Question:  Dear Greg,

            How does God see a person who is having a hard time quitting a particular sin or keeps committing the same sin, but is very remorseful afterwards?

            Bill

Answer:  Dear Bill,

            God loves us all.  He loves us based upon his goodness, not our own.  He loves us and saves us not because of what we do or the good works we produce, but because of his love.  We are saved by grace.

            God saves us by his grace, full well knowing that we remain human, and that we will sin (see Romans 7; 1 John 1:8).  But we should also note that God does not save us so that we can remain in our sins (see Romans 6:1 and following).  In fact, the entire book of Romans—specifically the first eight chapters are addressed to your questions and would be a profitable study for you.

            God saves us because he loves us, but he loves us so much that he does not allow us to remain in the same condition we lived in before he saved us.  Christ now lives his life within us, we are new men and women of God (Galatians 2:20)—so that while we will occasionally sin because of our sinful human nature, we will more often than not behave as Christians—not because of our goodness, but because of God’s.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht