Satan's Great Lie: I Am A Sinner Series

Satan’s Great Lie #7:

Sinner Saved By Grace

In the Baptist and other denominations, I have seen Christians stand up before the congregation and say, “I am a sinner saved by grace.” Is this true? Are we really “sinners saved by grace”?

How is this statement a lie of Satan if it is true? After all, we are saved and there are times when we do sin. It’s important that you understand the meaning and the “spirit” behind the statement.

Contrary to popular belief, I don’t believe this statement is as innocent as it seems. It can show a mindset that is contrary to what God is doing in all of our lives. If you ever use this statement, you should say, “I WAS a sinner who is NOW saved by grace.” By scriptural definition, it is impossible to be a sinner and saved at the same time. This does not mean that I do not occasionally sin. It means I am not a servant to sin. This is a dangerous statement. Why? When I make this profession, especially after I have sinned, I’m saying “I really can’t help myself – I’m just a sinner.” In other words, I’m not accountable for my actions because I can’t help it! The fact that I am saved removes me from the “sinner” category. I will walk you through several scriptures that, hopefully, will show you that we were sinners who are now saved by grace.

Definitions: “Sinner”

Hebrew: A criminal, one accounted as guilty.

Greek: Offend; miss the mark so as not to share in the Prize.

These are the only two definitions for the word “sinner” in the Hebrew and Greek. If we were “still” sinners, we would be counted as guilty of missing the mark and not sharing in the prize. The fact that we believe and confess that we are saved and will have a crown in glory goes against the very definition of what a sinner is. Either we are sinners who are not saved at all, or we were sinners (who gave up a life of sin) and came under grace through Christ Jesus and are saved. We can’t have it both ways.

Romans 6:14-18: “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the 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.”

The definition of a slave is “a human being who is owned as property by another; a person having no freedom or personal rights.” Each of us is a slave. We are slaves who serve sin or we are slaves who serve righteousness. There is no grey area – you are either one or the other.

A slave has no rights; he or she must do just as they are commanded to do. Now when there were slaves in America (and other parts of the world), the slave master (both white and black – blacks owned slaves too) would name their slaves. The slave would carry that name often after they were freed. For African American, our names were handed down to us and could probably be traced to a slave master.

Now while we were slaves to sin, our last name was Sinner. My name was Rodney V. Johnson Sinner. Your name was “Something Sinner”. We were sinners and carried the name of our master – Sin. Sin was his name and because we belonged to him, we were named as “Sinners.” So I carried the name of sinner. I served sin and I was owned by sin. Wherever my sin master sent me, I went. Whatever he told me to do, I did. I had no choice; I was a slave to sin (a sinner) and I did what slaves do – whatever the master told me to. I could not say “no”. I could not rebel. I could not just do whatever I thought I wanted to do. I had no choice.

But I did not remain a servant to sin. Paul said, “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace.” When I was purchased by a new Master, I got a new name; sin was no longer my master. When a slave was sold, the new master would often change his or her name to reflect new ownership. So when I got a new Master, my new Master gave me a new name. I was no longer known as “Sinner”, one who had no rights. All of a sudden I had rights. The one who purchased me gave them me (See Colossians 1:12-14 & I Corinthians 6:19, 20). I no longer am a servant of sin so therefore I do not have to sin. Do you get that? I do not have to serve sin any longer because sin no longer owns me. So when sin tells me to do something that is wrong I can now say “No, No Way, Absolutely Not!” “You don’t own me any longer and I don’t have to do what you say!” Under my new Master, as Paul says, I “have been freed from sin, (I) you became slaves of righteousness.” Now I am slave to righteousness and not to sin. I have been purchased with blood. Acts 20:28 says that God purchased us “with his own blood”. The blood of His Son purchased us, so therefore we have been freed from our former master and now we are serving a new Master.