Tag Archives: disgraceful behavior

Generous Grace

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As I thought more about the massive furor over the issue of grace (or what some people are calling hyper-grace), I began to wonder why some people are so resistant to the idea.  Of course control is a major issue, which I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, Dis-graceful Conduct.  But as I thought about it more, I began to wonder why some people—good people, godly people, including friends of mine—were so rabidly and viciously coming out against the idea of the full grace of God.  I asked myself why they couldn’t accept God’s generosity.

That’s when it dawned on me: they have trouble accepting God’s generosity because true generosity is so very rare these days.  They don’t trust generosity in their fellow humans because it rarely comes without a price-tag of some sort.  So along comes God into their lives, and His generosity is so immense that they simply cannot bring themselves to believe it.

Think about it: God offers us eternal life with Him in Heaven, a place that is so wonderful and beautiful that it defies description (1 Corinthians 2:9).   And all we have to do is to repent and believe.

But the sweet by-and-by is not all that we get.  We also get real and practical help throughout our life here on earth (Matthew 7:7-8).  And all we have to do is to ask, believing.

But that’s not all we get.  Every day as we live in the continual outpouring of God’s love, we become more and more like Jesus (2 Corinthians 3:17-18).  And all we have to do is follow Him, believing.

And that’s not all we get.  The Holy Spirit gives us gifts for ministering to our fellow humans so that we can live together in harmony as the Body of Christ here on earth (1 Corinthians 12 & 13).  And all we have to do is follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, believing.

But that’s still not all we get.  Someday—and it’s going to be soon!—Jesus will come rapture away His church to escape the Tribulation and instead enjoy a 7 year wedding feast: ours to Jesus! (Matthew 25:1-13 & Revelation 21).  And all we have to do is keep doing the work He has given us to do, believing.

So it’s not all a control issue.  Plus, I think that it’s not only a matter of looking for the hidden price-tag on God’s Generous Grace.  As I dug a little deeper, I realized that some people have trouble accepting even a compliment from a friend.  Compliments don’t often come with a price-tag, so why would people have trouble accepting compliments?  Because they don’t feel like they deserve it.  Likewise, they have trouble with the full generosity of God’s Grace because they know that they don’t deserve it.  Of course they don’t!  None of us do!  The definition of grace is unmerited favor.  When we are born-again, we are given what we don’t deserve because Jesus took the punishment that He didn’t deserve.  And all in the name of Love.

Grace is powerful.  It can transform lives by the power of love.  His love for us transforms us from strangers into daughters and sons of the Most High God.  And our love for Him transforms us into victorious overcomers as we live to please our Generous God.

Grace is generous—mind-blowingly generous.  Man’s generosity comes with a price-tag.  God’s generosity also comes with a price-tag: come and die.  But then He promises that if we lose our life for Him, we gain it (Matthew 10:39; John 12:25), so that in the end, the cost of enjoying God’s generosity has been paid for us, and all we have to do is live it out, believing.  Trust God!  Why?  Because God is good!

Dis-Graceful Conduct

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I have heard and read so much against the so-called hyper-grace movement lately that I feel like I must speak up.  People have stopped preaching the Gospel so that they can preach against the preachers who preach about Grace.  Now who do you think is really behind that?  If you want a clue, let me say it again: People have stopped preaching the Gospel so that they can preach against the preachers who preach about Grace.

And here’s what they say about them: that they are teaching people that there is no need for repentance.  I have never heard any of the grace preachers saying anything of the sort.  It’s ridiculous!  Joseph Prince is the main preacher accused of preaching hyper-grace.  I have never heard Joseph Prince preach that sin is OK with God.

But what I have heard is his accusers mixing law in with the message of grace.  Why would they do that?  Because they don’t really understand the power of grace.  They use the law as a means of controlling new believers until they know how to behave.  If Joseph Prince and the other grace preachers are guilty of anything, it’s trusting the Holy Spirit too much.  That’s right, they leave the picky little transitional tweaks up to the Holy Spirit.  Girls, new believers, that haven’t figured out yet that they need to dress more modestly, and men who still cuss.  Rather than wag his finger at them, he preaches the message of grace.

The message of grace is the message of how much God loves us, and it’s that love that changes us from the inside out.  We came to Christ based on love.  It is an ever-deepening knowledge of that love that gives us the power to change.  Not a change based on external pressure, but change born of our own reciprocal love for a God who loves us much more than we can ever understand.  It is our love for God that makes us want to live our lives in such a way that we please Him and bring glory to His Name.

Anybody who claims to be born again, but continues in sin is not really born again (1 John 1:6 & 2:15).  The litmus test for this is fruit.  What kind of fruit does their life bear?  If they are continuing in sin, that will be obvious to all sooner or later.  If someone is determined to continue in their sin, no amount of preaching or “discipling” by controlling their behavior will work in the end.

But when someone really grasps “how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ” (Ephesians 3:18), there really is only one response: to live to please Him.  They don’t have to constantly check themselves for hidden sins and doctrinal error because they willingly lay aside their flesh and begin to live in the Spirit and to walk in the power of that same grace that saved them.  That’s why it’s important to preach the Gospel of Grace, and to keep emphasizing the love of God.  Judgment is surely and swiftly coming.  But while the fear of Judgment might get some people in the door, it is the love that saves them, and love that helps them to truly walk in the “newness of life,” (Romans 6:4).

Believing that you must control new believers is flesh and it is unbelief.  Grace is available not only to save, but to empower the new life.  Let go and let God.