sinners want to stop sinning but the Ten Commandments cannot save. Christ saves.

Many of us think that most believers and even non-believers who are sinning want to continue to wallow in sin. We think they don't want out. I submit to you that many of these "great sinners" feel bad after each act of sin and are trying hard to find a way out of their sins and addictions but cannot! You see, "good people" are not the only ones who want to live a righteous life. Many "bad people" who are locked down by acts of sin also desire to live right but they cannot. The reason for their inability to do so is evident in Romans 6:14:

"For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace."

Sin has dominion over the one who is trying to obey the law in order to be righteous. But somehow many preachers have this verse backwards, preaching that the way to reign over sin is by obeying the letter that kills. Because of this false doctrine, the "bad people" try harder to be obedient but the result is more sin. 

Just imagine a pastor preaching a whole sermon on the Ten Commandments and asking: "Which one are you guilty of? You have to stop sinning or else there will be consequences!" He is killing his congregation softly! The letter kills.

For believers who are struggling with particular sins, your situation isn't unique. Paul of the New Testament faced the same dilemma. In Romans 7:18-19, Paul says:

"18 And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. 19 I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway."

This is a born-again and Spirit-filled Paul speaking here. We who are in Christ have the same solution to this problem as Paul did in verse 25: "Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!"

Christ delivers us from this inability to do the good we want to do and makes sure that we live right! How, you may ask? The very next chapter (Romans 8:1-2) shows us how:

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death."

Believers, as the righteousness of God in Christ, when you sin, there is no condemnation for you. Our Heavenly Father still sees you as righteous; not because of what you do or don't do but because of what Christ has done.

2 Corinthians 5:21 says "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

With this gift of righteousness comes no condemnation. It is our Saviour's "Neither do I condemn you " that makes us "go and sin no more." Understand that a person who does not sin does not need the gift of no condemnation. The woman caught in adultery received this gift because she was under condemnation. This gift is for those who have no righteousness of their own - the sole qualification for being in Christ. It is not for those who can keep the law and are righteous by themselves in some areas of life.

With Christ as your righteousness, you will not continue to live in sin, not because of your own human effort at being good but because the Holy Spirit transforms us to "the image of the glory of the Lord, from glory to glory" as we look to Christ for our righteousness (2 Corinthians 3:18.) Nothing to do with our efforts at suppressing those sinful desires. The arm of flesh will fail. All to do with Christ's saving power. He saves from sins. See Matthew 1:21 - "She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

The kingdom of God isn't human logic:) Sin has dominion over those who are insisting on keeping the Ten Commandments and doing good deeds in order to be righteous before God. But Christ saves from sins. See Matthew 1:21 - "She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Romans 3:20 says "For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are." Galatians 5:4 says: "For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace."

Those who are trying to make themselves right with God by keeping the law reject the blood of Jesus that was shed to make us righteous for their own righteousnesses that proceeds from works of the law. When such break just one law, asking for forgiveness in Jesus' name becomes an effort in futility. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. Law and grace don't mix. You can't depend on Jesus and the Ten Commandments for righteousness at the same time. This is the "neither hot nor cold" that Christ spoke of in Revelation 3.

Believers, there is only one Good News and it is based on righteousness by faith, not obedience to the law of sin and death. In fact, Paul places the only curse in the new testament (doubly!) on anyone preaching a different gospel in Galatians 1:8-9:

"Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you. 9 I say again what we have said before: If anyone preaches any other Good News than the one you welcomed, let that person be cursed."

God's grace is not a licence to sin. It is the power of God to salvation, including salvation from sin. Would you really give your own child a gift that has a slight chance of killing him or give him the liberty to be sinful and rebellious? How much more our Abba Father who gave us His Son in whom "we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence," Ephesians 1:7-8 here tells us God's grace is showered on us with wisdom and prudence, not just anyhow that we could misuse it.

Those who enjoy wallowing in sin and say that their sinning is okay because they are under Grace are under something else, definitely not Grace. Yes there are some who try to replace the grace of our Lord with sheer license to sin. These people are not under grace but under the control of the devil. Jude spoke of these people in Jude 1 and described them as "spots in our love feasts," greedy and rebellious. These people are not of Christ and their behaviour should not make pastors and leaders want to try to “help God” by introducing the law to keep New Covenant believers in check. 

See Paul's analogy of law and grace in Galatians 4:21-31. Sarah (GRACE) did not need Hagar (LAW) to raise Isaac (The Church; you and I in Christ). Grace is enough. Cast out the bondwoman and her son!

Pastors and leaders, there's no need to help the Holy Spirit to do His work of transforming believers to the image of the glory of the Lord by putting them under the law again. This is death. Plus it only gives sin dominion over the sinner.  2 Corinthians 3:18 says the Spirit of the Lord transforms us to the image of His glory, not the Law, or you. No human is that good a transformer.

Point the people to God's Grace (unveil the love of Christ) and not the letter that kills. According to Titus 2, Grace (our Saviour Jesus Christ Himself) is the one that teaches us to shun ungodliness and worldly lusts, gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds. Grace is our Teacher, not you or I.

Preach Grace- undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour; Grace will do everything else.

Believe Right and you will Live Right.