Holiness, Godliness, Usefulness
09/02/2014, by John Kincaid
Lesson 347: Abusing God's Grace
Teaching about God’s grace / unconditional love raises a concern that some will abuse the gift.
If we take the emphasis off strict rules, are we training children to ignore God’s standards?
God has provided deliverance from guilt; God accepts believers despite their sin.
Does it give the impression that God accepts sin? Can grace become an excuse for lawlessness?
The church has struggled with this issue for 2000 years. Are Christians free to ignore the law?
Does grace encourage people to live without rules, believing that God forgives anything?
We do not earn God’s grace by being obedient to His commands. But when some people hear this, they stretch it to mean that God does not require obedience, so why bother obeying?
Paul put it this way in Romans 6:1 – “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?”
His answer in 6:2 was – “By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?”
About This Series
The goal of this series is to become more useful in serving the Lord Jesus Christ, as an instrument in the Redeemer's hand. The theme verses for the series are Ephesians 4:22-24, Philemon 11, 2 Timothy 2:21
- to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
- and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
- Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.
- Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.
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