Why Christians should never worry about people “abusing grace”

by calebo on June 4, 2008

Watch the video by Steve McVey called Christian Religion Lie #50 “We Had Better Be Careful Or People Might Abuse Grace” And my comments (crazy as always ) follow…

You hear this a lot when you preach grace and only grace as a way of Christian life.

You hear, “yes, but you can’t take it to far“…

… “yes, but you have to be careful or else people will abuse the knowledge of grace and use it as a license to sin“…

… “yes that’s true, but be careful how you share that or else some people might abuse it“…

It’s all a faulty, fear-based lie!

This Lie is grounded firmly in FEAR

Fear is the opposite of love. God is Love and according to 1 John 4:18 (NIV, emphasis mine):

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”

So either we are having FAITH in God and His unconditional Love (which Hebrews says is the “only thing which pleases God”)

… or faith in our fear (which is the opposite of Love/God and therefore can’t be pleasing to God).

A simple choice … your fear or God’s Love?

So which of these things are you going to choose to have faith in…

Your fear of people abusing the Grace… love… and truth of who God is… or… are you going to have faith in God.

The truth is, you don’t have to fear people abusing the Grace of God because God (the creator of the universe, the alpha and omega, the originator of all, etc) is quite capable to make sure that people don’t abuse it.

He doesn’t need your “help” to make sure people “stay in line” (according to your limited, finite view of what “staying in line” actually means!)

God is quite capable to perfect His will all by Himself… like a big boy!

Besides, your job is to reveal what you know to be truth… NOT to worry!

The message of Grace is truth.

Your job is to tell the truth as you know it. (which will never be complete, we all understand God only “in part” 1 Cor 13:12)…

And you allow the Holy Spirit to take care of the fear of “people abusing grace” because God is quite capable to handle His creations.

And besides…

What you see as “abusing grace” is just God’s will being played out…

Let’s say you share the message of grace with someone and it seems to you like they take it and “abuse” it by taking it as a license to “sin”.

They go out and have their way with every fleshly desire there is in the world… Have they somehow upset God’s perfect will?

Have you somehow been responsible for “messing up” God’s perfect plan for that persons life?

Of Course NOT!

Either God is totally IN CONTROL… or He is Not.

None of us is bigger than God or has the power to upset His perfect will.

In our hypothetical example, Perhaps God needed that person to travel the world, become a crack addict, alcoholic, who contracts AIDS from sleeping with thousands of other drug users who share needles…

… and then… is overwhelmed by the Grace of God after 5 years of living homeless on the streets (the message you shared with them originally) and goes on to start a ministry which brings Christ to crack addict, alcoholic, AIDs victims all over the world!

My point is:

You have no idea what God’s will is!

So you don’t have to “play God” by pretending to know what’s right for everyone… you just have to share God’s Love and Truth as best you understand it… God is totally and completely capable of taking care of the details

With Love :)
Caleb

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