Is Our Justification an Excuse to Sin?

Matthew 20:1-16; 1 Corinthians 9:24-10:5

February 1st, 2026

In the parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard, we Christians are the laborers God has brought into the vineyard, His Kingdom, through faith in the work of Christ alone. All the laborers in the Kingdom of God are equal. No one is greater or more deserving of salvation than anyone else. We all came into the Kingdom through faith by hearing the Word of Christ. There will be no distinction on the Last Day between you and me or the thief on the cross.

The parable’s message is simple. It is justification through faith in Christ alone. This is the most important teaching of the Christian faith. Without justification through faith in Christ alone there is no Church. Justification is not based on anything we do. We don’t earn our way into heaven with our good works or any ability within us to live a good Christian life. Salvation is a free gift. Our sins are freely forgiven for the sake of Christ and His work in our place on the Cross.

In Article IV of the Augsburg Confession on Justification we confess:

1 Our churches teach that people cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works. 2 People are freely justified for Christ’s sake, through faith, when they believe that they are received into favor and that their sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake. By His death, Christ made satisfaction for our sins. 3 God counts this faith for righteousness in His sight (Romans 3 and 4 [3:21–26; 4:5].¹

Justification is at the heart of the message of the parable of the Workers in the Vineyard. I suppose we could stop right there and call it good. We need nothing else for eternal salvation other than faith in Christ alone. It is true. But we need to say more. More about our life in this body of flesh as those who’ve been redeemed and brought into the vineyard through faith in Christ alone.

It’s not that we don’t understand justification or believe it. We do. It’s the heart and center of our teaching and preaching in the true Christian Church. But we have a problem. It’s that we want to stop right there with justification. We don’t want to hear that this faith in Christ alone that justifies and saves us has also changed us. We now have new impulses and desires that want to live differently as those taken into God’s Kingdom. Along with those new impulses and desires we have new strength and ability to live differently. To fight, resist, and turn from sin in our lives.

Now Jesus Himself is at work in us. He has sent His Holy Spirit into our hearts to rule, comfort, and make us alive. He is the one defending us from the devil and the power of sin.² He has given us a desire not to turn back to our old habits and ways, our sin. We now have a righteous desire for new habits and ways that turn from sin and reflect the life of Christ who is our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. This is the necessary fruit of faith that should be evident in our lives in thought, word, and deed. We should see a real progression in the faith that manifests itself in a greater ability to resist sin and not so easily continue to give into the same vile things over and over again.

But our flesh is deceptive above all things. The flesh uses the teaching of justification to try and convince us that it’s actually fine to keep on sinning because we know we can’t stop. And besides Jesus has us covered.

It’s true, Jesus does indeed have us covered. And we face a battle in the flesh that we can’t win or overcome through our own efforts. And we know we will fall again and again into sin. So maybe we should just give up the fight against sin and use the Gospel as an excuse to continue in our old habits and ways.

Paul wrote in Romans 7:18-19:

“For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.”

And we stop right there and say, “See, I can’t do anything about my sin. I am destined to continue my evil ways! All that matters is that I am forgiven.”

We shut our ears to what else the Holy Spirit speaks to us about sin and our new life in Christ filled with the Spirit. We fail to see the distinction between life in the flesh and life in the Spirit. Our motto becomes, “Sin boldly, Jesus forgives me.” Kinda true. Except the flesh likes the sin boldly part. The flesh wants us to abandon the new way of the Spirit we are born into through faith. The flesh says it’s fine you’re forgiven; you can’t help it. Go ahead indulge the flesh today. Repent tomorrow.

Our broken flesh is deceptive above all things. The flesh is working hard to pull us back into the darkness through complacency, callousness and just pure laziness.

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

We’ve been born of the Spirit and brought into the Kingdom of God. We are now different.

We are deceiving ourselves if we think for a moment that we can’t resist sin and make progress in the faith. We’ve been brought from death to life through God’s Word and the Spirit. We are delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of Jesus. We don’t walk in the flesh, but in the Spirit. And that changes how we live in this body of flesh. We have a new mindset and way of looking at our life in the body of flesh as we are filled with the Spirit.

In the epistle reading from 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 Paul wrote:

²⁴ Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. ²⁵ Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we imperishable. ²⁶ So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. ²⁷ But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

Paul compared this Christian life to a race. A race is difficult. It can be painful. You must have endurance. It takes training and preparation. Physical and mental. There is an end goal and prize. There is forward looking and progress toward the goal. It takes effort. It takes discipline of body and mind. This discipline doesn’t save us or bring more assurance of salvation. It is simply who we are and what we do now as those of body, mind, and soul redeemed and filled with the Spirit.

The Christian life is not some spiritual journey disconnected from our bodies. The Christian life is all about the life lived in the body, with a mind and a soul. The full person. God’s creation. All redeemed by Christ.

Paul understood the serious dichotomy we face as those justified and saved today and yet those in an ongoing battle in the sinful flesh that is opposed to the Spirit at work in us. Paul wrote extensively about justification through faith in Christ alone. Paul also wrote extensively about how those saved through faith in Christ alone should now walk in the Spirit even though burdened by the sinful flesh.

To walk in the Spirit is the work of God but it also means we now are given the desire and ability to actively work to resist sin and fight the urges of the flesh. Discipline our bodies and minds. Strive to live life according to God’s will and desire and not our own.

In Romans 13:13-14 Paul wrote:

“Let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”

In 2 Corinthians 13:5 he wrote:

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

Time and time again the Holy Spirit speaking through Paul exhorts us to examine ourselves and turn from the sinful ways of the flesh and walk in the Spirit.

True repentance isn’t just saying, “I am sorry Jesus, please forgive me. Oh, but I have no intention of changing my ways.” True repentance is recognizing our sin, turning from it, and not making evil, wicked plans to go back to the sin again.

Yes, we sin in thought, word and deed every day. Our sinful condition will remain with us in this life even as God continues to forgive us and work sanctification in us with His Word and Holy Spirit. But sinning is not our practice. Righteousness is now our practice. Are we practicing sinning or righteousness?

Test yourselves. Examine your lives. What sins have you accepted in your life and decided aren’t really that big of a deal. Or sins that you have decided you are just too weak to resist so you’ve resigned yourself to continue with the sin because you can’t help it and Jesus will forgive you anyway.

That’s not repentance. Don’t deceive yourself. With true repentance through the power of the Gospel there is a sincere desire and effort to turn from the sin and not go back to it.

Yes, we will trip and we will fall again and again. But we get up and keep pushing forward away from the sin and further into Christ. We do this by hearing and receiving His Word and His Sacraments over and over again. And He forgives us over and over again. And the Gospel received that forgives us is Jesus in His fullness and He strengthens us to resist and fight against the flesh and its desires.

That’s how we stay in the race and keep pushing forward to obtain the prize. That’s how we progress in the faith and become stronger against sin. Knowing it is God who is working in us to repent us and recreate us back into the image of Jesus.

A bit later Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:13:

“No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”

God is the one giving you the strength and ability. Don’t resist the work He is doing in you. Let His Word shape you and form you and save you. Don’t use your justification through faith in Christ alone as a reason to continue in your sin.

We have been given the way of escape. The way of escape is in the Word and the Sacraments. That is the Gospel. That is the power of salvation. It saves you and it gives you the strength to live differently. If you abstain from the Word and Sacraments when you have no reason to; you will fail to meet the test. Your faith will weaken. Your flesh will grow stronger and along with it, your sin.

On the other hand, if you continue to receive and abide in the Word and Sacraments often, you have the assurance that God is the one working in you and you will meet the test. Your faith will grow stronger and your ability to fight against your sin and your broken flesh will increase. You will finish the race and receive the prize. May God continue to grant us the strength to run the race, to examine, repent, turn, receive and endure in the vineyard until the Final Day. In Jesus name. Amen.