Are You Ready to Bet Your Eternal Salvation on That?
The notion of “grace” found in Jesus Christ is the main building block of the New Testament compared to the Old Testament which was focused the adherence to the laws of God given to Moses on mount Sinai. Paul, one of the apostles of Jesus Christ whose role was to bring the gospel to the non-Jews wrote extensively about the new grace we now have in Jesus Christ especially in the book of Romans. Because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done, Paul urged us to move away from our works in the flesh which consisted in us humans trying to desperately keep the laws of God to the letter with our own strength.
It is no surprise then that the following Bible verse that was written by Paul became popular overtime among amongst Christians:
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. (Romans 3:24-27, ESV)
Grace within the biblical context has various definitions which can be summed as “a gift” or an “unmerited divine assistance”( https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grace ). From the perspective of grace defined as an unmerited divine assistance, grace enables us to do something we could have not otherwise been able to do. And given that it is something God freely gave through Jesus Christ, it is free, therefore a gift. In the above bible verse, the reason our salvation was by grace was because we were not the ones crucified on that cross at Golgotha and we did not deserve it either. Period. Dare I say further that even if you go right now and have yourself crucified on a cross for the sins of the world, it will bear no weight as far as your own salvation and that of the world are concerned because the sacrifice needed for the “grace of salvation” we now enjoy, is a sacrifice without blemish, with no sin.
To access that gift of salvation that is found in Jesus Christ, faith as in believing in Jesus Christ and what he has done is all we need for it is written
that “If you declare with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9)
However, this is where I believe the notion some now refer to as the “hyper-grace” doctrine emerged.
Many Christians would love to stop at Golgotha as far as their salvation goes in the name of having been saved by grace. The death of and blood that Jesus poured out at Calvary (Golgotha) gave us a clean slate, a fresh start as our sins were completely wiped away. But for what reason did God go to that extent? His love for us of course is the main reason. What exactly did he want to achieve by setting all this in motion? Why go to the extent of him coming down and sacrificing himself for us? Are you sincerely convinced that he went through all that so that our slates can be cleaned only for us to go back and soil them up all over again? Are you really convinced that our salvation by grace in Jesus Christ comes without accountability? Are you willing to bet your salvation on this?
Let us explore the Bible further as to why God did what we did. God described himself to Moses in Exodus 34:6 as him being the Lord who is “merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness”. That is the immutable nature of God and everything we see him extend to us in return. However, the goal of God for all he does for us his children is for our souls to return to him, to go back home to him after our experience of life on earth ends. By him showing us all the goodness about himself while interacting with us and being patient, he is trying to do just this:
Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? (Romans 2:4, NKJ)
What does repentance mean:
The action of repenting; sincere regret or remorse. (https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/repentance)
Whatever God did through Jesus Christ is to give us a clean slate by leading you and I to feel sincere remorse in our hearts about our wicked ways and evil deeds. Going through this process will in turn lead us to turn away and have a change of heart to live the way he intended for us to live. What God did through his son Jesus Christ was needed as there were 2 challenges in the old covenant:
- The need of continued animal sacrifices which was not changing the heart of man. The blood of those animals was not eternal either and daily sacrifices were needed to maintain the atonement(forgiveness) of the sins of Israel including the priests and the Levites themselves.
- The need to fully obey all those laws which was impossible as no one could keep them because our flesh was already corrupted and unable to do good.
With the new covenant etched in the blood of Jesus, God did away with all the animal sacrifices once and for all by replacing their blood with the eternal blood of Jesus Christ which. There is always the need of a blood to atone for our sins in both the old and new covenants (And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission – Hebrews 9:22, NKJ) for without blood, no sins can be forgiven. However in lieu of daily animal sacrifices to wipe away our sins which always separates us from God, the blood of Jesus which is eternal and never dries up blotted away all those sins once and for all. The first challenge of the old testament has now been upgraded, improved. That leaves us the with the second challenge of us human being unable to keep the laws, statutes and judgments of God. This is where God introduced another upgrade to the old covenant and understanding it debunks the “hyper-grace” doctrine that is now plaguing our churches.
There is much more provisions God put in Jesus Christ for us than Calvary alone. Calvary where his blood was poured out for the atonement of our sins is the beginning of a new life to bring about the changes that God ultimately wants achieved in us. If sin is the only thing that can separate us from God which leads eternally to a place called hell, the goal of God is then for us to live sin free, in obedience to him so we don’t get separated from him neither here on earth nor eternally. Now pay careful attention to the first message Jesus Christ preached as soon as he got out of the desert after his 40 days fast marking the beginning of his ministry:
From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17, NKJ)
Consequently another goal of God henceforth tied to our souls making it back home to him is for our sins to be forgiven and to enable us to “continue” living a life free of sin and worthy of Christ so one day we can make it to the kingdom that is coming and not go to hell. And his Blood being poured out for us is the remission of sins part, the wiping off our slates. Now after the slate is clean, how to we continue living right? This requires new tools that were laid in Jesus Christ for us. Jesus therefore is more similar to a premium package of salvation with many features, rather than a single offer:
For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;(Colossians 1:19, KJV)
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6, NIV)
They key here is that Jesus Christ the living son of God is a full package that has many features that are offered in him and that are equally available to us.
Notice that in Romans 3:24- 27 which was the first passage we quoted, that there was an emphasis on “past sin”. Those are the sins being completely wiped clean when we can to Christ and receive him. However, what happens when we sin after coming to Christ? The Bible outlines a remarkably interesting process:
But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:7, New Living Translation)
The Lord knows you might stumble, unwillingly sin at times, or even sin out of ignorance. And when you ask him to forgive you as you are in close fellowship (companionship, friendship, partnership, cooperativeness) with him, as you continue walking closely and living with him in the light as he is in the light, he is faithful to forgive us and the Blood of Jesus to continually cleanse us. Going back to intentionally living a life of sin after your slate are cleaned means we have completely removed ourselves from the light and went back to walking in darkness. Based on the passage above, we will then no longer be in fellowship with God and walking in the light where he is when we go back to how we used to live before Christ. It is not because our salvation was by grace, a gift, then that we have the green light to go back to living out of the light away from God in sin and in darkness, in sin:
For everyone practicing evil hates the Light and does not come to the Light, so that his works may not be exposed; (John 3:20, Berean Literal Bible)
Imagine God forbid that after you receive Jesus Christ, you went back to living exactly the way you used to and don’t walk daily in close fellowship with him and it suddenly happens that death claims your life in that state? Where do you think your soul will be heading? Here you are, saved by grace by Jesus Christ, yet until you died you have engaged yourself daily in the only things that God hates and that has the power from separating us from him? Where do you think your soul will be heading? Hence the need to live right and in obedience daily after we receive Jesus Christ. Living in obedience daily with Jesus Christ while closely fellowshipping with him keeps us in the light so that when we stumble and ask him for forgiveness, he can quickly cleanse us again and maintain us in a clean state until we are called off the earth.
And Paul, who was the apostle who wrote the most about “grace” expanded on the concept and added critical points that many hyper-grace believers fail to emphasize:
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:1-4, (KJV)
Oh, Oh! Paul dared to say the forbidden word: “work”. As previously, stated the second challenge in the old testament is the inability to keep the laws of
God, no one simply can! However, obedience was a requirement in the old testament and still is a requirement in the new one. What did Jesus Christ who died for us by grace said? “If you love me, keep my commands” (John 14:15, NIV). As a result, what did God do different under the new testament to help us with this inability to obey him? He took the ability for us to “live right before him in obedience” out of the “flesh” and transferred it to our spirit man and got us a helper this time around to help us. This helper named the Holy Spirit is now directly working with our spirit man to help us overcome the flesh that is forever corrupted and disobedient. Our helper then through spirit help us walk in righteousness with God while bearing good fruits of obedience that are called the fruits of the spirit like he always wanted us to do. Talk about a game changer! In other words, God flipped the script and turned the approach around. And he put the tools that we needed in our premium package of salvation, Jesus Christ. It is only when you ask Jesus for the helper that he gives him to you. In this regard, Jesus introduced a completely new process never heard of before in the new testament:
Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. (John 3:1-21, ESV)
It now appears that there is more to the save by grace by the blood of Jesus Christ, doesn’t it?
If not, why is Jesus now making this more difficult? I thought we were saved by grace with his blood only and nothing else is required of us? Why add all these unnecessary steps? How does being born again the solution to the second challenge noted earlier in the old testament in terms of our inability to keep the laws of God? How does this living right after you are saved by grace by Jesus Christ work based on the passage above? Find out in Part 2.
