It is hard to get ahead these days. The cost of living continues to rise and wages aren’t keeping up. For many Americans, they are barely getting by.
Today, it is being reported that one in four Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. This is an unsustainable way of living. If you drain your bank account between every pay period, you will have no funds for emergencies. What if your car breaks down? What if you lose your job? What if you are hospitalized? If you are living paycheck to paycheck, you could be one unexpected expense away from being ruined.
Many Christians today are in a similar situation when it comes to their spiritual life. Every Sunday they get their weekly deposit of Christian teaching and forgiveness, and then they cash it all out during the week on the same sins they always do. When Sunday rolls around again, they breathe a sigh of relief as they receive another deposit of grace to keep the cycle going.
This is also an unsustainable way of living. But, the consequences of abusing the grace of God are far worse than falling behind on rent. If we treat God’s forgiveness as transactional, then we make a mockery of His mercy.
The Bible has a lot to tell us about what happens when we take God for granted. In Romans 6:1-14, Paul explains that Christians must be dead to sin. He tells us that we cannot continue in sin (vv. 1-2), and we must walk in newness of life (v. 4). We must crucify our old man and no longer be slaves of sin (v. 6). When we become a Christian, we are to no longer “…let sin reign in [our] mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts…” (v. 12). Sin is incompatible with the Christian life.
But what if we do keep on sinning? Will God keep on forgiving us so long as we keep coming to church? Absolutely not! In Hebrews 10:26-27, the Bible says, “For if we sin willfully after we received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation…” Going to church doesn’t buy us extra sinning rights. We cannot earn God’s forgiveness. We are saved by God’s grace and not by works (cf. Eph 2:8-9). We are saved because Jesus suffered the agony of the cross. And, if we fall back into the life of sin, Hebrews 6:6 tells us that we crucify again the Son of God.
Have you been treating your Christian walk as transactional? Are you abusing the grace of God so you can keep indulging in the sins you were washed of? We are one unexpected accident away from eternity. If we keep living paycheck to paycheck with God, we are going to find ourselves in ruin.