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Psalm 78:56-64  

But they put God to the test and rebelled against the Most High; they did not keep his statutes. Like their ancestors they were disloyal and faithless, as unreliable as a faulty bow. They angered him with their high places; they aroused his jealousy with their idols. When God heard them, he was furious; he rejected Israel completely. He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent he had set up among humans. He sent the ark of his might into captivity, his splendor into the hands of the enemy. He gave his people over to the sword; he was furious with his inheritance. Fire consumed their young men, and their young women had no wedding songs; their priests were put to the sword, and their widows could not weep.

Grace: God gives us what we don’t deserve.
Mercy: God doesn’t give us what we do deserve.

Everyone loves grace and mercy. We wouldn’t exist without them. God’s free gift of salvation is wrapped in grace. God’s sustaining work of spiritual growth is undergirded by grace. God’s gift of the Holy Spirit is His grace empowered. We love grace and mercy. That’s why we have a problem with today’s passage.

Along with God’s grace and mercy is His hatred of sin. Sin is contrary to His person and against His instruction. He hates sin so much that He sent Jesus to carry our sins to the cross—and sin has consequences. Whatever a man sows that will he also reap. 

We will continue to embrace grace. It really is amazing. But it’s not to be used as a trump card to sin. Let’s be as adamant about obedience before we sin as we are with grace afterward.

Father, thank You for Your amazing grace. May I never take it for granted or use it as a license to sin. Don’t let me play the grace card when I desire to wander from Your instruction. In Jesus’ name. Amen.