Do not be willingly ignorant of damning judgment God brought on others before you, like evil scoffers who will mock the coming day of judgment by intentionally rejecting facts of the Flood (II Peter 3:1-7).
Remember and muse that God burned up the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and turned Mrs. Lot into salt.
Remember that Egypt and Canaan were on the wrong side and were tormented and annihilated by God.
Remember that the enemies of Jesus Christ were ground to powder and had their city burned up in 70AD.
The angels that sinned are in chains for fiery torment by the Lord Jesus (Matt 8:29; 25:41; Rev 20:10).
Men without God’s grace and the gift by grace will be tormented with them there as well (Rev 20:11-15).
The inspired, preserved Bible must be our absolute criterion for identifying the truth about grace (Isaiah 8:20).
The gospel is the good news of His grace (Acts 20:24); the Bible is the word of His grace (Acts 20:32).
We do not use sound bites from 20 versions; we reconcile all verses dealing with grace in the KJ version.
We must not care how many or what kind of men preach a different gospel and get very large followings.
DEFINITION OF GRACE
Grace. Favour, favourable or benignant regard or its manifestation; favour or goodwill, in contradistinction to right or obligation, as the ground of a concession. [OED].
Near-synonyms in the Bible include favour, mercy, compassion, kindness, and goodness (I Co 2:13).
Notice the synonymous use of favour and grace in Abraham’s speech to God (Gen 18:3; 19:19).
God is gracious to whom He chooses to be gracious; compare the words (Ex 33:19; Ro 9:15-16).
Grace is more than mercy, if both are properly defined, because mercy only withholds judgment.
Grace not only withholds judgment but also bring honor and reward as additional positive gifts.
The Person of Jesus Christ was full of grace and truth, thus true grace is seen in Him (John 1:14-18).
Jesus was full of grace in His life, in His ministry, and as the substitutionary propitiation of God.
When considering grace as favour, we must define it as merited, unmerited, or demerited favour.
Sin has put us way outside God’s favor and under His righteous and terrible wrath upon sinners.
Merited favour would be a reward for good works, so the Catholics and foolish conditionalists.
Unmerited favour would be a gift to a neutral party, so we see the preservation of elect angels.
Demerited favour would be a gift to those deserving judgment, so the blessed truth of the gospel.
True grace is demerited favour without obligation, worth, or conditions. Works are totally excluded.
By God’s definition, grace and works are mutually exclusive by their definition (Rom 11:5-6).
If a man works for righteousness before God, even by faith, it is debt and not grace (Rom 4:4-5).
Grace used as an acronym may properly define Biblical grace … God Rewards and Clears Enemies.
Grace = God does not judge and punish the elect as they do deserve, but He does honor and reward them with blessings they do not deserve. This enhanced definition is like we do with justification.
God’s legal grace that saves His elect is never frustrated; it is the doctrine of grace that is frustrated.
Frustrated grace, as Paul called it in Galatians 2:21, is man’s perversion of grace by adding things a person must do in order to be saved (Gal 1:6-9; 3:1). Since Jesus Christ finished the work of redemption on the cross (John 19:30; Rom 5:12-19; Heb 10:10-14), adding anything to His work frustrates the truth about God’s grace. Any conditions added to Jesus Christ’s finished work makes His death worthless by itself and causes men to fall from the right knowledge of grace (Gal 5:2,4).
This error about grace is a humanistic view of grace that incorporates the will or activity of man.
It follows from misunderstanding the depravity of man so men think sinners will cooperate.
It includes man’s obsession that he must be involved in the decision-making for eternal life.
It underestimates the gulf to be crossed for peace and satisfaction with God, only done by Christ.
It overestimates the ability of man to perform some act sufficiently valuable to God for grace.
It began with Judaizing legalists from Jerusalem, who tried to add Moses’ law to grace (Acts 15:1).
It continued with the subversion of many saints and churches in the New Testament (Gal 1:6-9).
The Galatians were guilty of mixing circumcision and Moses’ law with grace (Galatians 5:1-4).
Paul called the Galatian perversion of adding law works a frustration of grace (Galatians 2:21).
It continued with sacramentalism stolen from Judaism and paganism by the RCC and her daughters.
Sacramentalism – an outward sign or ordinance conveying inward grace – is frustrated grace.
Roman Catholics have seven sacraments: baptism, confirmation, confession/penance, holy matrimony, holy orders, the Mass, and last rites, or extreme unction. Protestants have two!
Catholics, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Methodists, and Presbyterians are all sacramentalists.
They teach baptismal regeneration by assuming God’s grace can be given to children at birth; Presbyterians will often deny it, because most do not know their own Westminster Confession.
Protestants also teach varying degrees of Jesus and His grace in the bread at the Lord’s Supper.
Priests or pastors talk about the means of grace as if they were practicing witchcraft with a spell.
They carry God’s grace in a flask and a canteen anywhere in the world to apply the grace of God.
A new form of frustrated grace was created by gospel sacramentalism, or decisional regeneration.
This idea is that no one will be saved unless and until they make a decision for Jesus, so every art and device known to man is used to get decisions out of sinners; they excuse babies and children dying by inventing the age of accountability, and they excuse the heathen with free grace, or if they do not excuse the heathen with free grace, then they themselves are ministers of damnation.
Arminian soteriology has grace an offer, with the actual benefits depending on the human will.
The entirety of God’s grace from election to glorification is dependent on man’s own faith, which they call, respectively, conditional election and the necessary condition of justification.
Calvinism soteriology has means of grace, with the actual benefits depending on human faith.
They call it gospel means and the instrumental means of justification, sounding like Arminians.
In the final analysis of most soteriology, God saves no one, and those saved did it themselves.
These people have faith in their faith, for it is faith that saves them, not the Lord Jesus Christ.
These trust their faith for getting saved, and then tack on once saved, always saved permanence!
They will use any means possible to solicit or pressure a decision out of sinners for God’s grace.
This modern form of frustrated grace is basically human will worship as legalists did (Col 2:23).
Both Arminian and Calvinist missionaries carry God’s grace to the heathen to get them saved.
They are little different than the Jew or RCC missionaries carrying their means (Matt 23:15).
John Wesley and Arminians affirm prevenient grace is resistible by the sinner to condemnation.
For grace to be grace, it is unconditional favour without right, conditions, or means to create debt.
See the study, “The Seven Proofs of Unconditional Salvation,” to confirm this strong, Biblical assertion.
The relationship of faith to grace is simple: God saves by grace alone, from election in eternity past to glorification in eternity to come, which we believe by faith to identify ourselves as the elect of God, assure our hearts and lay hold of eternal life, and obtain the other practical benefits of the gospel (Rom 4:16; 5:19; 8:29-39; 9:14-24; 10:1-17; 11:1-6; II Tim 2:10; II Pet 1:5-11).
Faith is not the condition, instrument, means, or activator of grace; grace is the condition, instrument, means, and activator of faith. Faith does not lead to grace; grace leads to faith. Grace is before faith, not faith before grace. You must get the gospel horse (grace) before the cart (faith) to know grace in truth. God gives salvation by grace by His free will, and we respond in varying degrees of faith and obedience (Ex 33:19; John 5:24; 17:2-3; Acts 10:34-35; 16:14; 18:27; Rom 4:16; Gal 5:22-23; Eph 2:8-9; Phil 2:12-13; II Tim 2:24-26; I John 5:1; etc., etc.).
Faith and works, without which faith is worthless, are means of laying hold of salvation for our own assurance and proving our election (II Pet 1:5-11; I Tim 6:17-19; Jas 2:14-26; Matt 7:21).
By this means, the promise of eternal life for the elect is sure to all the seed, infant, heathen, strong believer, weak believer, well-taught believer, or poorly-taught believer.
Most every “Christian” denomination in the United States sings and speaks often of God’s grace, but hardly a church anywhere gives God’s grace the full credit for salvation and providence.
LASCIVIOUS GRACE
Lascivious grace, as Jude called it in Jude 1:4-5, is man’s perversion of grace by promising eternal life regardless of how men live. Once a person is saved, they do not require keeping God’s commandments or being overcomers. They promise sinners liberty, though they are in bondage to sin (II Pet 2:19). They combine decisional salvation with once saved, always saved to guarantee heaven no matter a person’s lifestyle. This encourages lascivious living by a presumption of grace.
Jude warned early saints that reprobates had already crept in with this error in his day (Jude 1:3-4).
See decisional salvation above, for that heresy of frustrated grace is what leads to lasciviousness.
These false teachers defined and emphasized grace in such a way as to lead to lascivious living.
Peter in a related prophecy described these false teachers as promising them liberty (II Pet 2:19).
Paul warned Timothy about compromising Christians in love with pleasures more than God and holding only a form of godliness without any authority in it due to fables (II Tim 3:1-7; 4:3-4).
The Lordship controversy is a symptom of how wickedly Arminians abuse/pervert the grace of God.
This ridiculous folly is decisional salvation going to seed, going to seed, and going to seed again!
In their effort to make salvation easy enough for a parrot or monkey, there is no mention of Jesus as Lord, repentance from sin, reformation of lifestyle, changing conduct, good works, etc.
They wildly accuse anyone confessing Jesus as Lord of taking souls to hell by adding law works!
After rejecting God’s grace, they reduce eternal life to the most inane superficial words possible.
There is presently a much ballyhooed Grace Revolution with Joseph Prince as its lead spokesman.
He loves to quote John 1:17 as his favorite verse and then leapfrog from it into lascivious grace.
Example movement heresies include I John 1 is not for believers; you cannot break fellowship with God; you cannot command love; confession and repentance are not for believers.
Grace to them is the basis for Daddy God and how he wants to stuff their Christmas stockings.
They cannot even slightly grasp distinguishing grace (election) or grace to separate (II Cor 7:1).
We could call Joel Osteen another preacher of it, but he does not use Bible or grace in preaching.
Joseph Prince loves to yap about “mother grace,” sucking up to Pope Frank I, who well knows the words of their chief Rosary prayer, “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee…”
We could call this asinine modern heresy hyper-grace, for it goes far beyond the Bible doctrine.
Vain grace, as Paul called it in II Corinthians 6:1, is man’s perversion of grace by not bearing fruit or working diligently for God’s glory. Paul also called it failing of the grace of God by not guarding against personal sin (Heb 12:15). He showed the proper use of God’s grace in his life by outworking the other apostles (I Cor 15:10). It is the duty of those God saves by His grace to work out that salvation with fear and trembling (Phil 2:12-13). It is a shame to waste grace like Lot or Samson.
God’s grace will accomplish every aspect of every divine purpose, but there are practical aspects of grace that include active obedience by the child of God to fully exploit and leverage God’s grace.
The chain of grace found in Rom 8:28-39, indicative of four phases, is absolutely unconditional.
As in the parable of the talents or pounds, some are more faithful than others (Luke 19:11-27).
God has graciously worked in us, but we must work it out with fear and trembling (Phil 2:12-13).
This error is a slothful view of grace that diligent efforts for godliness are not important or required.
Paul warned God’s children to look diligently that they not fail of God’s grace (Hebrews 12:15).
Paul besought the Corinthians boldly not to receive God’s grace in vain (II Corinthians 6:1; 7:1).
Fatalists of different varieties think that they are conscious automatons under God’s grace, and thus they excuse themselves from any diligence or exertion in using the grace of God given them.
God’s grace was not bestowed in vain on brother Paul: he labored most diligently (I Cor 15:10).
They will read and explain this text fatalistically – Paul had little to no role in his diligent labor.
Preaching at Antioch, Paul persuaded the believers to continue in the grace of God (Acts 13:43).
