Is grace a license to sin? Does grace encourage others to sin? No, and No.
Sin encourages others to sin. When people fear or believe that God will breathe fire on them because they have sinned, they entirely dismiss the cross of Christ. They immediately subject themselves to self-condemnation.
Grace does not encourage sin the same way that a cure does not encourage the spread of the disease that it cures.
Sin entered the world through one man, Adam. Grace entered the world through one man, Jesus.
“For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!”
What does grace permit us to do? It permits us to live the life of Christ in this world and the world to come. Sin would never allow you to do such a thing because it just can’t.
To say that I have the cure, or I’m vaccinated and that I can become as ill as I wish, that naturally would be the most stupid thing ever.
Many times, people suffer as a result of others’ sin. Many times, people suffer as a result of their own sins. Yet, God the healer does not cherry pick who should be healed of sin and who shouldn’t. We don’t have to twist God’s arm to heal us. We don’t have to hand money over. We don’t need to have been born into a particular generation or a specific earthly family to receive God’s healing. Because, from beginning to end, God heals by his grace.
Our sins do not bring us closer to God. The blood of Jesus does. Last I checked, the blood still holds its power.
Grace is our strength, not sin.
“The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 5:20-21)
Jesus is the well of the living water, the Holy Spirit. 