The message that God is love and that he loves us unconditionally is popular with listeners today who identify with the postmodern notion that truth is subjective therefore judgement doesn’t enter into their worldview. Scripture has been brought into question by a society that accepts evolution as a valid existential explanation for mankind, the fluid definition of gender, and the promotion of moral relativism.
One comment made to me recently suggested that God is love therefore anything that is not love must not come from God. Since Jesus came to free us from the shackles of sin, sin must have ceased to exist because of his proclamation on the cross, “It is finished!” Therefore, the is no more sin and we are free to live as we please because grace means unmerited favor and we are saved by grace. Proponents of grace theology are quick to bring forward Romans 8:1, where Paul wrote, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.”
By blurring the truth of scripture to accommodate relative spiritual truths, the gospel is portrayed as free candy to the masses regardless of their acceptance of what Jesus taught. Well educated leaders of grace theology are well versed in scripture and preach a mixture of biblical sounding messages infused with just enough cleverly devised dogma to deauthorize the Bible by questioning its inerrancy and the translation from the original languages. One such assertion is that the men who wrote the Bible were inspired by the Holy Spirit making it the word of God, however the same cannot be said for those who translated it into English.
Sin is glossed over and downplayed while biblical truths such as “sin separates us from God” are denied. One grace teacher surmises, “There has never been a time that anybody has ever been separated from God. That has been an allusion in your mind placed there by religion.” (Don Keathly) Based on this rationale, there is no need for repentance however, personal experience in relationships is evidence that when we wrong someone we do indeed feel distanced from them and in order for reconciliation there has to be confession and repentance followed by forgiveness. We can live in the same home with someone yet be totally separated both spiritually and relationally, such as in a failing marriage. Our relationship with God is the same.
Sin is defined as “to go wrong” or to “incur guilt.” Furthermore, when we sin, we sin against God. When David confessed his sin, he said, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.” Psalm 51:4. Grace “teachers,” redefine sin so it sounds less offensive and therefore it is simply failing to believe that you were created good and that God testified to your goodness at the creation event by saying it was good. In contrast, Jesus said no one is good. “Why do you call me good? No one is good – except God alone.” Luke 18:19.
Paul wrote, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23. Those who do not repent are storing up for themselves the wrath of God that will be poured out on the day of judgement (Romans 2:5-6).
When Adam and Eve sinned against God they died spiritually THAT VERY DAY! They were banished from the garden of Eden and experienced separation from God. Through Jesus, we are made alive spiritually and reconciled to God once again. Repentance is our response to God’s love for us and we become born again into a new life of fellowship with the Lord. While it is true that we are saved by grace and not by what we have done, our salvation is complicit with our repentance. “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the world. Live as children of light.” Ephesians 5:8.
The deception that grace theology promotes is that “We never really died, we just died to the awareness that we are already like God.” Don Keathly. This sounds very similar to the serpent’s assertion to Eve, “You will not surely die, For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God.” Genesis 3:4-5.
In truth, while God’s love is unconditional, since it is extended to each and every one of us through the cross, we can choose not to accept it. Our relationship with God hinges upon our acceptance of his redemption and part of our acceptance is our repentance from sin. In order to walk into a new life (be born again), we must exit our old life. If we cannot let go of the sinful ways we practiced before accepting Jesus as our savior, we cannot truly love him back or please him.
By teaching that God doesn’t require repentance, accepting sin along with the sinner and preaching exclusively about the unconditional love of God, grace theology becomes the enabler for sinners to continue to live in sin which is not loving at all. It is the opposite of love when you pave the path to destruction by accommodating the sinful nature of those in need of redemption. A message of love that excludes the need for repentance, will fail to save if those who receive it have been deceived into believing that love is love no matter what form it takes as progressives teach. In the words of Charles Spurgeon, “The grace that does not change my life will not save my soul.”
Grace theology teaches that we were all created in Christ from the beginning therefore there is no need of salvation since we are already seated with Christ in the heavenly places. There is no distinction between those who love and follow Christ and those who ignore him and don’t believe. This theology does no favors to its followers and is a disruptive force in the Christian church. It errs in its interpretation of the Bible, ignoring the contextual nature of scripture, and intentionally diminishes the authority of the Bible and the atonement of Christ.
Progressive Christians believe that, our acts of compassion are more important than the expression of our beliefs,” and assert that “most scholars would argue we learn more about the Jesus of the scriptures from the things he does rather than what he says.” By focusing on one verse and ignoring others the context of the lesson is lost and scripture is applied in ways it was never intended.
Progressive theology hides behind the ideology that there is no absolute truth, therefore the Bible must be viewed allegorically and that right and wrong are not written in stone but rather are personal choices and reflect individual experiences. Progressive Christians cite good people who are gay or living together in common law as examples that being loving and kind, can’t be construed as sinful. What about the kind, introverted and private pedophile or serial killer? What they fail to recognize is that while Jesus associated with sinners, he also instructed them to stop sinning.
The saddest thing in my humble opinion, is by focusing on human effort to address the problems of humanity, like material poverty, starvation, violence and child abuse, while leaving Jesus hanging on a wall in the background as a portrait of morality, the eternal suffering from spiritual death waiting for people who decline the gift of salvation is overlooked, downplayed and diminished.
We live in precarious times. Grace theology and progressive Christianity, are evidence we live in a very important era. Jesus warned that in the last days, false teachers and false prophets would appear and deceive even the elect if that were possible (Mathew 24:24). Paul also warned, ‘For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.” 2 Timothy 4:3.
Rather than “viewer discretion is advised” today’s Christians must be warned that scriptural discernment is advised.
