Here are five misconceptions about grace:
- When we say that faith alone is not enough for salvation
- When we misuse grace as an excuse for sinning
- When we say there is no need for believers to repent on account of the premise that all our past, present and future sins are forgiven
- When we downplay personal responsibility on account of the premise that once saved, we are always saved
- When we say the law is no longer relevant in the lives of believers
Let us examine each in turn:
When we say that faith alone is not enough for salvation
Clearly, salvation is by faith alone – in God’s grace and mercy. Not by works. Not by works plus faith.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
“For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith” (Galatians 3:10-11).
When we misuse grace as an excuse for sinning
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Romans 6:1-2).
“For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord” (Jude 1:4) NIV. Those who pervert God’s grace are rendered in the NLT version of this verse as those who say “God's marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives.”
When we say there is no need for believers to repent on account of the premise that all our past, present and future sins are forgiven *
The Bible asserts that repentance is not only necessary (1 John 1:9) but must involve a turning away from sin and towards God. It must involve a change in thought and behaviour – and goals, aspirations and lifestyle as well.
What can be clearer than Paul’s teaching: “First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds” (Acts 26:20.)
When we downplay personal responsibility on account of the premise that once saved, we are always saved * *
No right thinking believer disputes the fact that we are saved by faith. What is crucial is that which follows. What’s next? Genuine faith has to be evidenced by works. Paul emphasises the need for personal responsibility – all believers have to work out their faith with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead" (James 2:26).
A world of difference exists between ‘work for’ and ‘work out’. Author J. Oswald Sanders draws an analogy between salvation and an estate. We do not have to feverishly work for an estate. We have already been given an estate. But we have to work it out – develop the estate’s hidden resources.
When we say the law is no longer relevant in the lives of believers
We are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law. “For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law” (Romans 3:28).
The paradox is this: “Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law (Romans 3:31).”
Though we are free from the ceremonial law of the Old Testament and we need not arduously keep the law in order to earn our “ticket” to heaven, we are still held accountable under moral law as revealed in the Ten Commandments.
Jesus puts it succinctly: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17).
To recap, except for the first instance when legalism threatens ‘salvation by faith’ in God’s grace and mercy, and the second instance when grace is perverted, the rest are the beliefs of those who “overemphasise” grace.
FOOTNOTES
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What repentance means
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Are future sins automatically forgiven?
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Saved and secure?
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