Beware Of The Excessive Grace Teachings
I've been presented with the question of how many Christians these days would actually stick with it and die for their faith. Well, the answer is this: not many. Today's Christianity is all about your lips, whatever you say. It's nothing about sacrifice and standing and being committed to the point of death if necessary. They say, well I'm just as good a Christian as you because I say it or I read my Bible. Thank God for that but that is not all there is to it. Jesus said this, "Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do what I tell you?" You can see Jesus put emphasis on what you do not on what you say. He said "blessed are those who hear the Word of God and obey it", or we could say who do it.
We live in a world of Christianity where even the preachers want to preach a message that's easy for people to accept. How many people would love to have a Gospel that says it really doesn't matter what you do because grace covers it all? Just live any way you want because grace covers it all. Isn't that appealing? That just sounds good. Who would say no to that? If you got paid by your employer and never had to show up for work, how many of you would take that deal?
Well, God is not like that. He said, "faith without works is dead". We know what you believe by what you do. James said it this way, "show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works."
Romans 8:1 says, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (KJV)" Notice is says for those that walk not after the flesh. That means they don't live according to their flesh. But if you decide to live according to your flesh then the reverse of that is true, there will be condemnation.
We can read down a little further in this same chapter it says, "So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh — for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live."
People are being deceived into thinking they don't have to worry about what they do because grace covers all of it. No it doesn't. The previous verse tells us that we are under obligation. Do you know what that means? That means it's not an option. We are under obligation to not live according to the flesh. But, if you are putting to death the deeds of the flesh, then you will live. And he's not talking physical death here either.
People are flocking to churches that tell them grace covers it. It doesn't matter what you do, don't worry about it. To give people a license to live however they want is a big mistake. There is grace to cover you when you mess up — if you obey this. You can take any right thing and put the wrong spin on it and then it becomes untrue. People need to be told, no you can't live that way and expect to go to Heaven. Only if they repent and stop doing those things can they make Heaven.
There is no sense in lying to yourself. There are some who are happy to trick themselves but that's a slippery slope with a dark ending. We may as well just step up and do it the way He says do it and then we know we are on safe ground.