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!

Transformed (from the inside out)!

Photo Credit: ccchomerak.blogspot.com

"What is your understanding of the gospel?  How has it changed your life?"

The gospel is the good news declaration of what God in Christ has done for undeserving sinners (2 Cor.5:18-21).  According to Scripture, the gospel is “the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16).  As such the free offer of grace should be extended to anyone who will listen (Rom. 1:17; 10:12-17).

When presenting the gospel I sometimes use the familiar God/Sin/Christ/Our Response structure in order to highlight the complete gospel message.  A) God:  Who He is.  B) Man:  His universal problem (sin).  C) Jesus Christ:  God’s gracious solution.  D) Our Response:  repent and believe.  Every gospel presentation needs to clearly communicate that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone (Eph. 2:1-10). 

In Dr. Sinclair Ferguson’s fine chapter in From Heaven He Came and Sought Her, he explains the gospel in four statements. “In Christ, believers are delivered from the guilt of sin (which secures our justification). Romans 3:18-25; Psalm 32:1-5.  In Christ, we are delivered from the wrath of God (which secures our reconciliation). Rom. 5:6-11.  In Christ, we are delivered from the dominion of sin (which secures our freedom from sins reign but not yet its presence).  Rom. 6:18-7:14.   In Christ, we are delivered from the oppression of the powers of darkness.  1 John 3:8; Col. 2:13-15; Heb. 2:14-15.”