- Apr 30, 2013
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Sure. But in the OP's example, we're talking about somebody who is, say, abstaining from being a prostitute in order to please somebody she cares for and maybe gain a meaningful relationship. Abstaining from being a prostitute is a good, not a sin. Pursuing marriage is also a good. Sure, God desires for people to come to His grace and to do everything for the purest motives, out of no other reason than love for him. But to say that pursuing those goods, for less-than-pure motives, is worthless or even sinful -- I have a very hard time swallowing that. Don't some traditions believe in "common grace" -- the idea that God gives His grace to the world, even to unbelievers, and by that grace draws people to the good and through the good, ultimately to Him?
Common grace doesn't mean the actions aren't still tainted by sin. They are not meritorious in any way towards salvation, at least.
Common grace does not draw us to God, only the Holy Spirit does that. It's a mistake to confuse Christianity with moralism. The same grace is freely given to all who believe, regardless of what kind of life they have lead. As Sister Helen Prejean, the famous advocate for those on death row once said, people are worth more than the worst thing they have ever done. That is all we are seeking to preserve through our preaching, that God's mercy is greater than our sins.
Well, we do take it one step further- God has real mercy on real sinners. If you are going to be a preacher of mercy, as Luther said, preach a real, and not a hypothetical, mercy, for real, and not hypothetical people.
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