John 8:24, “I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.”

Jesus said unless we believe that He is The Savior, we will die in our sins. He didn’t say unless they repent and become baptized. He didn’t say unless they repent and live a Holy life. He didn’t say unless they repent and turned to fasting and prayer. He didn’t say unless they repent and wear sack clothes and ashes. He didn’t say unless they repent and decided not to sin again. He said unless they believe. He said unless we believe.

John 3: 1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: 2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. 3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 4 Nicodemus saith unto him, how can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? 5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. 8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. 9 Nicodemus answered and said unto him, how can these things be? 10 Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? 11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak that we do know and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. 12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? 13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up: 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

Grace is the key to everything. And I am not referring to the week-kneed, limp, powerless, feeble grace that you find being preached in most Christian churches today but the shocking, outrageous, scandalous, indiscriminate, senseless, irrational, unfair, irreligious, ridiculous, absurd, offensive, infinite grace which Jesus exhibited during His life. The only people who really object to this kind of grace are the religious people who think that their behavior merits them some sort of special privilege or position with God and are offended that the so-called “sinners” are put on equal footing with them before God. But that is exactly what God’s grace does. By grace, God loves all, forgives all, and accepts all, with no conditions, no strings attached, no fine print, no qualifications, no limits, and no ongoing requirements. The grace of God is so outlandish and foreign to every human way of thinking and living, I believe that it is absolutely impossible for any human being to place too much emphasis on grace. Grace would still be extended even if Jesus never died on the cross.

The death of Jesus on the cross was because of God’s grace; not the grounds for it. Set before every man is a clear and succinct statement of warning and remedy. The warning is to all since “all have sinned” (Romans 3:23). Sin demands and deserves punishment (Romans 6:23). God is holy and just. A day of judgment looms in which “the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 4:6). They will “suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might” (2 Thessalonians 1:9). To die in one sin is to die and then stand before God with no remedy in hand. No defense or excuse will work to deflect His wrath. No amount of supposed self-righteousness will stay His fury. To die in one’s sins is to depart this life, troubled as it may be, to the existence of eternal woe. One can only imagine the pain and suffering of such a place, where there is eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:42).

There is a great chasm fixed between heaven and hell—there will be no future escape from pain or sorrow for the one who dies in his sins. The “unless” at the beginning of our text offers the one remedy through with certain doom can be avoided. The remedy lies in a person and is bound up in our response to Him. John wrote his gospel to proclaim the truth that “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” (John 20:30). Life is short. Death is sure. Sin the cause. Christ the cure! What is therefore extended to us after we have come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ is GRACE.

When I was working as a Personal Assistant to a Pastor at a church in Lagos, one of the nurses at one of our medical centers came to see the pastor on a Wednesday afternoon. She told the pastor she had fibroids, and the doctors advised her to surgically remove them so that they would not prevent her from having babies in the future. The pastor immediately swung into action. He asked her how much she needed for the surgery and told her to prepare a letter of request for financial support on a health basis and he approved the letter immediately. A week later, the fund was disbursed to the lady and she was given the next month off work, for the surgery and her recovery. A week after she embarked on the break-off work, my boss suddenly turned to me and asked me to invite three elders from the hospital visit department to his office. When they arrived, my boss discussed the case of the lady with them and asked them to buy whatever she might need and pay her a visit at the hospital. The elders left, the next day I got a call from one of the elders, she said they went to the hospital and discovered the lady was not a patient there. Upon further investigation, they discovered that she went for an abortion in another hospital while claiming she was having surgery to remove “fibroid”. This lady had deceived the Pastor, lied to the church, collected funds from the church under false pretenses, taken time off her job with the job under false pretenses, committed fornication, gotten pregnant outside of wedlock, and terminated the pregnancy with church funds thereby making the church an accomplice to the sin of abortion! Those were a few of the crimes she committed, which I could count off the cuff.

The pastor was informed, and all hell was let loose. A panel was set up to investigate the offenses alleged, the panel found her guilty, and judgment was swift and she was sacked immediately. The loan she took was deducted from the severance package that had been previously agreed upon in her contract. She was suspended as a church worker after her misdeed was made known to all. A week later, the Holy Spirit told the pastor to get a team and check up on this lady at her apartment. We met her in a state of great sorrow and remorse. Her mother and family welcomed us with shock, as they never expected the pastor himself to darken their door. The pastor went with me and two other sisters. The pastor explained to her why the actions he took were necessary, but he was determined not to throw away the baby with the bathwater. She told the pastor she needed another job because her income was what had been sustaining her family. The pastor offered her a job in another maternity clinic managed by the church immediately. The lady wept deeply at the love that was shown to her. She realized that the pastor saw her as a person and treated her not as one who had greatly offended him and the church but as someone who truly loves her and genuinely wished her well. As we left the church, one of the ladies that went with us said “I think the pastor is too lenient with her, we should have left her to suffer a bit more and not offer her another job. By offering her another job, the pastor is encouraging her to continue to sleep with men but this time she would be more discreet, and we may never know what she is up to. I think we should have come here, offer her an opportunity to attend a discipleship program as penance, and given her terms and conditions of rejoining the church. This to me is too much of kid’s gloves. I listened to the lady as she lamented on and on. It was my job to listen to the people and give good feedback to my boss, I didn’t bother mentioning the lady’s comment to him.

Human nature is very unpredictable in many cases. In some cases, the love shown to the lady will lead to repentance and she will go on to live a glorious life free of scandal and pain. In other cases, the love shown to the lady will lead to her believing she had been given a license to sleep around and mess up her life. This is entirely up to her, she had received grace, would she take advantage of it or abuse it? Three months later, the other lady who complained bitterly about the way my boss handled the case of the lady that got pregnant came to the office to register for marriage counseling. She and her intended were planning to get married, and they had gone through the round of talks and interviews with the designated church leaders. The final test and interview is conducted by my boss and the medical team. The medical team will take samples from both parties to check for genotypes, STDs, pregnancy and other things. My boss will talk to them about marriage and test their readiness for the journey ahead. The interview went well, the medical test came back, and the lady was discovered to be pregnant. On the day the result was to be delivered she arrived at my office at 9 am and begged me to let her take a peek at the result once it is delivered to my table. I told her the medical team would usually deliver the result directly to my boss but even if they delivered it to me, it would be against the rules for her to see or tamper with it before it got to my boss. She became very uncomfortable; I knew she was in soup. When my boss arrived at the office with the medical report in his hands. The laboratory technician must have called him about an issue, so he went to pick the result up himself. As soon as my boss saw her, he started laughing. He said, “The door has caught your fingers, Sister X” The sister began to weep immediately. She wanted the pastor to overlook the test result since she would be getting married the following day. The pastor invited her husband-to-be and the parents of both the bride and the groom We were in the office till midnight that day and the wedding was to hold the next morning. The rule of the church was clear: the wedding had to be canceled so that other would-be couples would not engage in premarital sex. The pastor didn’t want to set a precedence in which people would start saying he played favorite with a family by allowing their children to get married while the daughter was pregnant and then didn’t allow the same for others. The pastor came up with a bright idea the wedding will be held outside the church premises under a canopy by local government representatives by 9 am. The marriage certificate will be signed under the canopy. The couple will be pronounced husband and wife by the local government representatives by 10 am, the wedding thanksgiving will commence inside the church. The couple will dance, the choir will sing, there will be a word of admonition for the couple and the couple will receive the blessing of the church. There will be no exchange of rings inside the church and no joining by the pastor. The two families agreed as this would save them from a lot of embarrassment and a waste of resources. The wedding went on as planned the next day. A month later, the lady came to the office with her husband to thank the pastor for the wisdom with which he handled her delicate matter. The pastor said “I remember you were with me when I had to deal with the case of sister X when she had an abortion. I overheard you complaining that I was too lenient with her. Was it my leniency with her that encouraged you to engage in premarital sex? The lady shook her head. Was your husband the first man you ever had sex with? The lady kept quiet. Then the pastor turned to the husband, was your wife the first lady you ever had sex with? The husband shook his head. The pastor said “I have a duty to extend grace to all in equal measure. What everyone does with grace will be evident in their lives as individuals. Judas did not inspire Peter to deny the Lord. The extension of grace to anyone does not encourage others to misbehave. If anyone misbehaves, he or she would do so because that is who the person is We cannot remove air from circulation because some people breathe it and curse God who provides it.

The consequences of sister X’s sin were the loss of her job and church discipline. Grace, however, demands that she must be restored to the faith and given a second chance. The consequence of your misdeed was not getting married in the church or joined by any minister of the church. Grace, however, demands that your wedding be held and both your families must be preserved from embarrassment. If I had canceled your wedding some people would hail me as a disciplinarian and commend me for doing the right thing by upholding the rules and regulations of the church. If I had ignored sister X after she was sacked, she would have survived. Most likely she would have sex with someone again in order to get food on the table for her family, get another job eventually, and take the lesson that sin has consequences and grace has no second chances. I wanted her to know that sin has consequences, at the same time I wanted her to know grace will never lose a soul to condemnation.

Two weeks later, Sister X, came to the pastor’s office to start her marriage counseling class. She had learned from her mistake, and she was grateful for the second chance that grace extended to her.

PS: Grace is the cure of sin, the law brought by Moses failed to cure sin. Religion, established by Aaron, failed to cure sin, self-righteousness, promoted by the Pharisees and Sadducees failed to cure sin. Outward cleansing rite, promoted by the priests and John the Baptist failed to cure sin. Spirituality, promoted by the prophets failed to cure sin. Grace and Truth brought by Jesus killed sin completely. This is why the Bible said there is now no more condemnation for those who believe in the Lord Jesus. It is in Jesus that sin and all forms of condemnation died completely! What a believer does with grace in the first year after he or she becomes born again, is different from what he or she will do with grace in the twentieth year after he or she has come to believe. Nobody who is growing in grace will continue to be a babe in Christ. Therefore, you will continue to see growth in the evidence of the grace that a believer exhibits in his or her life and towards others as the believer grows.

The Holy Spirit is the spirit of Grace. When you see anyone who has received the abundance of grace In Christ abusing grace by deliberately doing something that is wrong or ungodly, be assured that such a person is only pretending to have encountered Christ indeed. Grace does not care what your background is whether you were abused, traumatized, abandoned, neglected, raped or misused by life and people, whether you were born into wealth, glamour, soft life, pampered, educated or enlightened by virtue of the place you were born or the people around you. A poor man may say, I steal because I do not have. A rich man may say, I do not steal because I have. Grace says to all “Receive me” and all things are yours.

-GSW-