Biblical Concept: Grace Abuse and
Misuse
Prologue: "The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness which the ambitious call, and ignorant believe to be liberty." --Fisher Ames, speech in the Massachusetts Ratifying Convention, 1788
(The parentheses are mine.)
NAS Romans 6:1 What shall we say
then? Are we to continue
in sin that grace might increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to
sin still live in it?
3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus
have been baptized into His death?
(Understanding grace
leads to a spiritual attitude of improvement.)
NAS Romans 6:14 For sin shall not
be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. 15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under
law but under grace? May it never be! (Understanding grace leads to a spiritual attitude
of improvement.)
NAS 2 Corinthians 1:12 For our
proud confidence is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and
godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have
conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you. (Grace does not use others.)
NAS 2 Corinthians 6:1 And working
together with
Him, we also
urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain— (Believers can misunderstand grace.)
NAS 2 Corinthians 9:8 And God is
able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in
everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed; (Grace leads
to good.)
NAS Galatians 1:6 I am amazed
that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ,
for a different gospel; (Believers can
misunderstand grace.)
(Religion opposes grace.)
NAS Galatians 2:21 "I do not
nullify the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died
needlessly." (Believers can
misunderstand grace.)
(Religion opposes grace.)
NAS Galatians 5:4 You have been
severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have
fallen from grace. (Believers can
misunderstand grace.)
(Religion opposes grace.)
NAS Colossians 1:6 which has come
to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and
increasing, even as it
has been doing in
you also since the day you heard of
it and
understood the grace of God in truth; (Grace leads to good.)
NAS Colossians 4:6 Let your
speech always be with grace, seasoned, as
it were, with
salt, so that you may know how you should respond to each person.
(Grace leads to good.)
NAS 2 Thessalonians 1:12 in order
that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him,
according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
(Grace leads to good.) (Grace
leads to glory.)
NAS Titus 2:11 For the grace of
God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, 12
instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly,
righteously and godly in the present age,
(Understanding grace leads to a
spiritual attitude
of improvement.) (Grace
leads to good.)
NAS Hebrews 10:29 How much
severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the
Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he
was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?
(Religion opposes grace.)
NAS Hebrews 12:15 See to it that
no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up
causes trouble, and by it many be defiled; (Sin opposes grace.)
NAS Hebrews 13:9 Do not be
carried away by varied and strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to
be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those who were thus
occupied were not benefited. (Religion opposes grace.)
NAS James 4:6 But He gives a
greater grace. Therefore it
says, "GOD
IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE."
(The relationship between greater grace, pride, and humility.)
NAS 1 Peter 1:13 Therefore, gird
your minds for action, keep sober in
spirit, fix your
hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (The relationship between grace and spiritual alertness.)
NAS 1 Peter 3:7 You husbands
likewise, live with your
wives in an
understanding way, as with a weaker vessel, since she is a woman; and grant her
honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be
hindered. (Male and female = grace equals.)
NAS 1 Peter 4:10 As each one has
received a special
gift, employ it
in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
(The relationship between grace, spiritual gifts, and service.)
NAS 1 Peter 5:5 You younger men,
likewise, be subject to your elders; and all of you, clothe yourselves with
humility toward one another, for GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE
TO THE HUMBLE. (The
relationship between grace, pride, and humility.)
NAS 1 Peter 5:12 Through
Silvanus, our faithful brother (for so I regard him), I have written to you briefly,
exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it! (Keep your grace momentum.)
NAS Jude 1:4 For certain persons
have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this
condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny
our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Compare Jude 19
and 2 Peter 2:10-22. (Religion attacks grace.) (Sin natures abuse and misuse grace.)
NAS Jude 1:19
These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit.
NAS 2 Peter 2:10
and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt
desires and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when
they revile angelic majesties, 11 whereas angels who are greater in might and
power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord. 12 But
these, like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured
and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of
those creatures also be destroyed, 13 suffering wrong as the wages of doing
wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are stains and
blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you, 14 having
eyes full of adultery and that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls,
having a heart trained in greed, accursed children; 15 forsaking the right way
they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor,
who loved the wages of unrighteousness, 16 but he received a rebuke for his own
transgression; for
a dumb donkey,
speaking with a voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet. 17 These
are springs without water, and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black
darkness has been reserved. 18 For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly
desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in
error, 19 promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of
corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved. 20 For if
after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are
overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it would
be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having
known it, to turn away from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 It has
happened to them according to the true proverb, "A DOG RETURNS TO ITS OWN
VOMIT," and, "A sow, after washing, returns to
wallowing in the mire."