We have faith in God’s power to save. But, we lack faith in God’s power to transform.

Rom 6:11 (NIV) In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

We were too weak to save ourselves. Therefore we had to turn to God for salvation. Now that we are saved, we find ourselves too weak to stop sinning (Romans 7:15-24). Therefore we have to turn to God for transformation (Romans 12:1-2). We needed God’s help regarding the penalty of sin. If something didn’t get done, we were going to have to pay the PENALTY for all the sins we were committing.

So, God forgave us for all our sins.

This is the introductory part of our message, first to the unsaved person and then to the new Christian. If the unsaved person doesn’t know they are going to get this grace period, they will worry about the power sin has always had over them. If the new Christian doesn’t know they have this cover, they will see the inconsistencies in their life and doubt the power of God or doubt their commitment to God. But, we have to start giving them some hope for their future. They have to be told that this isn’t the way their life is going to stay. We have to start them on an IMMEDIATE series of training that will help them see some success over their inconsistencies.