1. According to the above scripture one of the false teachings that will pop up in the days we live is the perversion of the message of Grace. According to the scripture above, our ranks would be infiltrated by various attempts to discredit the biblical dimension of the grace of God and substitute it for something which is nothing but a far cry from the accurate teaching of scripture concerning grace in the light of the whole counsel of God.
2. In any matter, once the premise on which an argument is based is wrong, the conclusion is automatically wrong. The premise on which most of these so-called grace teachings is based is defective and one is not surprised at the worrisome conclusion from some quarters
3. The high point in the so-called message of grace is
I. receiving forgiveness without repentance
II. Seeking to make people comfortable with God while continuing in their sin.
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.15 Speak these things, exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you. Titus 2:11-15
4. The two scriptures quoted above are enough. If scripture is anything to go by in our quest for understanding the true grace of God. The same grace that brings salvation has other coefficients like it teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lust; hence it is a responsibility conferring grace enabling us do our part as Christ did His part for us. Also, it challenges us to live soberly, righteously and godly without mincing words. So this grace is big on the salvation of the believer as well as the consequent conduct and the lifestyle of the believer. It is important to point out the truth that, it is very easy to turn the grace of God into lasciviousness( to be given over to the desires of the flesh denoting excesses, absence of restraints, indecency and wantonness) The prominent idea here is shameless conduct. It is from the Greek word ‘aselgeie’. This is what the grace of God can be turned into if it is not balanced by truth…Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ, the important co-efficient of grace is truth!...grace and truth…not just grace in isolation…a combo of grace and truth!
5. The most dangerous part of the perversion of the grace message is contrary to the claim that those who teach these perversions are on the side of the Lord –Jude on verse 4 made us to understand that they actually denied the Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. This denial is subtle as it affirms the error that after the believer is saved, there is not continuation of the work of Christ in the believer and that all that matter is salvation. This is laughable as Christ is not just our saviour, he is also our Lord. Once we begin to teach that the conduct of the believer is of no consequence for as long as they are saved, you are openly denying the Lordship of Christ. He is not just our saviour; he’s also our Lord. As Titus puts in in Titus 2: 14. He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed (that’s not the end of the matter) and to purify his own special people, zealous for good works.
6. Therefore any teaching that empowers compromise actively or passively by giving us the confidence that God is continually smiling at us our conduct notwithstanding, using only the benchmark of salvation but significantly lacking in establishing the Lordship of Christ over the conduct and the choices of the believer is a perverted gospel of grace.
And that speak these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you Titus 2:15
7. Before we move on, it is important to scripturally define the ministry of a false teacher.
But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber. 2 Peter 2:1-3
A false teacher therefore is the peddler of destructive heresies i.e. denying the Lord who brought them. As we can see again, the issue of the Lordship of Christ over those bought with his blood (salvation) is the critical issue that false teachers always undermine. It is important to emphasize it here that we are not just saved; we were bought with a price and that we must glorify God in our body and in our spirits which are God’s. Anything short of this is denying the Lordship of Christ.
8. So far, false teachings on grace is an attempt to teach the unmerited favour of God without recourse to its relationship with a lifestyle of holiness and godliness. The work of Christ on the believer does not finish at salvation i.e. the need for a saviour. It extends beyond salvation to conducts and lifestyle i.e. the need for the Lord which is a vivid expression of the absolute surrender of the life of the believer to the Lordship of Christ. The saviour at salvation is also the Lord for the rest of the life of the believer.
9. Eternal life according to the Lord in John 17:3 is not an end in itself. It is a means to an end that they may know you, the only true God. And Jesus Christ whom you have sent. It is on this premise that the Lord declared in John 17:4 that he had finished the work which the father gave him to do. Therefore, the full expression of the finished work of Christ is when the believer comes into an accurate alignment with the purposes and intentions of the Lord beyond being saved. I.e. fully exploring the possibilities and dimensions of Christ not just as saviour but more importantly as the Lord. This is what the Lord referred to as ‘Finished work’.
10. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap of for themselves teachers and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be tuned aside to fables
2 Tim 4: 3-4
11. On the issue of the so-called eternal security, yes a believer is eternally saved for as long as he stays saved because the believer has a choice in the scheme of things to depart from the faith if he so desires. Anyone can make a decision to depart from the faith. I have met people who were once saved but are now in the occult and by themselves renounce their salvation as part of the conditions for joining the occult. I think the confusion here is the word eternal which technically is not in reference to an endless duration of the subject matter. It’s more of the quality of the subject matter.
12. I .e eternal life is not usually discussed as such with respect it’s to the endless duration but rather its quality i.e. its level of life being the God-kind of Life and what that life does in the believer which is why in John 17:3, the Lord defined eternal life in terms of what that quality if light does and not necessarily its duration. The life that makes us to know the only true God…
13. These things are written to you who believe in the name of the son of God that thou may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the son of God.
1John 5:20
– From this scripture, it is possible to choose not to continue to believe in the name of the son of God. It’s a choice.
14. Therefore a believer, has eternal life but there’s no place in the scripture where it is said that the believer has eternal security. On endless duration of life often misconstrued for eternal life, everyone (believer or otherwise) is already an eternal being that will eventually live forever. The only difference is where they would spend their eternity.
15. Now the Spirit expressly says in the later times, some will depart from the faith (it is a matter of choice) giving heed to deceiving spirits… Speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron
1 Tim 4:1 2.
From the above scripture, it is expressly stated by the Holy Spirit that in these latter times, some will depart from the faith. This is the truth about the matter except you want to argue with the Holy Spirit… to depart from the faith is a reality today folks as it is equivocally stated. Deceiving spirit (deception and doctrines of demons) these rare two major things in this regard.
16. Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of the father in heaven, many will say to me in that day, ‘Lord Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name?’ And then I will declare to them ‘I never knew you; depart from me, You who practice lawlessness!’
Matt 7: 21-23
17. This is serious! And I ask, why would you call him Lord but he doesn’t know you? So this Lordship is a serious matter. It is one thing to call him Lord but it is a different ball game to have him as Lord. Indeed the Lord knows those who are His and let everyone who calls the name of Christ depart from iniquity. This is called the solid foundation of God that stands according to 2Timothy 2:19
18. In that day he would say “depart from me you workers of iniquity”. This is serious. The issue here is iniquity or lawlessness, a state in which the will is in conflict with the will of God until the conscience is seared with hot iron. In this case, casting out demons, do not necessarily translate to divine approval. This is very important to charismatics who flow in the gift of the spirit but neglect the corresponding fruits of the Spirit…bring forth fruits meet for repentance folks!
19. If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words from which comes envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain, from such withdraw yourself.
1 Tim 6:3
This is apostle Paul deferring to the words of Christ and affirming them as wholesome words i.e. affirming the truth that the words of Christ is the final authority on every matter and that to teach otherwise is to be proud and ignorant. Anyone who does this will definitely be obsessed with disputes, arguments over words borne out of envy and strife. Over the years, I have consistently applied the wisdom of scripture in withdrawing myself from such.
20. This is very important as some claim to follow strictly the epistle Paul making the scenario look like the letters of Paul are more authoritative on teachings (doctrines) than the very words of Christ. Grace and truth indeed came by Jesus Christ, to remove the words of our Lord Jesus Christ described as the doctrine which accords with godliness is to turn the grace of God into lasciviousness and to be destitute of the truth.
21. The Lord does not defer to Paul, Paul defers to the Lord. So you cannot claim to follow Paul and then discard the very words of the Lord on any subject. A good example is the epistle of Paul to the Ephesians vis-à-vis the letter the Lord sent to the same Church. Beyond the epistle of Paul, the Lord told the Ephesians what He had against them…demanding genuine repentance as a condition for forgiveness of sins…
‘Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent. Revelation 2:2-5…Q.ED
22. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin[b] is revealed, the son of perdition,
Do we need to explain there will be falling away…before the D day people will fall away.to think otherwise is to be deceived already! 2 Thessalonians 2:1, 2
23. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame. ‘If they fall away’…very possible a possibility…these are not babies but spiritually matured folks that fall away that may not be renewed again to repentance! Hebrews 6:4-6
24. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. 20 For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. 21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”
Do we need to explain the above?
The beginning of apostasy is to turn from the holy commandments delivered to us…yes HOLY COMMANDMENTS… 2 Peter 2:19-22
25. For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Hebrews 10:26-31
We can if we are not careful push things to that Rubicon where there is NO MORE SACRIFICE FOR SINS! IF WE SIN WILLFULLY AFTER WE HAVE RECEIVED THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH!
So the concept of once saved forever saved is an illusion…anyone may chose to go back to their vomit, it is called falling away or departing from the faith or sinning wilfully…it has consequences!...if you are saved stay saved!
26…It is important to state that the Love of God must not be misconstrued for the approval of God…the love of God is not sloppy agape…John 3:16 made us to understand how much the Lord loves the world which has no regard for Him. That He loves the world does not automatically translate to everyone in the world being saved automatically…yes He loves the world but does not approve of everything going on in the world.in the same vein that God is patient with those who do not repent or have not repented of their lawlessness does not mean He is altogether ok with them…He gave Jezebel time to repent
21 And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. 22 Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds.
Revelation 2:1, 2
This is New Testament! and the risen Lord seated on the throne is demanding repentance…as a condition for forgiveness…The Lord shows us the consequences of not repenting…you see this same demand all through the letters to the churches…
27 it is therefore a terrible thing to get away with sin long –term, it is a sign that the Lord is giving one over to a debased mind
28. Therefore it is important to co-operate with God’s grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, we must look diligently lest anyone should fall short of the grace of God, and we must never insult the Spirit of grace,
29 looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; 16 lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. 17 For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears. Hebrews 12:15-17
The way of Esau is used as an example of what it means to fall short of the grace of God…
A lifestyle of Profanity, fornication, and no value for anything spiritual! But an attempt to inherit the blessing nonetheless without repentance!
Esau found no place of repentance and fell short of the grace of God…more so today!
30. As I have always done, I have painstakingly done an analysis of relevant data on grace in this regard, I will do a second part when am led…to continue to set forth a declaration of those things which are most surely believed amongst us with respect to the true message of grace …so help me GOD.
Thank you and God bless!
By Dele Osunmakinde
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