Carlos from El Paso asked this question on the radio broadcast this week.
The answer is yes. In the short letter of Jude near the end of the Bible we read this: “For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord” (Jude 1:4 NIV).
Godless people misinterpret grace. They pervert it for their own purposes. To them, it is a Justification for immoral behavior, a license to sin if you will. This view of grace is a denial of Jesus Christ, the One who is full of grace and truth.
We should expect this. As Jesus said, people exist who love darkness over light because their deeds are evil. It follows that these would take the amazing grace of God and pervert it for their evil purposes.
Many wonder if we should alter the way we communicate the grace of God to prevent these “godless men” from turning the grace of God into a license to sin. The answer is a resounding no! We should communicate grace in its purest form, trusting that those who respond to Jesus in faith will be made new, made alive and made right in God’s sight.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said this: “If your preaching of the gospel of God’s free grace in Jesus Christ does not provoke the charge from some of antinomianism, you’re not preaching the gospel of the free grace of God in Jesus Christ.”
Let’s communicate the fullness of God’s grace and leave the results to Him.
Have you ever thought you needed to change the way you communicate grace to keep some from seeing it as nothing more than a license to sin?
Amen to that. Some actually pervert God’s grace the opposite way, and place restrictions and legalism on God’s grace, and hence God’s grace is not grace at all with those folks.
Yes Jim, God’s grace gets hit from all sides. this should tell us something. If grace confounds the legalist, the antinomianist, and the wise, there must be something to it.
Thanks Bob.
When I share God’s pure grace with someone, it still amazes me when certain people assume that because I’m teaching total forgiveness and say that I’m as close to God as I can be through Jesus, that I must be teaching this to ease my own guilty conscience and I must be a greater sinner than they are! Otherwise, why else would I say such things? They don’t see that grace is the only way we can be forgiven and grace means we’re united to the perfectly, holy, perfectly joy, now risen Savior!
Ditto, Eric. I realize that those folks are still out there–the ones who teach grace as a license or any number of erroneous doctrines–I just hate being painted with the same brush when I’m stating that God has totally forgiven all of us.
Pride, I suppose.
God’s grace has been given to the whole world.
2CR 5:18-19 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself in Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling THE WORLD to himself in Christ, NOT COUNTING MEN’S SINS AGAINST THEM …..
There is not one person in the entire world that has not been reconciled to God by the sacrifice of Christ Jesus. To deny that is to deny the word of God.
Rather than interpret that grace as a license to sin, one needs to understand that you have been set free from the power of sin.
Rom 8:2 because through Christ Jesus the Law of the Spirit of life has set me free from the Law of sin and death.
In Christ sin no longer results in death, thus the power of sin, which is the law, no longer is your master.
1Cor 15:56 The sting of death is sin,and the power of sin is the law.
Rom 6:14 For sin SHALL NOT BE YOUR MASTER, because you are not under law, but under grace.
When one determines that they will or will not behave a certain way in order to attain a righteousness of their own, they have put themselves under law and the power of sin. When they believe God that they have a righteousness from God, apart from law,(their behavior), sin loses power over you.
Romans 3:21 But now a righteousness from God, APART FROM THE LAW, has been made known, to which the law and the prophets testify.
Romans 7:8 But sin, SEIZING THE OPPORTUNITY AFFORDED BY THE COMMANDMENT, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from the law, SIN IS DEAD.
Well said William.
Thanks Bob for reminding us to continue speaking Truth and to leave the results to Him.
I’ve found that my attitude towards people is just as important as speaking Words of Truth, as people pick-up on whether I genuinely care about them, or just want to be ‘right’. Please correct me if I’m off track, but if my attitude is one of judgement (eg), then the words I speak to that person will be received in the wrong way, and create antagonism.
On the radio, I hear the respect and genuine desire to help that all of you have for people and in turn, people feel free to be themselves with you. I am beginning to see that love for people seems to be the key – patience being the first in the list of God’s definition of love, followed by kindness… Help!!!
However, words of Grace and Truth do provoke some people, which ever way it’s put over, but hopefully a door will always be open for future conversations.
Bob George used to say, “Be at peace with all men… But that doesn’t mean all men will want to be at peace with you.”
I’ve found this is very true, and at the end of the day, all we can do is leave the results to our God.
I thank God for His patience with ME! Completely undeserved favour and love – His amazing Grace…
Thanks for standing firm on the pure grace of God. I reckon those that oppose this Truth do not fully understand how to live as a new creation or in the new covenant.
Their eyes are still veiled from seeing the surpassing glory of the new covenant….they are still blinded by the pride in believing that one is capable of conquering sin through sheer self effort or a strict regime of regulations and discipline….instead of receiving the gift of the grace of God that enables them not to sin….and this basically means that they have unrenewed old covenant mindsets.
I know it is not easy to share this very good news without being accused of antinomianism. I have gone through that and I now believe that our part is to continue sowing the seeds of this goodnews to them,and let God brings the growth (1Cor3:6)..let God remove the scales from their eyes. What we do after sowing is to rest in Him.
Caje, thanks for the strong words of encouragement. Regardless of what people think, they need Jesus. They need His grace.
A man ‘’not understanding’’ the gospel correctly, believes that Jesus died to pay for his sins and rose from the tomb for his justification, but also misunderstood there was noting left for him to do but to believe in Jesus as his savior by faith based on what Jesus did for him. He mistakenly thought he was also required to live a Godly life and confess his sins to God to maintain his salvation.
Would God choose (A.) or (B.) from below?
(A.) Man, you make a mistake as Titus 3:5 states, man is saved by my mercy, my grace, and not by your works of righteousness. Therefore because you added works to what Jesus did for you, you are lost and sentenced to perish in the lake of fire. Sorry for your misunderstanding.
(B.) Man, because you believe that Jesus died to pay for your sins and rose from the dead for your justification, you are saved. But you should have studied as I directed you through my word, and learned that your efforts to live a Godly life and confess your sins to me daily, play no part in your salvation. I am saving your based only on the fact that you believed in Jesus and NOT because you endevioured to live a Godly life and confessing your sins to me.
Thank you,
Jimmy Hanratty
No one can help me with this?
Jimmy, God always extends grace. To the lost, His word is grace. To the struggling, worn-out and weary believer, His word is grace.
Every believer at some point in their Christian experience believes it is up to them to maintain their salvation, or to stay in fellowship with God. But God doesn’t leave them there. His grace continues to work in their lives. His Spirit continues to teach that apart from Christ we can do nothing and urges us to abide in Him.
Christ began a good work in us, a work of grace, and He will bring it to completion.
Jimmy, I wonder if you might like to look at a previous blog, “A hard lesson from a great teacher”. It may help.
Why is there such an argument in the church over the preachers of the grace message? Calling many of them heretics or Gnostics saying they preach an “excessive grace” message. Causing division in the church.