Confronting
the Error of Hyper-Grace, by Dr Michael Brown, is an article that has gained a
lot of traction at Charisma news, a Christian news website. (Dr. Brown is a
prominent Christian and an Hebrew scholar in the evangelical world. You can read his profile here).
Referring
to what he terms as “hyper-grace” in the article, Dr Brown states, “one of the foundational
doctrines of the hyper-grace message is that God does not see the sins of his
children, since we have already been made righteous by the blood of Jesus and
since all of our sins, past, present and future, have already been forgiven. That
means that the Holy Spirit never convicts believers of sin, that believers
never need to confess their sins to God, and that believers never need to
repent of their sins, since God sees them as perfect in his sight. It is easy
to see how such teaching can be dangerous, especially to a believer being
tempted to compromise”.
Then
Dr. Brown finally states, “Has He justified us by the blood of Jesus?
Absolutely. Has He has set apart as holy to Himself? Without a doubt. Has He
called us to be His sons and daughters, all by His love and grace? Yes He has.
And it is because of these things that Paul wrote, “Since we have these
promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that
contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God” (2
Cor. 7:1).
Although
many modern-day evangelicals would contend with the message of this article, Dr.
Brown brings an important lesson about what God’s grace really does in a believer. The majority in
the evangelical world confines grace to forgiveness of sins only (forgiving
grace). But grace is more than God counting
us righteous and perfect after we confess our sins and claim forgiveness. Grace
is also life changing. Grace helps us to grow in holiness. Grace is also able to provide the believer with the experience of victory over sin. Any gospel that does not preach this complete truth about God’s amazing
grace (that it is both forgiving and life changing), is an incomplete
gospel! Notice that God's word make it plain that God's grace forgives and transforms us:
The first aspect to grace is that God
forgives my sins.
My sins are forgiven and I am no longer a guilty
sinner:
Ephesians
1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins,
in accordance with the riches of God’s grace
With forgiveness, comes the following blessings:
When
I am forgiven I am counted righteous as if I have not done any wrong:
Romans 3:24 Being justified
freely by his grace through
the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Romans
4:6-8. "Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto
whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and
whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute
sin."
When
I am forgiven, I have peace with God:
"Therefore
being justified by faith, we have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Romans 5:1
When I am justified (just-as-I-have-not-sinned = forgiveness), my guilt
is gone, my fear is gone, and my uncertainty is gone because Christ has paid the penalty for my sins fully. They are replaced by
peace and joy, because now I am counted righteous and perfect for Christ's
sake. When we truly understand that God has forgiven us, we will begin to extend the same forgiveness to others and treat others as Christ treats us, that is, just as they had not done any wrong. This way we have peace with God and peace with others. “By grace ye are saved" (Ephesians
2:4,5).
The
second aspect to grace is it is life transforming:
Grace
breaks the power of sin over our lives:
Romans
6:14 For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under law but under
grace.
When
we are under grace, we can experience victory over sin, because sin will not rule over us because we are now under grace! God says He "is able to keep us from falling" (Jude 1:24); God wants us to grow and mature "unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph 4:13). God also promises us in this journey that "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1), to help us get back in line with the "will of God, even your sanctification" (1 Thess 4:3) and experience victory.
Grace
empowers us to live differently:
Titus
2:11-14 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to
all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should
live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that
blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus
Christ; Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and
purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
Grace involves how we live. In
Titus two, Paul is discussing behavior and how we should live because "the grace of God that
bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men". Because of grace, we we will live
differently. Grace teaches us to deny “ungodliness and worldly lusts” because Revelation
21:27 assures us that nothing that defiles or makes a lie will enter into
heaven.
Notice also that grace is sent out in search of us. We do not deserve it or merit it, but it has
been sent out in search of us since God is trying to bring salvation to us. “By
grace ye are saved" (Ephesians
2:4,5).
Conclusion
Grace, therefore, is forgiving grace and life changing grace, which is the complete gospel or good news that is taught in God's word. We will summarise true grace like this: The
gospel of grace teaches us that whatever you have done in your past, however you have been
condemned by sin (Romans 3:23), however you have been defeated by Satan; the
gospel of grace is the good news that there is forgiveness in Jesus (Eph 1:7). It is also the power of God unto salvation (Rom 1:16). It is the fact that the living Christ who resurrected from the dead can break the bonds that keep us in bondage (Rom 6:14); He can set us free from the prison house of lust, anger and bitterness. It is surely the forgiving power of Christ and the life changing power of Christ (John 8:11). “Bygrace ye are saved" (Ephesians 2:4,5).