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Does emphasizing God’s grace and Christ’s finished work produce Christians who are carnal and who are licentious in sinning? Does this message of complete forgiveness cause Christians to go on a sinning binge, doing whatever they want because of their freedom?
Does this message of resting in what Christ has done produce lazy and apathetic Christians, Christians who do not want to serve, Christians who do not want to share the gospel anymore?
Does this message of the Father’s complete acceptance of us regardless of our performance produce children who rarely pray or read their Bibles anymore?
Does the message of freedom from the obligation to give produce stingy Christians who don’t return to God the tithe that belongs to Him and who hesitantly give in the offering and to others in need?
Since I have been teaching a lot on God’s grace, on Christ’s finished work, some people have asked me a lot of these questions.
Based on personal experience, my answer would be a resounding, “NO!” It is actually those who have NOT had a radical revelation of the grace of God and in Christ’s finished work who are usually afraid of the apparent dangers of emphasizing grace or who participate in so-called “grace abuse”.
I have yet to personally encounter a person who has been so gripped with the grace of God who has abused this grace by becoming like those in the questions above. I hear about rumors of stories of such people but my personal guess is that these people have little understanding of grace which is why they live such lives. (Please read my related post Unamazed by Grace and my personal testimony in my post, The Great Passion).
Why do I say this? Because, I know for a fact that GRACE WORKS! And I don’t base this on just personal experience but, more so, on the Word of God. Just what does the Word of God say about the results of the message of God’s grace and Christ’s finished work? Here are just some examples:
“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”
1 Corinthians 15:10
“To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.”
Colossians 1:27-29
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Galatians 2:20
“…for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”
Philippians 2:13
The Biblical evidence is clear! GRACE WORKS! Grace produces results, transformed lives! Furthermore, it is no longer us who are striving to produce fruit but it is God’s grace, Christ living His life through us, that produces fruit as we rest in His grace.
The more we rest in Christ’s finished work, the more we see Christ working on us and through us. He first works in our hearts, minds and wills so that we will desire what He desires and that our will becomes what His will is. Then His Spirit empowers us to act on what He desires and wills. Jesus Christ lives His life through us!
The result is we pray more and read God’s Word more to be intimate with God. Why? Because Christ is intimate with the Father. He lives through us. Our new nature is being intimate with God. And when you realize the immensity of what Christ has done for you, you would want to know Him and be intimate with Him.
The result of His grace is that we are no longer apathetic to the needs of others. The result is that we love to share the gospel to others and do so more often. It does not become second nature to us; IT IS OUR NATURE! Christ’s compassion for the lost, for those in need, flows through us. When we realize how much Christ had compassion for us when we were lost, we grow in our love for Him and for the lost. We love because He first loved us.
God’s grace produces in us a generosity that goes way beyond what was expected in the Old Covenant. The result is the grace of giving which is not just about lovingly returning to God what is His but more so give with such generosity that greatly exceeds what others think we are capable of giving. Why? Because Christ in us is gracious and generous and He is the greatest Giver of all. When we realize Christ’s generosity for us that though He was rich, He became poor for our sake so that through His poverty we might be made rich, our hearts are transformed and we become generous in our giving.
Moreover, we serve more and work more in every aspect of our lives. We don’t become lazy or laid back but His grace in us looks for every opportunity to serve. When we get the revelation that God loves us and accepts us not based on our performance and our service, the result is that we love serving more. Why? Because our Master, Lord and King who came not to be served but to serve is now living in us. He continuously serves us and others through us. When we realize how much He has stooped low to serve us and to give His life as a ransom for us, our hearts are transformed that we wholeheartedly serve Him out of love and not out of fear or obligation.
And what about this issue of sin? Does God’s love, grace, kindness, and mercy as expressed by Christ dying on the cross to totally forgive all of our sins, does this produce in us a desire and will to go on sinning? What does God’s Word have to say?
“For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means!“
Romans 6:14-15
“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”
Titus 2:11-14
“…God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?“
Romans 2:4
The testimony of God’s Word shows that God’s grace leads us to repentance, the changing of our minds and desires. God’s grace produces in us a desire and a power to say, “No” to sin and all forms of wickedness (See my related post, The Grace to Say, “No!”). You see,…GRACE WORKS!
So, when a Christian loses his or her appetite to share the gospel, to read the Bible, to serve, to give, etc., these are just a symptoms of something much more important: he or she has lost focus on the grace of God in Christ Jesus.
We do not treat the symptoms by telling them to share the gospel more, read the Bible more, pray more, serve more, give more, etc. We “treat” the root by emphasizing even more the grace of God in their lives, Christ in them. We encourage them to fix their eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith.
When we see apparent “grace abuse” where a person lives a life not in line with the gospel of Christ, it just means that they do not really understand what God’s grace is all about. They may have some knowledge of grace but they have not been gripped by it and transformed by it.
So is the solution not to preach too much on grace and then to balance it with some Law? Most definitely NOT! The solution is first to pray for people because the revelation of God’s grace also comes by God’s grace. The solution is to preach even more on the grace of God so that it will sink deep into people’s hearts and minds so that, by the grace of God, they will get a life-changing revelation of this grace. Why? Because GRACE WORKS!
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Related posts:
The grace to say ‘No!’
Unamazed by Grace
The Great Passion (full version)
Related podcasts:
ALL IN Series Week 2: Grace and Love
GRACE WORKS Series Week 1: Grace Works
GRACE WORKS Series Week 2: Grace Serves
THRIVE Series Week 3 Flourish
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