One of the hottest debates in the Christian World is over the topic of grace. I have heard many Christians talk about the grace of God, but what I have found interesting is the varying definitions of what it is, how it works, who can it enjoy it and under what circumstances.
At the beginning of my Christian walk I would hear the term, “the grace of God” quite often. However, I never fully grasped what that meant. People would use phrases like, “We are in the dispensation of grace”, “I did this by the grace of God”, or if someone wronged me I needed to extend grace to that person. I would hear these things and ponder them, but I was left with a very shallow understanding of what it really meant. I finally concluded in my heart that this term grace meant one needed to give another “chances” when they did something wrong, because that’s what God does for us; it’s what Jesus paid for on the cross.
Recently, I began to hear the term, “hyper-grace”, which stemmed from a heated debate on how much grace is extended to an individual who identifies as a Christian. Let’s explore. Most Christians believe that grace was released to us when Jesus died on the cross. This act fulfilled the penalty of the law for sin and the debt of our sins was paid for past, present and future and we were justified and made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus! However, there are a group of Christians that believe that because of what Jesus did on the cross they are now perfected. They are saints, perfect and blameless in the eyes of God, so now it doesn’t matter what they do in life, good, bad or ugly, it was all paid for on the cross! They are free from the law!!!!
There is yet another group of Christians that say, “Yes, there is grace, BUT….”, then comes the long list of the disqualifiers. This lists includes who should and shouldn’t receive this grace, which is usually predicated upon if the person is a “re-offender” of a certain sin. What’s more, sin seems to hold different premiums, making some sins seemingly “unpardonable” if you do them again, which has even caused debates about “losing one’s salvation”, while other lesser sins seem to go unnoticed if repeated.
As in many debates, these groups seem to be “polar opposites” in their thinking. However, before we begin to formulate opinions in our minds about either group, let’s examine the heart of both. Both groups love Jesus and have stories about how their lives have been changed by the power of God through His only begotten son Jesus Christ.
The first group, has understood that we have been freed from the curse of the law. They have gotten a true revelation that Jesus paid for everything that they have and will ever do and that they are free! Many of these have experienced lives of absolute bondage where they were a slave to numerous rules and regulations; lists of works that would make them pleasing and acceptable to God (or man), to the point they almost give up because they believe they can never make God happy. Then when the understanding comes that God was pleased with them from before the foundations of the world and that He loved them when they were yet sinners and that it was never about their works; many gladly cast aside every rule and law they thought would make themselves pleasing to God! With this new information, law is seemingly unnecessary!
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