Yeah, regarding the "open check book" thing, I guess I can understand that something may
seem different than it really is to anybody. But just because it
seems so doesn't then mean that it
is so. And in the case of the "open check book" thing... it's
not so. Okay, try this, Cooper:
Paul addresses these questions in the second chapter of his letter to Titus. He explains that “the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age” (vv. 11–12). In other words, the grace that saves us also changes us. Salvation is a gift of God’s grace that is received through faith. Only by trusting Jesus Christ can anyone be made right with God. This is what we mean when we say that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone.
However, as Paul instructed Titus, saving grace is also sanctifying grace. The grace that saves teaches believers to live in ways that are different from the patterns of life that arise out of unbelief. Anyone who thinks that salvation by grace is a license to sin does not have a right understanding of grace. The grace that justifies everyone who trusts Jesus Christ as Lord also trains every believer in holiness. It does this both negatively and positively:
First, saving grace trains Christians to “renounce” (to turn away from, to reject) ungodliness (v. 12). Those who have been reconciled to the holy God will not be satisfied to go on living in immorality. Grace trains Christians not to sign peace treaties with sin, including ungodly actions and inclinations (“worldly passions”).
Second, grace reorients a believer’s desires and actions. Paul uses three adjectives to describe the kind of life that Christians learn to live. In relationship to himself, a follower of Christ is trained to live with self-control. This is part of the fruit that the Holy Spirit produces in Christians (
Gal. 5:23) and involves self-imposed discipline and restraint. Though sin does indeed remain in Christians, it no longer reigns in them. Grace trains believers to control themselves. Grace also teaches believers to be “upright” in their relationships with other people. The grace that brings salvation trains us to pursue that kind of lifestyle.
Finally, in relationship to God, Christians are trained by grace to relate rightly to Him by seeking His honor and glory in their lives. This is what it means to be “godly.” It is fitting that those who have been redeemed by Christ should live changed lives because the purpose of His redeeming work on the cross was to “redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” (
Titus 2:14). The grace of God that paid for our sins teaches us to turn away from them as we follow Jesus Christ through faith.
You see? Maybe not. Either way, grace and peace to you.