Grace without repentance doesn’t exist. Now, you might think: “well, yeah, that’s obvious, everybody knows that.” But apparently, this is not as obvious as it seems, because if Christians would know and understood what this means, then the lives of many Christians would be completely different and they wouldn’t be lost in the sea of grace. Repentance starts with a confrontation between the holiness of God and the sinful nature of man. In the holiness of God, man is confronted with his sinful nature. On the basis of this confrontation and revelation by God, a person makes a decision to repent or not. Repentance means, that you renounce your old nature, your old way of thinking, and your old life in the flesh, with all its works; sins, and iniquities, and that you turn to Christ, give your life to Him and make Him Lord over your life.
What have you repented from?
Jesus has taken all your sins and iniquities, that you walked in when you were the old man; a sinner, upon Himself, on the whipping post and on the cross. He carried all your sins and dealt with your sin nature that is present in the flesh. Jesus reconciled you to God with His blood and redeemed you from your sin nature. You have been redeemed and saved through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. This means, that you have received a new nature: God’s nature.
But… if you are redeemed from your sin nature, which is the nature of the devil, that is present in the flesh and always wants to do those things, that go against the will of God and His Word, but keep walking after the flesh in sin, and therefore keep doing those things, that go against God’s will and His Word, then what are you redeemed from and what have you repented from?
The misused word grace
The word grace is a popular word that is frequently used in the church. Grace is not only a popular word, that is frequently used in church, but it is also a misused word and often misunderstood word. Through false doctrines of (hyper) grace, the grace of God has been twisted and changed into a false grace of man, that approves and tolerates everything. In this message of grace, nothing is mandatory and everything is allowed. The word grace is bandied about a lot by Christians. As soon as the net is closing in on them, the word grace appears and they use the word grace to condone their carnal walk in sin and to defeat and silence the other person. And they often succeed.
How come? Because only a few Christians are born again and have renewed their mind with God’s Word and have such a spiritual knowledge of the Word, that they have developed a spiritual awareness and discernment of good and evil and knowledge of the will of God, so that they are able to discern pious lies and refute the lies with the truth of God’s Word.
Just like Jesus did in the wilderness when the devil tried to tempt Jesus with the words of God.
The devil didn’t speak his own words, but he spoke the words of God. The devil tried to tempt Jesus, by using the words of God to satisfy the lusts and desires of His flesh. But Jesus knew the devil and his works and instead of believing and doing the words of the devil, and using the words of God to satisfy His carnal lusts and desires, Jesus refuted the lies of the devil and overcame the devil with the truth.
Grace is used to exculpate Christians from their responsibilities
Unfortunately, many Christians do believe the lies of the devil and use among others the word grace to stay carnal and keep living after the lusts and desires of their flesh and their will. They use the grace of God to exculpate them from their responsibilities, which God has given them through Jesus Christ.
They use the word grace as an excuse so that they won’t have to change and enter the process of sanctification; dying to self (the old man) and putting on Christ, which is often not easy and can be painful and some might even experience rejection and persecution. They use the word grace so that they can keep living as the world; as the old man.
But this is not something new, because in the time of the apostles the same thing happened in the church.
Paul and Jude, among others, also wrote about this phenomenon. The only difference is, that today’s generation uses different words, saying that you shouldn’t be old fashion and that you have to evolve with the time we live in, that the new age Jesus is love and therefore approves and accepts everything, etc.. Because of all these lies the gospel of Jesus Christ and the will of God are changed and adjusted to the will of man, which is the will of the world (Read also: ‘A counterfeit Jesus produces counterfeit Christians‘)
But this is ridiculous! Because the will of Jesus and the will of God, which is also the will of the Holy Spirit, will never change, but will always remain the same. That’s why God is reliable and trustworthy and His Word and His Spirit are reliable and trustworthy.
The will of God shall never change, although some people think otherwise. But the people, who think that God will change His will in order to satisfy the carnal lusts and desires of people, don’t know the Word, the Father, and His heart and don’t have His Holy Spirit.
They don’t know the will of God, because their mind is not renewed with the Word of God. Instead of renewing their mind with the Word of God, they have fed their mind and keep feeding their mind with the wisdom, knowledge, and things of this world. That’s why they have the mind of the world, instead of the mind of Christ.
Because of the fact, that they have the mind of the world, they also think and act like the world and believe and do the words of the world above the words of God, and walk in the will of the world.
Turning the grace of God into lasciviousness
For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ (Jude 1:4)
The devil knows exactly, who he can use to build his kingdom. Namely, those, who are not willing to lay down their flesh and keep living like the world. Because they who walk after the flesh hear his words and do what the flesh (soul and body) is telling them to do.
Their mind is carnal and they think and live like the world and share their carnal words, philosophies, and opinions with the church. They don’t lead a holy life after the Spirit and don’t submit themselves to the Word and the will of God, but they keep living after their own will. They want to be friends with the world and in order to accomplish that, they have changed and adjusted the standards of God’s Word to the will of their flesh. But through their words and actions, they have denied and rejected our Lord Jesus Christ.
They have turned the grace of God into lasciviousness, so that they can keep living like the world and satisfy their carnal lusts and desires, without feeling guilty. Because when you keep repeating the same words over and over again, then eventually you will believe those words. And that’s exactly what happened with the hyper-grace message.
By preaching this message of grace, they think they have gained something, but eventually, they will lose it all. Because not only they, who preach and teach this false doctrine of hyper-grace, but also those, who believe this message of hyper-grace, will be lost in the sea of grace.
‘Be the salt of the earth’
