Do you know someone who's casual with God's mercy and grace. They may rationalize it, saying God loves them and wants them to be happy. A "good" and "loving" God would never let them suffer stress and difficulty.
To do the right thing is just too hard. They would rather sin, ask forgiveness, and move on. They're convinced God loves them so much He would never want them to feel the full weight of their sins.
The beautiful and ugly thing is, I don't think they're wrong! Case in point, the man who died next to Jesus on the cross. (Luke 23:32-33, Luke 23:39-43)
If, before it's all over, they've excepted God into their heart, they will be forgiven. There's NO sin, so big or intentional, it can't be covered by the blood of Jesus.
So why do the right thing?
I was able to come up with a couple of reasons, but only one was unselfish and spoke to me as the unshakable truth of God.
We love, because He first loved us.
~(1 John 4:19)
We don't take advantage of His grace and mercy because we love Him!
We look at His sacrifice on the cross and it brings us to our knees. We get to a place where we comprehend His power and majesty. We understand the nature of sin, wrath of God, what could have been, and what He chose to not let happen at His cost.
We start to see ourselves as the beautiful bride, washed clean from sin, provided for and protected, and it whips us into a Song Of Solomon frenzy.
Our greatest desire becomes being close to Him and submitting to His will. We can't stand the thought of being separated from Him, even for a short time, by sin.
Here is a great passage on the matter. I know it's a bit long, but please take the time to read it. Nowhere will you find it saying we're unable to take advantage of God's grace and mercy.
What you will find though is Paul adamantly warning, we should not. God's love is the key to righteousness and overcoming sin.
The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
~(Romans 5:20-6:23)
Final thought...
Please let us remember, we're called to be prepared for our Bridegroom and serve a God who will not be mocked. There is a time, and we're only permitted to know the season.
Love
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