Just read a great article by Steve Brown. Steve is a speaker, author, seminary professor, etc. He posted this on his blog about 2-3 months ago. Relevant picked it up and ran it (in the following condensed format) in one of their newsletters...

THREE FREE SINS
by Steve Brown

I’m a fairly controversial teacher, and I’ve never quite understood that. There is a disconnect between how I think of myself and how others think of me. I see myself as a rather conservative, benign, old white guy who studies the Bible and attempts to tell people what it says. I try to do it so that people won’t get bored and can see the great heritage of truth Christians have (and pagans should want). Sometimes, in order to get people to listen, I do push the envelope a bit, but I’m just a teacher trying to deal with Truth in my life and teach it to others. That shouldn’t be controversial, right?

Wrong. People get really angry. Maybe there is something about me that just ticks people off.

Perhaps people want a guru who lives everything he teaches, and they get quite upset when I say that I don’t. The dumbest advice ever given to preachers is that they shouldn’t teach what they don’t live. What? If that were the standard, most preachers would preach only two 10-minute sermons a year … and then repent of one of them.

It could be that one can’t understand and rejoice in radical grace unless one first knows that one needs it. And so, in order to walk down the pedagogical road with me, one has to see one’s dirt, and some folks are more into being right than being His. Self-righteousness can be a horrible thing. (I know, I know. What I just wrote was quite self-righteous, and I will repent of it later.)

It could be that people are angry because what I teach is wrong. Could be. In fact, I think that 50 percent of what I teach is probably wrong—I just don’t know which 50 percent.

I don’t think there is anything I say that causes more people to be more upset than when I give away “three free sins.” Most people get upset because it seems that I’m taking sin too lightly. Maybe sometimes I do. They think that I don’t care about holiness and sanctification. Maybe sometimes that’s true. There are those who say that I encourage sin—but people seemed to be doing OK in that area before I came along.

I got an email about that the “three free sins” thing recently. The writer of it didn’t have a critical spirit; he was genuinely puzzled and concerned. He wrote that he liked my talk show, Steve Brown Etc., but that this “three free sins thing is going too far.” He added, “I pray that whoever receives this email will show it to Steve.”

First, I do hope the emailer’s faith grew with the answer to his prayer. I saw it. Second, this gentleman gets three free sins for having expressed his concern. Third, let me give you an explanation about “three free sins.”

The writer said in his email that I was giving permission for “murder, rape and drunkenness.” Well OK … but not really. While, as a pastor, I did say a number of times that there was nothing wrong with the Church that I couldn’t fix with a few funerals, I honestly don’t know any Christian who is looking for permission to murder anyone. I haven’t met any Christians who could hardly wait to be rapists or to get plastered. And that’s the point. Every Christian I know wants to be better than he or she is. There may be an exception to that, but I haven’t found one. In other words, most Christians aren’t getting any better, and sometimes they are getting worse—but they really want to be better.

Do you know why most Christians don’t get any better or why you don’t get any better? It’s because you’re doing it wrong! You are obsessed with sin, and your faith has become another “system of laws” whereby you feel guilty and try and try and try to do better. It doesn’t work, never has worked and never will work. Only really shallow people keep doing the same thing over and over again with the same result, thinking that the next time the result will be different. So stop it. You’re just making a mess out of it. People get better by obsessing on Jesus and His love … not by obsessing on their own sin and disobedience. That’s what the cross is about: a covering for sin. Not only that, the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to our account is a gift beyond measure assuring that God’s anger will never be directed at us again. (And, by the way, an obsession with sin may be the greatest form of pride. Frankly, it is quite narcissistic.)

Not only does the Christian get three free sins … Christians get unlimited free sins. I don’t know a better way to get people thinking about God’s unbelievable love and grace than by granting them what He has already granted. The gift one receives along with “three free sins” is the gift of an unbelievable, amazing and surprising faithfulness.

So, dear friend, you get the free sins. You can have more if you want them … but you probably won’t.

Steve Brown is a talk-show host, author of numerous books including A Scandalous Freedom, seminary professor and much-indemand speaker. Steve’s unique blend of orthodoxy and controversy, humor and profundity and a refusal to play religious games has set him apart as a seasoned representative of the biblical message of radical grace and freedom. Visit SteveBrownEtc.com to hang out with “The Old White Guy” and his friends.