Those who are afraid of the grace message will teach that you can take grace too far. Grace is God expressing His unconditional love and mercy for you and me independent of anything we ever do or don’t do now or in the future. Grace is Jesus personified. So to say you can go too far with grace is saying you can go too far with Jesus. OH OH. I’m sure I just stepped on some religious toes there.
Teaching you can go too far with grace is a fear based belief. They think that if you teach this then people will go out and commit sin. People who go out and commit sin are not walking in grace, they are walking in disgrace.
Romans 5:17 says “much more those who received the ABUNDANCE of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign.” That means an overflow or abundance. It’s His abundance in order to reign. We need an overflow of grace because the church has been ambushed by religion and legalism. No way can we go too far with grace. It’s impossible and is a false teaching.
The bible teaches the abundance of grace.
Then we have those who would say that grace is a very important doctrine. That sounds so wonderful on the surface, but it’s just another religious sounding statement. Grace is not an important doctrine, it is a person. Grace is the essence of the Christian life.
To say grace is an important doctrine is to put it in a list of other doctrines. Grace is not a part of a list of doctrines, it is the foundational essence of Christianity on which all the other doctrines stand. I have a teaching that’s entitled “Grace Has It. Faith Goes out and Gets It”.
Acts 20:24. Paul said the gospel is grace. It is not a doctrine it is the gospel. It’s the good news of God’s great grace. Grace is the heartbeat of the gospel of God. Legalism is the opposite. It is the death of God’s great grace.
Preaching or teaching any other gospel, rather than the gospel of grace, is a perversion of the truth and brings a curse. Galatians 1:7-9 points this out clearly. This again is the ERV.
7 There is no other message that is the Good News, but some people are confusing you. They want to change the Good News about Christ.
Some people are confusing you. Confusion is not from God, so where does it come from? Exactly….The enemy. People who live under religious rules and legalistic processes will live in confusion and despair. It is grace that sets you free and brings peace through confirmation of truth.
8 We told you the true Good News message. So anyone who tells you a different message should be condemned—even if it’s one of us or even an angel from heaven! 9 I said this before. Now I say it again: You have already accepted the Good News. Anyone who tells you another way to be saved should be condemned!
The Holy Spirit really wanted those who were preaching and teaching a different gospel, rather than the gospel of grace, to be fully aware of the consequences. He repeats the warning twice in a row.
So here comes another “ya but” statement by those who cannot receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness. “Okay, so lets say it’s by grace alone, but if we sin under grace, we will fall from grace. Then what?”
We do not fall from grace by sinning. We fall from grace by trusting in works of the law. Just look at the truth of scripture and put aside your opinionated wrong believing.
Galatians 5:1-5 in the NAS reads this way, but study the ERV also.
1 It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.
Now there’s a good offer. You’ll notice on The Grace Report website, our byline is “It is for freedom….” Don’t let others put you back in bondage to the law, performance, legalism, and religion. Scripture calls it a “yoke of slavery”. Be a slave of Jesus Christ like Paul declared he was. Be a slave of righteousness.
2 Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you.
What Paul is saying to us is that if we try to live under the law of performance and works, Christ’s completed work will be of no benefit. Why? Because we won’t receive it. We have the belief we have to do something to earn it. WRONG!!! It is finished. IT IS DONE.
3 And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law.
When you elect to live a life under works and performance, then you better be ready to keep all the law. Not just the big 10, but the over 600 laws laid down by Moses to the people governed by the law.
I have a teaching entitled “And Then Comes The Law”. In that teaching, a statement is made which asks the question, Why do we believe that “You shall not commit adultery” in the Ten Commandments applies to us but “Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material” does not? Or, “You shall not murder” applies, but “You must not even light a fire in any of your homes on the Sabbath” does not? See what I mean?
4 You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.
Here’s the kicker. It’s not your sin or your poor behavior that cause you to fall from grace. It’s the fact that you are trying to be justified by works of the law, instead of resting in the inexhaustible grace of God.
5 For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness.
Ephesians 1:7 reads “In Christ we are made free by his blood sacrifice. We have forgiveness of sins because of God’s rich grace”. It is so clear that we are MADE free. We don’t have to work to try and be free. We don’t have to perform to get free. We only have to receive that we are MADE free.
We are not heirs of the kingdom through obeying the law. We are heirs of the kingdom through the righteousness of faith. Galatians 3:29 reads “Since you belong to Him and are now subject to His power, you are the descendant of Abraham and the heir of God’s glory according to the promise”
That scripture establishes that we are descendants of Abraham and heirs of God’s glory. Then Romans 4:13 comes along and reads as follows. “The promise given to Abraham and his children, that one day they would inherit the world, did not come because he followed the rules of the law. It came as a result of his right standing before God, a standing he obtained through faith.”
Abraham believed God. He didn’t believe in God. He believed God. Just like Abraham (see my teaching Just Like Abraham), the scripture declares that since we belong to Him, because we believe Him, we are made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Grace and Peace.
