The fact that
the title of Charles Swindoll’s 1990 release, The Grace Awakening, prompted the title for these little thoughts
of mine should in no way be construed as a swipe at that author. I love
Swindoll’s writings. I always have. The aforementioned book, regularly
reprinted, calls believers to not simply believe the doctrines of grace, but to
also live according to the power of grace. From time to time, we need such
reminders. The “practical religion” dimension of Christianity all too easily
descends into a pattern of lists for holy living. Such lists (law) are imposed
by one Christian or leadership entity onto others, culminating in believers
descending into a spiritual morass of constant striving and moral failing.
However, a
number of folks in the past have also said things to this effect, “Wherever
grace is preached accurately, someone is going to find a way to twist it.” In
fact, Peter may have been the first. Speaking of the Lord’s patience, which leads
to our salvation:
… 15And count the patience of our
Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according
to the wisdom given him, 16as he does in all his letters when he
speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to
understand, which the ignorant and the unstable twist to their own destruction,
as they do the other scriptures. – 2 Peter 3:15, 16
Is it
far-fetched to suggest that the pendulum has swung a bit on this matter of
grace (as falsely embraced) and law? While we will always need warnings against
trying to secure God’s favor by our own meritorious deeds, I don’t get the
sense that too many Christians are trying to do that these days. In many
quarters of Christendom, the legalist has been effectively marginalized, and
rightly so. But, are modern notions of grace that have pushed aside legalism
the same as that grace of which Paul (or, for that matter, Swindoll) wrote?
Grace,
improperly understood, leads to license. By grace, we are saved, but saved from
what? We are saved from the wrath of God. We are saved from the eternal
punishment of our sins. We are saved from the current power of sin over our
lives. More and more, I am not so sure that the modern church even acknowledges
these things as dangers.
Grace reminds us
that we are free from the law and from the horrors that accompany all attempts
to merit God’s favor. We need to be awakened
to these truths often. On the other hand, counterfeit grace, cheap grace, easy
believism … label it as you wish … is pandemic in this current church age and
it renders believers comatose to
important themes such as the holiness of God, the heinousness of sin, the
depravity of an unrepentant soul, distinct moral positions as old as Genesis, as well as a plethora of other
themes essential to orthodox Christian practice. The notion of mortifying one’s
sinful natures, that is, accepting some participatory role in fighting one’s
own sinful tendencies, is unheard of in many Christian churches.
God’s love has
widely been declared as “unconditional,” apparently meaning, that contrary to
what Paul would tell us, God is quite okay with being mocked by believers who
refuse to abandon or even resist their sinful ways. Off and on, through the
ages, the world has scoffed at biblical morals. Many churches have simply
caved-in on such matters, as they affirm open homosexuality, some to the point
of performing same-sex marriages. Then, they market their disbelief and
compromise as “love.”
At some point,
the church replaced its God-given mandate to preach the Gospel and to make
disciples for Jesus with its own man-conceived mandate of “growing the church.”
Compromising the Gospel becomes inevitable whenever it ceases to be central.
Certainly, we need to be awakened to grace whenever we fall into a mindset of
works salvation. But, when the doctrine of grace is twisted by “the ignorant and the unstable” or by
those who preach to tickle the ears of their hearers, believers must be aroused
from the coma that ensues. A gospel that redefines sin is not the Gospel
of Christ. Any grace that dismisses essential attributes of God’s character or
of His holy hatred of our sin is not the grace of God revealed in the cross. On
the contrary, it entirely misses the entire point of both grace and the cross.
1What shall we say then? Are we
to continue to sin that grace may abound? 2By no means! How can we
who died to sin still live in it? - Romans 6:1,2
The stupor of
twisted grace wholly misses the point of true grace. If the shoe fits, snap out
of it!
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