What does ‘Sinning Away the Day of Grace’ Mean?
A Flawed Expression
Many people are troubled by the expression “sinning away the day of grace.” The fact is that this expression is not found in the Scriptures. There are, of course, many references to the term “grace” found throughout the Scriptures. Grace may be defined as “God’s response to man’s need.” Grace refers to the essential character of God and tells us what kind of God He is. God is, first of all, a God of grace, and from a God of grace comes multitudes of graces that meet man’s needs. Therefore, we may rightly say, all that comes to us from a God of grace, comes to us because He is a God of grace.
It should be further pointed out that the grace of God is revealed in Jesus Christ. God is the Fountain Head, but Christ is the Channel through which it (grace) flows to all men. In Titus 2:11, the Apostle Paul affirms truth by stating: “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. Salvation stands as the great demonstration that God — spontaneously, and apart from the merit and just desserts of the sinner — pours out mercy because He is a God of grace.”
An individual who refuses to appropriate the grace of God through Jesus Christ (rejecting Christ as his personal Savior) obviously dies outside the realm of grace (salvation). This may answer the question concerning can a person “sin away the day of grace.”
Please understand that God is a gracious God and spontaneously pours from Himself because He is an infinite provision for the needs of all men. For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is a gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast (Ephesians 2:8, 9). No man will properly understand the infinite grace of God until he understands, first of all, his own need of salvation. That is why, before we speak on the grace of God, we must speak of the depravity of man. Anyone who looks outside of Jesus Christ will see himself as Scripture sees him: lost, without hope, without God, without promise, without assurance that God could meet his needs. However, when a person sees God spontaneously pouring Himself out (through Jesus Christ suffering at Calvary) to meet the need of salvation in the individual’s life, He will have some concept of what it means to have received the grace of God.
When the Scriptures speak of the grace of God that has brought salvation, it includes within the meaning of the term “grace” all the spiritual blessings that the believer has in Christ. We are called by grace; we are justified by grace; we are sanctified by grace; we are sustained and kept by grace; we are equipped by grace; we are liberated from bondage, from sin, and from the law by grace; we are conformed to Christ by grace; we are reconciled by grace. God, in grace, has made a propitiation, a covering for our sins; God has provided redemption for all men through His Son, Jesus Christ. (Excerpts from THINGS WHICH BECOME SOUND DOCTRINE, by J. Dwight Pentecost, pp. 19-20)
