Authors: Paul Ellis
Tags: #Christianity, #God, #Grace, #Love
Growing up we used to play a game around
the table called Chinese Whispers. (Some people know this as the game of
telephone.) Someone would whisper a message into the ear of the person next to
them and that message would then be relayed in whispers around the table. When
the last person announced what they had heard, we would laugh because it
typically bore little resemblance to the original message.
That’s how I feel
when I hear some of the criticisms made against the hyper-grace message. It’s
like the person complaining has heard the message third-hand or only heard part
of the message and is criticizing something no one actually said. It’s a little
bit funny and a little bit sad.
Much of the
criticism made against the hyper-grace gospel and those who preach it is based
on misperceptions and misunderstandings. To illustrate this, ask yourself
whether the following claims are true or false.
1.
Hyper-grace preachers
are against repentance.
2.
Hyper-grace preachers
are against confession.
3.
The hyper-grace gospel
is universalism in disguise.
4.
Hyper-grace preachers
say it’s wrong to ask God for forgiveness.
5.
Hyper-grace preachers
say God is not grieved by your sin.
6.
Hyper-grace preachers
are against the law.
7.
Hyper-grace preachers
ignore the Old Testament.
8.
Hyper-grace preachers
disregard the words of Jesus.
9.
The hyper-grace gospel
encourages sin.
10.
The hyper-grace gospel
discourages obedience and holy living.
11.
Hyper-grace preachers
don’t talk about hell and wrath.
12.
The hyper-grace gospel
makes people lazy.
To have real dialogue, you need to hear
both sides of the story. If your only exposure to the hyper-grace gospel comes
from attack articles and Facebook debates, you may think that every statement
in the above quiz is true. In fact, every statement is false. Each is either a
fiction or a distortion of what the hyper-grace gospel actually says. We will
look at each claim briefly in Part B.
“Hyper-grace preachers say there’s no need
for repentance. They dismiss repentance as unbelief.” Actually, hyper-grace
preachers are
for
repentance, not against it. We say things like
“repentance is essential” and “repentance is to be our lifestyle.” We are for
repentance, for without it no one can receive the grace of God.
But what is
repentance?
Repentance is one
of those words that means different things to different people. Those with a
performance-oriented mindset typically interpret repentance as turning from
sin. It’s something you do (turn) as a result of something you’ve done
(sinned). It’s fixing what you broke. It’s atoning for your mistakes. It’s
sewing fig leaves to hide your shame.
In contrast,
faith-based repentance is always done in response to something
God
has
done. It’s the change of heart and mind that happens when you encounter His
grace.
A mixed-grace
gospel will define repentance in terms of a prescribed set of behaviors (e.g.,
turning from sin) and emotions (e.g., sorrow and grief). But insisting on the
proper way to repent is tantamount to putting people under law.
The fruit of
repentance may take 101 different forms—don’t limit God—but repentance itself
is simply a change of mind. It’s what the word literally means.
[31]
In the words of
Watchman Nee
:
Repentance … means
a change of mind! Formerly I thought sin a pleasant thing, but now I have
changed my mind about it; formerly I thought the world an attractive place, but
now I know better; formerly I regarded it a miserable business to be a
Christian, but now I think differently. Once I thought certain things
delightful, now I think them vile; once I thought other things utterly
worthless, now I think them most precious. That is a change of mind, and that
is repentance. No life can be truly changed apart from such a change of mind.
[32]
We all agree that repentance is a good
thing and that there should be more of it, but how do we get people to repent?
A mixed-grace preacher will use carrots (“Turn from sin if you want to see
God”) and sticks (“If you don’t, you’ll pay the price”), but this is the way of
the flesh, not faith. This sort of repentance will lead you to trust in your
own repenting efforts and miss grace. Consider the Pharisees. They turned from
sin on a daily basis yet they did not recognize the Grace of God even as He
came and stood among them.
Mixed-grace
preachers say, “We need more preaching on repentance,” as though this would
motivate people to repent. But it won’t. Only one thing is guaranteed in
Scripture to lead people to repentance and that is a revelation of God’s goodness:
… God’s kindness is
meant to lead you to repentance. (Romans 2:4b, ESV)
Repentance isn’t doing something about your
sin. Repentance is responding positively to God’s kindness and grace. Think of
Zacchaeus, the corrupt tax-collector. The Grace of God walked into his home and
he became a different man.
John Sheasby
explains it like this:
The goodness in
Jesus’ spirit created a comfortable, safe environment in which, though there
was no pressure to change, Zacchaeus found himself wanting to and choosing to
change. The goodness of God expressed in Jesus produced a true repentance.
[33]
How does a hyper-grace preacher encourage
repentance? By preaching the goodness of God as revealed in Jesus. A mixed
gospel says, “You gotta repent or else,” but the hyper-grace gospel says, “See
Jesus!” Old covenant repentance puts the focus on you and your badness, but new
covenant repentance puts the focus on Him and His goodness.
When you see the
Lord of grace looking at you with love and affection, you will repent. You will
turn from sin to Him not because you have been bribed with carrots or
threatened with sticks but because Jesus is more attractive than anything this
world offers. He is the Beauty who draws us to Himself.
When Jesus said
“Repent and believe the good news” (Mark 1:15), He was saying “Here is the good
news of God’s grace—change your skeptical mind and believe it.” If you want to
see more repentance, preach the good news of God’s kindness. Tell people about
the goodness of God that is found in Jesus.
“Hyper-grace preachers say it’s wrong to
confess sins. They say confession is a form of unbelief.” Actually, every
hyper-grace preacher believes in the power of confession. We say things like,
“confession is good for you,” and “confession is healthy.” But what is
confession?
Like the word
repentance, confession is a word that has been mangled in the machinery of
manmade religion. Instead of bringing healing to the hurting and life to the
dead, confession is seen as the cost of admission into the house of grace. “You
wanna be clean? Then ‘fess up you miserable sinner! Tell God your dirty little
secrets.” But that’s not what confession is.
To confess
literally means to agree with or say the same thing as another.
[34]
Biblical
confession is agreeing with God. It’s verbalizing faith in His goodness and
acknowledging your dependence upon Him (Rom. 10:9–10). It’s saying, “God, I
believe You are faithful and true and will do all that You promised.”
But some people
have a different definition of confession. They think confession is something
you
must do
to make yourself clean, righteous, and forgiven. “I have to review
all my sins to receive forgiveness.” But this is a dead work.
Confessing-to-be-forgiven is like washing with dirty water. No matter how hard
you scrub you won’t make yourself clean.
Faithless
confession puts the focus on you and what you have done, but faith-based
confession puts the focus on Christ and what He has done on your behalf.
Does that mean we
should never confess or that it’s wrong to confess our sins? Not at all.
Biblical confession is good for you. It will help you to walk in the grace that
God has provided.
Steve McVey
writes:
Is there a place
for confession in the Christian’s life? Yes, if confession means acknowledging
the foolishness of disobedience to the Father and then praising Him that we are
already
forgiven and accepted by Him.
[35]
One of the clearest descriptions of
confession comes from Max Lucado:
Confession is not
complaining. If I merely recite my problems and rehash my woes, I’m whining …
Confession is so much more. Confession is a radical reliance on grace. A
proclamation of our trust in God’s goodness. “What I did was bad,” we
acknowledge, “but your grace is greater than my sin, so I confess it.” If our
understanding of grace is small, our confession will be small: reluctant,
hesitant, hedged with excuses and qualifications, full of fear of punishment.
But great grace creates an honest confession.
[36]
We don’t repent and confess to get God to
forgive us. We repent and confess
because
God has forgiven us. Your
repentance and confession won’t change God, but it will surely change you. It
will help you receive God’s life-changing grace. As Clark Whitten says,
“Confession is for my healing, not for God’s forgiveness.”
[37]
Those who don’t
understand this may point to 1 John 1:9 which seems to say God’s forgiveness is
contingent upon our confession of sins. This scripture has been so widely
misunderstood that it gets mentioned in just about every book on grace. To
paraphrase Andrew Farley, John cannot be saying God forgives us on account of
our confession because just a few verses later he says we are forgiven on
account of Jesus’ name.
[38]
(We’ll take a closer look at 1 John 1:9 in Part C.)
When you sin it
takes no faith to beat yourself up and agree with the Accuser who calls you a
sinner. It takes faith to look at the cross and say, “Thank you, Jesus, for
carrying all my sin.” It takes faith to praise your Father for His
superabounding grace that is greater than your transgression. And it takes
faith to agree with the Holy Spirit who says, despite what you did, you are
still righteous, acceptable, and pleasing to God.
“The hyper-grace gospel says all will be
saved.” Actually, it says no such thing. The hyper-grace gospel is an
announcement of something that has happened. It’s not speculation about
something that may yet happen.
Because I preach
the unconditional love of God and universal forgiveness, I am often accused of
being a Universalist. A Universalist is someone who believes all will be saved.
While it may be true that most Universalists preach grace, it is not true that
most grace-preachers are Universalists. In my experience, the majority are not.
So why are
hyper-grace preachers mistaken for Universalists? It may be because we say the
whole world is forgiven.
“See, that’s
universalism right there. You’re saying everyone is saved.” Only I’m not.
Forgiveness doesn’t equal salvation. Forgiveness simply means God won’t judge
you for your sins. How can He, since He has already judged all your sins on the
cross (Rom. 8:3)?
Your sins are not
the issue.
Jesus
is the issue. It’s what you have done with
Him
that counts. Since there are some who reject the grace of God revealed in
Jesus, I do not think everyone will be saved. In the end everyone gets what
they want. If you want the life Jesus offers, you’ll have it. If you don’t, you
won’t.
But let’s return
to this business of universal forgiveness. Why do I say the whole world is
forgiven? Because that’s what the Bible says. John the Baptist said of Jesus,
“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of
the world
” (John
1:29). To take away sin is to forgive. It’s what the word forgive literally
means. It’s to send away, dismiss, forsake, and let go.
[39]
On the cross,
Jesus took away your sin. Your sin is no longer the problem. It was a problem,
but Jesus dealt with it once and for all time. By His sacrifice Jesus has “done
away with sin” (Heb. 9:26).
On the cross
Jesus became:
… the propitiation
for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
(1 John 2:2, ESV)
Jesus didn’t just take away the sins of
repentant, church-goers. He took away the sins of tax collectors and tax
dodgers, hookers and hackers, phonies and Pharisees. He bore everyone’s sin.
Jesus said, “For
God so loved the world.” As Dudley Hall has written, God doesn’t just love good
guys; He loves everyone in the world.
If you live in the
world, perfect love is offered to you. It is not offered only to the good.
[40]
If God’s love is indiscriminate, then so
is His forgiveness. This is the true message of the cross.
Before the cross,
Jesus preached conditional forgiveness to those who were born under the old
covenant law (e.g., Matt. 6:14–15), but on the cross He fulfilled all the
requirements of the law so that you might live under the new covenant of His
grace. On the night He rose from the dead, Jesus announced a new kind of
forgiveness (Luke 24:46–47): Forgiveness that is based on God’s favor rather
than your works.
[41]
The gospel
declares that through Christ you have been completely and eternally forgiven.
This is amazing news. Yet as Malcolm Smith has observed, most Christians
haven’t heard it.
There is no other
religion on earth that announces the forgiveness of all our sins … Our
assurance that our sins have been forgiven and we have been accepted by God is
the first of covenant blessings and the most important in our experience.
Without this, we cannot imagine any of the other blessings. This is the
kindergarten of the new covenant, yet for multitudes of church members such a
joy has not been even sighted.
[42]
The unsighted joy of God’s forgiveness
keeps many Christians busy pursuing that which they already possess. They hear
muddled messages like, “Jesus paid for your sins but He hasn’t forgiven you,”
and they are told, “you need to repent and confess to complete the
transaction.” But the gospel of grace announces:
Forgiveness
precedes repentance. The sinner is accepted before He pleads for mercy. It is
already granted. He need only receive it. Total amnesty. Gratuitous pardon.
[43]
What is true for the sinner is true for
the saint. You are loved! You are forgiven! God is not chasing you with a
scorebook. He pursues you with grace.
There is nothing
you can do to make God forgive you because He’s already done it. Your sins have
been removed “as far as the east is from the west” (Ps. 103:12). Because of
Jesus, God is no longer counting your sins against you. This is the hyper-grace
gospel!