He Has You

There is a hyper-grace message in our day that teaches it is ok to continue in sin because we have plenty of grace. Yet this teaching is counter to the Word of God. Jesus did not save you from sin so you would remain in your sin. He sent the Holy Spirit to give you power over sin. God’s grace is not a license to sin but the deliverance from sin.

When I was in the prison ministry, I was given the authority to go into areas of the prison by myself or escorting others in. I would escort others in to teach a course that would go on for several weeks. How much we need laborers in the fields of our day.

The measure of a plow is not in how it looks, but in what it helps to produce. We are not shaped by God to be put on display, but as plows to be used in the fields. “Then He [the Lord Jesus] said to His disciples, ‘The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few’” (Matthew 9:37 NKJV).

I will never forget one man who came in to teach for his first time. He was a wealthy older man who was young in his faith and zealous to share his experience with others. He had lived a life of sin and found the abundant grace in the Lord Jesus and the covering of the precious Blood of the Lamb.

When Jesus paid for your sins with His blood, it wasn’t a down payment but a payment in full. “You know that in the past you were living in a worthless way…But you were saved from that useless life. You were bought, but not with something that ruins like gold or silver. You were bought with the precious blood of the death of Christ, who was like a pure and perfect lamb.” (1 Peter 1:18-19 ICB).

This man got in front of the class and shared his testimony about how the Lord Jesus rescued him and poured out His grace upon him. But then he began to teach on how even though he was continuing in his sin, there was always enough grace to cover it. He kept going on and on with a hyper-grace message that promotes living in your sin and being comfortable in what you’re doing.

It is not grace or obedience, but grace and obedience. “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?” (Romans 6:16 NKJV).

After the class, I shared with him how in this ministry we did not teach on the hyper-grace message we so often find in our day. We were to teach we are saved by grace, and then we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to be transformed and changed into something new.

Grace is meant to save you out of your sin, not to leave you in it. “Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?” (Romans 6:1-2 NLT).

He argued with me at great length. His argument was based on the fallen nature of man and how we can never be perfect. I agree with him that on our own, we can never be perfect. But we can live a life yielded to a perfect Savior, saved by grace, and longing to die to our sin. It is a daily battle.

Lord, protect me from me, that I could overcome by Your power. “For God’s grace, which brings deliverance, has appeared to all people. It teaches us to renounce godlessness and worldly pleasures, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives now, in this age” (Titus 2:11-12 CJB).

Before we were saved, we had no choice but to sin because sin reigned in us. We sinned because we had to. After we are saved, we no longer have to sin. Once saved, we don’t sin because we have to, but because we want to. If we want victory over sin, we only need surrender to Christ.

Stop making excuses in your defeat and turn to Christ for His victory. “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57 NKJV).

This man agreed not to teach that message again. But the next week, when he took the podium, he was in rebellion and taught even more adamantly the hyper-grace message. He was so impressed with himself afterward. I told him, “do you realize who you are teaching to stay in their sin”? This was a special prison where they housed mostly men convicted of sexual crimes against children.

You need to live higher than you preach, not the other way around. “In all things you yourself must be an example of good behavior. Be sincere and serious in your teaching” (Titus 2:7 GNT).

This man never taught in that prison again. I know many people like him are teaching others this same hyper-grace message, and people are lapping it up like a sweet drink wanting to live in their sin and at the same time think themselves the delight of God. Make no mistake, you might be saved by grace, but you will be judged by your actions.

Never fear that men would judge you wrongly, but that God will judge you rightly. “So then each of us shall give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12 NKJV).

If you are a teacher, God has a stricter judgment in store for you. This is because what you are teaching not only impacts what you do, but what others will do based on what you’ve taught them. There will be a great shame for many teachers on the day they give an account of their teaching to God.

God is more interested that you live a doctrine than you are able to argue it. “My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment” (James 3:1 NKJV). 

Blessings to you,

Paul Balius