One day I was speaking with a gentleman and proceeded to invite him to our weekly Bible study. His response to my invitation was unexpected. He replied “You’re not one of those fluffy grace guys are you? I don’t want any of that!”. He proceeded to tell me that in his opinion, what we all need is more fire and brimstone preaching against sin, and how all of these fluffy grace preachers are diluting things further.
This kind of thinking is actually fairly common. However, is this what the Bible actually teaches? I know that it is a commonly held belief that too much grace is a dangerous thing… but is that commonly held belief supported by what the scripture says? This is what we will be studying today. As we see the truth of what the scripture says, it will quench any doubt that we have have regarding the message of Grace.
Let’s begin today by reading Romans 1:15-19:
“So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God to salvation to every one that believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.”
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God has showed it to them.”
Verse 16, right here makes a bold statement: For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. This is quite a controversial and dividing statement. There are many believers today who are secretly ashamed of the message of Grace. For example, they may confess Grace with their mouth, but when it comes time to make a solid commitment to Grace, they recoil, they shy away from the full message of Grace. They may acknowledge that Grace exists when they are questioned about it, but when it comes time to preach or teach Grace or actually live Grace, they become timid and unsure. This is why Paul says in the previous verse 15 that so, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel. It must be in you first, before it can come forth. It must be solidified in you, before you can convey it to others. And Paul says that he is not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
How can Paul be so sure and bold regarding the message of Grace? for it is the power of God to salvation to every one that believes. This word “salvation” is soteria in Greek. An all-encompassing, broadly defined word that includes prosperity of every kind, health in your body, healing, peace, protection and deliverance. The word salvation in Hebrew, is – are you ready for this? – yeshua, it is the Hebrew name for Jesus! Obviously God wanted His people to know something important about His Son, and what His Son came to accomplish!
Now where does this power of deliverance, healing, and prosperity come from according to verse 16? Where is the power of Jesus found and unleashed? It is the Gospel! The good news of Christ! How does it happen? Next verse, 17: For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. The message of the Gospel, does not reveal your shortcomings, the message of the gospel does not beat you down with guilt and shame; it does not condemn you. Instead, it reveals the righteousness of God from faith to faith.
The message of the Gospel of Grace does not remind you of how dirty you are or of your sins. This cannot be overstated. There are pastors today who are ashamed of the Gospel of Grace because they think it gives people a license to sin… but in reality people have already been sinning without a license. The message of Grace does not remind you of your failings, because in-truth, we all already know that we fall short! In 1st John 1:8, it says that “if we claim to have no sin, we deceive, we lie to ourselves and the truth is not in us.” – In order to lie, you must intentionally and deliberately make a false statement.
So God, quite frankly, does not need to remind you of your failings – you already know them, and as we have read in our text of Romans 1:17 so far, your failings are not what the Gospel reveals. The Gospel does not reveal the sins of man, but the righteousness of God! And this righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. This righteousness of God starts by faith in Jesus Christ, and it continues by faith in Jesus Christ. It does not lead anywhere else. This is an important point because the Galatians went astray thinking that salvation started by faith and then led to greater glory by works. And many believers today think the same thing. Many think that faith in Christ is the starting line, but the finishing line is works. But no, just as the Galatians were corrected by Paul in Galatians 3:1-3, so too must we be reminded that the righteousness of God is given to us by faith in Jesus Christ alone – it is from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall live by faith.
Continuing on now to verse 17, we can see that those pastors mentioned earlier – the ones who shy away from grace out of ignorance and fear are especially lining themselves up for wrath. Look at what the verse says: the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness. These are those teachers, pastors and leaders who hold (that is hold back or detain) the truth, and they do so in unrighteousness. Let me give you an example of how this happens in churches today… When the pastor’s message consists of beating you down, reminding you of your sin, or telling you ways that you do not measure up to God, then what that person is actually doing is holding back the truth of the Gospel in unrighteousness – because all he has done is reminded you of your unrighteousness and driven you further down rather than show you the righteousness of God and allowed Jesus to lift you up.
Another example of this is when an entire message is spent telling you things that you must do to “make it right with God”, all they are really doing is again holding back the truth of the Gospel in unrighteousness, because as the scripture makes clear in many places, there is nothing we can do in order to make things right with God. We are not justified by our performance, but by faith in Jesus Christ. (Job 15:14, Isaiah 27:5, Romans 5:1, Acts 10:36, et al.)
Now why does holding the truth back in these ways provoke such a strong reaction from God? You may be honestly wondering this, and God knew that some people would, and so He has given us the explanation in verse 18 of our text: Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God has showed it to them.
Notice that the verse says “that which may be known of God…” You see, if you miss everything else that is of God, He wants you to see the most important thing which is of Him… and that is salvation through Jesus Christ. Also notice that it says that which may be known of God is manifest in them… Them who? The teachers, pastors and leaders who are the very ones holding back the truth in unrighteousness! The verse continues on to say that God has showed the truth about salvation to them! So they are totally without any excuse for holding it back – they can’t claim ignorance. This is a purposeful decision, to pervert the message of the Gospel which they are supposed to communicate.
So now that we know how strongly God feels about the message of Grace in His Son, Jesus. Let’s now address another common question about it: Can we have both the Law and Grace? Should there be a balance of both?
I hear this being spoken of a lot, that there should be a balance between Law and Grace – and we don’t want to be unbalanced. Well, that idea sounds logical and all, but we need to actually know what God says about all of this in His Word. We need to understand that God has cut a New Covenant with us today in Christ, and in doing so, He has rendered the Old Covenant as abolished. Turn with me to Hebrews 8:6-13:
“But now has he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.
For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.
For finding fault with them, he said, Behold, the days come, said the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:
Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, said the Lord.
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, said the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
In that he said, A new covenant, he has made the first old. Now that which decays and waxes old is ready to vanish away.”
Starting with verse 6, we see that He (Jesus) has obtained a more excellent ministry than that of Moses (The entire context here is drawing analogies between Moses and Jesus, Sinai and Zion, Law and Grace).
Jesus is a mediator of a better covenant, which was established (past-tense, done) on better promises. In verse 7, we can see that God found fault with the Covenant of the Law, because God really wanted to bless mankind, but because of the fall of Adam and Eve, and the sinful nature that resulted from it, man become prideful and tried to earn his own blessings and can do nothing but fail at it. So God in verses 7 and 8, lays the foundation for a New Covenant – one not based on man’s efforts, but on the goodness and mercy of God.
Look at verse 9, because there is a very important point here… God says that this new covenant of Grace, is not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt… That description leaves absolutely no doubt as to which covenant God was referring to – it is the Mosaic covenant, the covenant of the Law, the Ten Commandments. God says that this New Covenant is not according to that one, this one will be different… why? Because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not. God says that this New covenant will be different, because they couldn’t keep the old one, and it forced me to not regard them. Do you see God’s heart in this? He wants to bless! He wants to love and care for! And He knows we can’t earn it!
So as we continue reading, we see that God is cutting a New Covenant with us. He is the one choosing to do it… and He is doing it, because to not do it would mean certain destruction and death for us. You see, we don’t appreciate the seriousness and awesomeness of what God is doing here. We actually play around with the Old Covenant in our own foolish pride, thinking that if we just “do our best” that God will somehow be happy with our meager attempt and think it’s cute. We forget verses like Romans 4:15, which says that the law brings about the wrath of God, and James 2:10 which says that if you keep the 99% of the law but fail at just one point, you are guilty of the entire law.
We fail to take into consideration that God tells us in Galatians 4:30 to cast out the bondwoman and her son, which are allegories for the law and all that the law gives birth to. Now if God tells you to throw something out, why are you still holding on to it?! Please don’t be like Lot’s wife, and look back at the place destined for wrath!
Jesus said it this way in Matthew 9:16, that you cannot put a patch of new cloth on an old garment. If you try, it will end up tearing even worse.
Many believers simply try to use Jesus as a safety net for keeping the Law. They try to use Jesus as a patch for their own works and self. They still are trying to impress or please God with their law-keeping, and running to Jesus when they fail, and then repeating the cycle of trying to keep the Law. They have totally missed the point, and the New Covenant!
Going back to our text in Hebrews 8, verses 10 through 12 spell out the terms of this New Covenant which God has placed us under today. You will notice that while the Mosaic Covenant of the Law, where the burden and obligation was all on man to perform, this New Covenant has shifted the burden and obligation entirely on God! The work is all His! And yes that is entirely crushing to the pride of man – and that’s the point!
Here’s the best part.. look at verse 12: God says that He will be merciful to our unrighteousness, and our sins and iniquities He will remember no more! God is not counting your unrighteousness against you. He is not keeping a record of your sins or iniquities. These are just some of the better promises that we have today under the better covenant of Grace. Why cling to what God says to throw away? God has moved mountains and we need to move along with Him!
This is why Paul said, as we read at the start of our study today, he is not ashamed of the Gospel of Grace in Christ! There is great power in the Gospel message when it is presented truly, without any shame or mixture of the Law. We cannot live the abundant life with one foot on Mt. Sinai and the other foot on Mt. Zion. We have seen tonight, that the idea of some kind of balance between Law and Grace is not supported anywhere in scripture – in-fact quite the opposite! The Bible is very clear in that we are to embrace Grace fully and that the Old Covenant was done away in favor of Grace by God Himself!
Don’t shy away from the marvelous work God has done in ushering in the New Covenant by His Son. Romans 5:17 says that by the abundance of Grace and the gift of righteousness shall we reign in life by Jesus Christ.
That is power, and that is a promise from God to all who fully embrace Grace in abundance. Receive the free gift, and truly honor God, by embracing the Gospel – the Good News of the Grace of Jesus Christ.