Confusing and Abusing Grace in the Name of the Gospel. Romans 6:1, 15-18; Jude 3-4 (part 1)

Beloved, while I was making every effort to write about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to (go the opposite direction) and to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. (WHY?) For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, these are ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. (Jude 3-4)  

Jude understood how glorious it is to celebrate our common union in Christ.  Magnifying the redemptive grace of God and our undeserved salvation never gets old, does it?  Having said that, this emergency 911 epistle (aka Jude), illustrates that it is pastorally negligent to ignore a clear and present danger!  To act like everything is spiritually ok, when it's not, is both dangerous and wrong!  True shepherds protect the flock at all costs (John 10).  On the other hand, when danger appears "hirelings" leave the sheep unprotected.  Jesus reminded his disciples that hirelings really only care about themselves.  Their personal comfort and well-being is what they are most concerned about.  Add to that, Jeremiah 6:14 reminds us that false teachers say, "'Peace, peace!' when there is no peace at all."

After a wonderfully enriching five year journey through the signature Gospel of John, my original plan was to begin a new expository study of a brief, yet power packed, epistle. Philemon. Sadly, I cannot do that at this time.  Though the heresy of flown blown Antinomianism has NOT crept into our beloved church family (as was true in Jude's case), hyper-grace sanctification and lower-case “a,” Reformed antinomianism- has!  To do nothing and just hope for the best would be a dereliction of duty.  

Allow me to illustrate. How would you react if you heard that your city fire station captain responded like this?  "Fire station 401. Fire chief Caleb speaking."  "Sir, please calm down!  So just your attached garage is on fire? Well, we’re really busy waxing our trucks and few guys are catching up on sleep. We had a really busy weekend… Please call us back if the fire spreads to the entire house- bye for now!"  You would be outraged...and rightly so!

"God, Grace, and Katy Perry"

Some people likely wondered whether a cultural commentary piece on the gospel according to the Grammys was really necessary.   "Surely evangelicals have enough discernment to perceive for themselves the weightier things that were alluded to in my previous blog post, right?"  

Not so fast.  It was not more than a day or two later when I came across an article by a pastor and "Christian" author who contradicted almost every biblical point that was made in my most recent article.   A number of Christians commented on Facebook how much they appreciated this pastor's perspective on "God, grace, and Katy Perry."   I encourage you to take ten minutes and compare and contrast both articles for yourself and then 'search the Scriptures to see if these things be so.'  

Please keep in mind that Ms. Katy Perry's influence on society extends far and wide.  Katy has over 75 million twitter followers and is especially popular with children and young adults.  In fact, last night I noticed one of our first time Awana guests had her hair dyed just like one of her role models, Katy Perry.  As many parents with teenage children know, Katy Perry fashion line sells lots of jewelry and make up at Claire's (a store for young girls). To suggest Katy Perry's music is only popular with young people however would be a mistake.  The 2015 Super Bowl chose Katy Perry to be the Pepsi halftime entertainment (following the likes of Bruno Mars, Beyoncé, Madonna, etc).  

The Super Bowl is hands down one of the most popular events of the year.  In fact, the 2015 Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks set a new mark, averaging 114.4 million viewers per minute becoming the most watched event in American TV history.  Now that I have your attention please read on.

God, Grace, and Katy Perry