In God’s Amazing Grace (Part 3) we began to get into the meat of grace. We looked at some ways grace should be lived out in our daily lives. We saw that grace should be recognized in us by others and grace should be shared with others. We also saw that grace should empower us and build us up. God’s gift of grace is not a light, weak, insignificant thing. It has more power and worth than we finite human beings can fathom.
With His grace comes knowledge. With His grace comes responsibility. With His grace comes supernatural power.
With His grace comes warnings.
Today we will look at five warnings given us in the Scriptures concerning the amazing grace of our ever so gracious God. Get ready. This is serious business.
1) We are not to receive grace in vain
God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain—
2 Corinthians 5:19 – 6:1
What does it mean to receive something vain?
The word vain in 2 Corinthians 6:1 is kenos and it means empty, vain, devoid of truth– of places: vessels, etc. which contain nothing- of men: empty handed, without a gift, metaph. destitute of spiritual wealth, of one who boasts of his faith as a transcendent possession, yet is without the fruits of faith. metaph. of endeavours, labours, acts, which result in nothing, vain, fruitless, without effect, vain, of no purpose
If we have received the grace of God… really received it. Then it comes full. It comes loaded with truth. It comes with a gift. It bares fruit. It will have an effect in our life. It comes with and for a purpose. It comes with the Holy Spirit.
So let us stop. Look at our hands. Look at our feet. Look at our days… do we boast of our faith in Christ and of His grace in our lives yet have no fruits of it?
2) We are not to fall from grace
And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.
Galatians 5:3-4
It was not the law that saved us. It was not our ability to do good and keep all the rules that brought grace into our life. Remember it is a free gift. We didn’t earn it and we can’t buy it. We must be careful that once we have received grace we do not confuse our new power in grace to obey God from the heart with keeping all the rules in order to please Him. We do not gain His favor by works. We already have it. We must do what we do because it is the natural fruit of the grace of God growing within us and flowing out of us. Let us be careful that we do not fall from grace.
3) We are not to insult grace
For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?
Hebrews 10:26-29
Oh precious one, this one speaks for itself. Do not keep on choosing sin after you know that you know that you know it is sin… and it was in fact this sin that put the One who by grace died for sins that were not His own… but were ours… on that cross. His blood flowed in place of our own. Remember that we learned in Part 3 that the grace of God empowers us. It empowers us to live a godly life in this present world. The words I can’t help it are a lie whispered to us from the pits of hell. If we have received the grace of God and are His in Christ, then we are filled with the Spirit of God, the very same Spirit that raised the dead, made the lame walk, and the blind see. Let us never insult His grace.
4) We are not to come short of grace
See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many bedefiled;
Hebrews 12:15
Grace is to be extended to others. It is meant to come full circle. If we cannot extend it to others then we never really received it ourselves. The grace of God is powerful enough to save us from death and it is powerful enough to heal us from any hurt and it is powerful enough to give us the strength to forgive anyone for anything.
5) We are not to turn grace into licentiousness
For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Jude 4
What is licentiousness?
In the Greek this word is aselgeia and it means unbridled lust, excess, licentiousness, lasciviousness, wantonness, outrageousness, shamelessness, insolence.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary explains licentiousness as lacking legal or moral restraints; especially : disregarding sexual restraints, marked by disregard for strict rules of correctness
This is the warning that I see needs to be most headed in our western church. The grace of God was never meant to give us freedom to live how every we want to… the grace of God was given to us to give us the power to obey God from our heats. Remember that grace, charis, means gratifying, of manner or act, the divine influence upon the heart and it’s reflection in the life. Grace is the hand of God at work in our heart and mind and soul.
It is an ungodly person who claims to know God by the grace of God and claims to be saved by the grace of God but lives a life in absolute open rebellion to what He says is good and right in His Word and claims no shame while doing it.
Especially concerning sexual sin…
We cannot claim to know Christ with our mouth yet deny Him by our actions. What we practice with our bodies preaches louder than our words ever will.
Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you;depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’
~ Jesus (Matthew 7:22-24)