Grace is more.
A Christian Guidebook: What Is Grace? (3)
Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Jude 1.3, 4
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! Romans 6.1, 2
Cheap grace
In his book, The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer warned against letting anything other than the plain teaching of Scripture serve as the touchstone for our faith.
And that includes grace.
Bonhoeffer knew that, when grace becomes the watchword for all things Christian, grace can easily become misconstrued and misapplied, so that, ultimately, grace becomes corrupted and abused. At such times, rather than being free and glorious, grace becomes cheap and useless.
Grace is important. Our faith is all of grace, and we need grace to help in all our times of need.
But grace does not trump truth. It does not trump Jesus Christ. We need to keep grace in its proper place—under truth and from and for Jesus Christ and His glory. Otherwise, grace is cheapened, faith is cheapened, and Christ and the Gospel are betrayed. Anyone who insists that grace is the measure of all things Christian has an axe to grind, an agenda to push, or a preferred practice to protect. What he doesn’t have is the mind of Christ concerning grace.
Two situations
Grace is not a license to sin, as some people might suppose: “Oh, I don’t worry about sin; God’s grace is sufficient for all my sins.” We see this clearly from two situations in the New Testament, one involving the apostle Paul, and one involving the apostle Jude.
In Rome, apparently some people, claiming to be followers of Christ, had taken grace as the guiding principle for Christian life. They were redefining grace to make it fit their preferred lifestyles. They were using the idea of grace as an excuse for not pressing on in their faith, not working out their salvation in fear and trembling, and not moving on from their sinful pasts. They even insisted that this was what Paul taught (Rom. 3.7, 8)! They saw themselves as the keepers of grace, and they used their presumed spiritual heritage as a way of treating other believers as second-class citizens.
In Romans chapters 2-6, Paul confronted that perverse and subversive spirituality, and commanded the believers in Rome to get their priorities straight. They needed to put to death everything that stood in the way of progress in faith and stop using grace as a Get-Out-of-Jail-Free card or a sledgehammer to beat up on others.
Jude warned of an even more disconcerting situation. Some teachers, using grace as their baseline priority, were going so far as to endorse and commend moral practices which were clearly contrary to Scripture. They were turning “the grace of our God into lewdness.” Lexicographers Louw and Nida explain the Greek word, ἀσέλγεια, aselgeia—lewdness—as “behavior completely lacking in moral restraint, usually with the implication of sexual licentiousness—licentious behavior, extreme immorality.”
In other words, these teachers were endorsing conduct that was, by Biblical standards, immoral, perhaps to justify their own conduct. They had put grace above truth, hoping to create a new standard of truth to justify their moral preferences. They said it was gracious to tolerate practices and lifestyles that were contrary to the plain teaching of Scripture. They were making grace a license to sin, and by so doing, robbing it of its power to save.
Thus they were denying the one true God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace becomes spoiled manna when we try to make it go further than God intends—putting it in the place of Scripture and Jesus Christ—and using a semblance of grace as the defining motif for our views and actions.
Revoking the license to sin
Don’t we see similar situations in churches today, where, in the name of “grace”, sin is downplayed, certain sins are tolerated, we turn a blind eye to immoral behavior, and in some cases even go so far as to condone practices that are consistently condemned in Scripture?
All in the name of grace! As if to say that where sin abounds, grace should all the more abound, refusing to pass judgment, confront, or correct, and blinking at the obvious presence of vile transgression. Where “grace” like this abounds, you can be sure that sin willall the more abound, truth will turn squishy, and Jesus will turn His face away from His people.
Grace is not a license to sin.
And wherever we have tried to make it so, we need to repent of that mindset, revoke that license, reclaim the true meaning of grace, and plead with God to give us real grace to help in our time of need.
Only when we understand and practice grace as God defines it, will we know grace as He intends— wonderful grace, amazing grace, grace that is greater than—and not a license for—all our sins.
Search the Scriptures
1. In Matthew 16.21, 22 Peter seems to have been trying to do something gracious. Explain. In verse 23, how did the Lord respond to Peter?
2. In verse 23, how did Jesus describe Peter’s sincere attempt to spare Him suffering? How do such “things” find their way into our own lives?
3. Jesus explained that the “things of God” have precedence over whatever we might think to be a good or gracious idea. What are the “things of God”? How can we make sure that the “things of God” have priority of place in our thinking, planning, and living for Jesus?
Next steps—Preparation: What is your current practice of becoming steeped in “the things of God”? How can you improve this? Seek the Lord in prayer, asking Him to review your time in His Word and to guide and direct you if in any way you need to improve your study of “the things of God”.
T. M. Moore
Additional Resources
If you have found this study helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
This part of our study of A Christian Guidebook is adapted from our book, Grace for Your Time of Need. You can order this book by clicking here or download a free PDF by clicking here. And while you’re at it, download the Leader’s Guide for teaching Grace for Your Time of Need by clicking here.
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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
