CONFUSION ABOUT GRACE

Misunderstanding grace

jOHN fENN

There is much confusion and wrong teaching out there about grace, which in part has led to the behavior mentioned in this week's Charisma magazine email (link to full article at the end of this email):

A group of traveling ministers routinely met for weekend getaways that included wife-swapping The male leader of a "prophetic" church on the West Coast seduced several men in his core leadership team. (The church shut down after the sin was exposed.) A pastor learned that members of his staff were having sexual affairs in the sanctuary of his church, and he did nothing to stop the debauchery. A church in the Southeast hosted a marriage seminar in which Christian couples were encouraged to install poles in their bedrooms so wives could engage in pole dancing prior to sex.

I could add: Christian couples who have lived together for years, even with children, saying they are married in Christ and don't need a minister to make it official. Christians who say their use of marijuana is freedom in Christ and a sin against no one, Christian homosexuals living that lifestyle, Christian businessmen and women caught up in greed and think nothing of lying, cheating, being dishonest in the name of God blessing them with prosperity, etc. (You could probably add your own examples)

These all qualify under what Jude 4 says: "Some turn the grace of God into a license for sin..."
Rather than a license for sin, we'll see that grace is actually empowerment to live a holy life.

Remember that the whole of the New Testament, as mentioned in the past few week's series, is about the fact that we are the temples of God now, not a building: He lives in us, so we have to learn to walk in that grace, a grace that carries God around with us wherever we go, whatever we do.

No gender, no social status, no racial differences - If I'm a temple and you are a temple, then we are equal in every way. In Galatians 3:28 Paul said: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

In II Corinthians 5:16-17 Paul said this is how he lives his life: "From henceforth I will know no man according to fleshly standards, for if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. Old things are passed away, behold, all things have become new."

To the Colossians in 2:16-17 he said it this way: "Let no one judge you in food or drink, or in respect to holy days or the new moon or Sabbath day, which are shadows of things to come, the reality however, is found in Christ."

All things flow from this spiritual truth. Because we are equal temples, saved by the same blood of Jesus, the different ways we function in the body of Christ is how we honor one another. We don't wear our call (function) or grace as a badge of honor, rather we walk out the grace given us through service to one another.

The flow of three truths: Equal in Christ, then creation order, then cultural issues
In Christ we are equal, that is the spiritual truth, yet the Lord made Adam first and then Eve rather than making them both at the same time, establishing as Paul noted, an organizational structure in which this truth may function: The husband lays down his life for his wife as Christ did the church, and she in turn honors him as the body of Christ lives for Christ. This mutual submission in love of a husband and wife both equal in Christ, makes a marriage in Christ work. (Eph 5:21-33)

So the highest truth is that we are equal in Christ - no male/female/bond/slave/Jew/Greek - only Christ.

Second to that is the creation order God established by making first Adam and then Eve, so these equal believers, or as Peter said "joint heirs in Christ", can function in marriage which forms the bedrock of all societies.

God did not make Adam and Eve and Betty - not a threesome in the garden. Neither did He make Adam and Larry. He made Adam, and then Eve, and he made them to fit together spiritually, emotionally, and physically, so God established by creation His divine parameters and order.

People mistake freedom in Christ (spiritual truth) for the freedom to violate divine order (creation truth), taking relationships to a level God never intended, and thus end up in the sin outlined in the aforementioned Charisma article (violating cultural truth).

The Holy Spirit only flows within the boundaries of what the Father establishes, and there is great freedom within these boundaries, but to go beyond what He intended relationships to be is to leave Him out of the equation.

Third are the cultural issues that must be observed, and in which we 'equal temples' must live in the divine creation order within various societies, each with local customs and culture.

Being equal in Christ, neither male nor female, and having a marriage in creation order, means nothing if that marriage cannot function in a culture people live in. The same is true of single people; being equal in Christ to anyone else in the body of Christ, and being free to live for Christ alone without concern for a spouse, means nothing unless that person can function in the culture they live. All 3 truths are grace, and must be balanced in their function, and that balance is maintained and flows by love.

If you can learn to pick out the 3 truths when dealing with conflict along these lines in our day, you will be able to rightly divide the Word of truth and live in grace and peace by making right decisions.

Veil issue of Paul's day
See if you can pick out how Paul deals with all three in the following examples. That's why Paul advises wives in I Corinthians 11:2-16 to wear the veils which were the custom of the day in that region.

He plainly states they may pray and prophesy in the (home) church meetings because they are equal in Christ (spiritual truth), but they must consider if they don't wear the veil they dishonor their husbands (creation truth), and 3 times mentions the custom and culture of the veils and that they should judge from that and dress according to the custom (cultural truth).

They had been thinking 'we are free in Christ, we don't have to wear these things anymore" - spiritually true, but they lived in a culture that said they needed to wear the veils, and if they didn't they gave the appearance of their marriages being out of order. (v6, 13, 16)

So spiritually we are equal, but in function God established Adam/Eve order, and lastly we have cultural issues to observe - it works if our underlying foundation is that we are all equal in Christ, and we honor one another according to the grace given each, understanding this freedom mean responsibility, not a license to flaunt freedom in the face of society's customs.

Grace is about being responsible for being a temple of God
In the 1980's when I was an Associate Pastor we had a situation with a prostitute who got saved, and became an enthusiastic member of the church. Though she was thoroughly saved and Spirit-filled, her over- the-top eye make-up, her barely 'over the top' tops, and her very short skirts made more than one church member roll their eyes! Did she have the freedom in Christ to dress like that? Certainly, but she was in a different culture now and needed to be taken aside by some ladies and advised about her clothing.

At another church we had a worship team member who insisted he wear his work jacket, complete with sewn on name tag, and work pants and boots often still with mud or dirt on them, while he led worship on Wednesday nights. Did he have the freedom in Christ to dress like that in church? Certainly, but when he became part of the worship team the 'culture' changed, and he didn't like growing in this area, and quit.

I'll have mine medium-rare, hold the salad, on a Saturday
In Paul's day the issues were meat sacrificed to idols, being a vegetarian or not, and which day to worship on; Saturday (Jewish Sabbath) or Sunday (Resurrection day).

In Romans 14 (all) Paul dealt with this issue, saying those who ate only veggies or considered one day more holy than another were weak in the faith. He makes the point that both those strong in the freedom in Christ and those weak in the faith, do what they do unto the Lord, so honor one another accordingly for "every one shall give account of himself to God." (v13)

The Corinthian church began in Acts 18 with a mix of Jewish, Roman, and Greek members, so there was a tug of war over which day to meet on, the Jewish Sabbath which meant nothing to the Greeks and Romans, or the day that meant something to them, Resurrection day (Sunday).

Since there was no cultural truth to observe, and the creation truth flows from the spiritual truth of what Jesus did on the cross, Paul deferred to the spiritual truth that we are temples carrying Christ around in us in a 24/7 Sabbath rest between us and God, therefore any day worked to choose as a day of rest. (See my article under 'recent posts' on our web site home page for more on the Sabbath rest)

In Corinth another issue was meat that had earlier been sacrificed to an idol offered for sale in restaurants. Some believers were bothered by this, others were not. Both in I Corinthians 8 (all) and 10:23-33 he dealt with the issue saying "...we know that an idol is nothing...to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things, and we by Him (spiritual truth)...however not everyone has this knowledge..." (v4-7)

He speaks of their weaker conscience and how those who walk in liberty need to be sensitive to those who think eating a steak offered to an idol is a sin (cultural truth) - so if someone weak in the faith invites you out, don't order the steak for their conscience sake! (8:10-13; 10:25-28)

You can see confusion in the body of Christ over these 3 elements I shared today: Spiritual equality, creation order, and cultural issues. Many in the name of grace have instead found themselves in the midst of darkness clueless how 'freedom in Christ' and 'grace' could have taken them down this path.