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We cannot shy away from the fact that there are erroneous grace messages out there. Many supposed believers hide under the guise of some of these grace messages to perpetrate their sinful life and actions. The Bible never fail to warn us about folks like this. In Jude 1:4, brother Jude wrote: “For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.”
If you read that Scripture in KJV, the word “lewdness” is written as “lasciviousness.” Lasciviousness, according to Dictionary.com, connotes any of the following phrases: inclined to lustfulness; wanton; Lewd or arousing sexual desire or indicating sexual interest or expressive of lust or lewdness. So, we know that a time like this would come when certain men of God, certain women of God would misrepresent the grace of God, hiding under this erroneous grace messages to do all manner of untoward things in the name of God.
If there is anything you must come to terms with as a believer, it is the fact that the grace of God is not a license to continue to sin. As a matter of fact, what the grace of God does is to give you the capacity to live above whatever inadequacies that the devil is trying to bring your way. Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 12:8-9a that “Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”
We see that whatever it was apostle Paul was beseeching God for, God’s response to him was that His grace was available to him to overcome them. You see, grace never gives us the go ahead to continue sinning. If there is any grace message that tells you “God understands”, and it entrenches you deeper into that life that you don’t want, that life that Jesus has rescued you from; then such a grace message is not from the throne of God. So, based on the foregoing, below are a number of things that the grace of God teaches us.
1 The grace of God teaches us that Salvation is by grace through faith in Christ Jesus and not of our works (Ephesians 2:8-9). Therefore to please God, we must live our lives as we have therefore received salvation. The question then is: How did we receive salvation? Colossians 2:6-7 tells us “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.” Your responsibility therefore is to be established in the faith as a believer, because this is the only way to please God. This is not all, you must also endeavour to continually abound in thanksgiving.
2 The grace of God teaches us that God would have all men saved. It is for that reason He gave Christ and Christ gave Himself on the cross as a ransom for all. 1 Timothy 2:4-6 tells us “who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there isone God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time,” In the agenda of God for saving man, there is not one that is excluded. Salvation is available to all and it is for all. In John 3:16, the Bible documented that God so loved the world. The love of God does not exclude any individual from this salvation agenda.
3 The grace of God teaches us that the call of God upon our lives is a “holy calling.” What is a Holy Calling? The call of God on a believer is referred to as a Holy calling. Why is it Holy? Because He who has called us is holy (1 Peter 1:15-16).
4 The grace of God teaches us that the God of all grace (I Peter 5:10) is able to make all grace abound. The grace of God is an abounding grace. Depending on your yearning, you can enjoy grace on different levels. The Bible talks about “Great Grace” in Acts 4:33; “and with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.” You too can command this great grace if only you would allow the Holy Spirit to make use of you.
5 The grace of God Teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. You know, many people believes today that since we are in the dispensation of grace, that believers can afford to misbehave, because grace has got them covered. But apostle Paul said “how shall we continue in sin, and expect grace to abound, he says God forbid.” So, grace is not a license to continue with the things of the world, but rather, grace teaches you to deny and renounce them. Also, 1 John 2:15-17 tells us “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that isin the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”
6 The grace of God teaches us to that “we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age.” Why did the Bible admonished us to live like this in this present world? Let us examine the three words first by reading Titus 2:12 in another translation. “And because God is so kind, he teaches us do the right things. We should stop doing bad things that do not make God happy. We should stop wanting strongly the things that belongs to this world. Instead, God teaches us to rule ourselves properly. He teaches us to do what is right. He teaches us to do the things that make Him happy. We should do these good things while we live in this world” (EASY Translation).
So, from that passage, we can see clearly that grace teaches us to please God always, to rule ourselves properly, to do what is right, to do the things that make God happy and that we should do these things while we live in this world.
I believe you have been blessed!
[Centre for New Dimension Leadership]
