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I think something that is just not sinking into Phil's mind is NOBODY is saying Christians can or should live ungodly sinful lives because they are saved by grace and not works. That is the common accusation most works-based religions make - it was something the Apostle Paul was slammed with, too. But just like he explained, our good works cannot save us, keep us saved or make us in the least bit worthy of God's grace - that's WHY it is by grace. The born again child of God will be disciplined by the Father and continuously undergoing sanctification. Jesus has promised that of all that the Father gives Him he would lose NOTHING, He will never cast us out and we shall never perish but have eternal life. The indwelling Holy Spirit by whom we are sealed until the day of our redemption moves us towards holiness, convicts us of sin and brings us to repentance. Some are further along their path than others, some are more stubborn, some are more submissive just like children are, but God is at work within each one of us conforming us into the image of Christ. If we truly are walking by faith, loving the Lord and being grateful for what He has done for us, we WILL be obedient children. Though we may stumble and fail at times, He is always drawing us back to Him ready to forgive us and restore us to fellowship. But one thing is sure - our good deeds, holy lives or acts of obedience are never part of the salvation equation. The second we start thinking we must add to Christ's righteousness, we stop trusting in Him, we fall from grace.

We cannot know the state of another's soul nor their innermost relationship with God. Only God sees the heart - we can only look on the outward appearance which is why we are told to not pass judgement on someone else's eternal destiny.

"A prince, while he is a little child, is presumably as willful and as ignorant as other little children. Sometimes he may be very obedient and teachable and affectionate, and then he is happy and approved. At other times he may be unruly, self-willed, and disobedient, and then he is unhappy, and perhaps is chastised—but he is just as much a prince on the one day as on the other. It may be hoped that, as time goes on, he will learn to bring himself into willing and affectionate subjection to every right way, and then he will be more princely, but not more really a prince. He was born a prince" (C.I.Scofield, Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth).

......”NOBODY is saying Christians can or should live ungodly sinful lives because they are saved by grace and not works”.....

Correct. But there are those who are “afraid” people will just continue life as before once they are saved .....and those types want to determine the path of Christians by their Institutional requirements rather than the leading and work of the Holy Spirit. Thus they incorporate rituals and various other hoops to jump through in order to sustain their Institution and it's practices.....just as they did when they Incorporated Rome's pattern of hierarchy centuries ago. And today there are many 'other' like them.

Dontcha love how people who blow a gasket at the thought that someone would make a judgment about the state of their soul then goes on and demands that we make that very judgment about a public figure whom we don’t know personally based on some moral failure in their lives?

Works based religionists have always accused those who adhere to the gospel of grace of taking sin too lightly.

What they don’t understand is how the new birth creates in one a spirit that does not want to sin instead of looking for every opportunity to sin since there are no outside constraints imposed on them. They do not understand the internal control that one can exercise because they have never been born of the spirit.

Their carnal mind sees the lack of outside control, the Law, as license to sin because that’s what they would do if they were in our place.