"So the Christian need not follow Christ, since the Christian is comforted by grace! That is cheap grace as justification of sin, but not justification of the contrite sinner who turns away from sin and repents. It is not forgiveness of sin which separates those who sinned from sin. Cheap graces is that grace which we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is preaching forgiveness without repentance..."
This is taken from his book The Cost of Discipleship, which I finished reading on my way home from Dallas this weekend...if nothing else I would recommend taking a ganders at the first chapter.
3 comments:
I agree...the first couple of chapters are incredible, but it was not an easy book to finish.
One thing that's important to realize about this heresy (and sometimes others, but this probably is most common) is that sometimes your hearers might think you are presenting this heresy from teaching perseverance of the saints. I heard the story of one guy who was a typical partying college student (not unlike those at our favorite #1 party school in the nation) who was not concerned about his sin since his pastor told him those who are saved cannot be lost. While that's not a false statement made by the pastor, this guy interpreted it to mean that since he said a prayer when he was 8 he could sin freely and without punishment because he lacked the understanding of how to be saved. We must be careful to present a fuller gospel than Jesus' keeping of us so that we do not give false assurance. Plus, we need to be super clear on how to be saved, and get away from this "if you prayed that prayer" emphasis (which, isn't that statement alone preaching salvation by works???)
I'm in a Nazarene church currently that I've gone to my whole life. They are furious to hear about Jesus' keeping of His sheep (though they prefer the moniker "once saved, always saved") because they think that biblical Calvinists are saying "you're safe, so it doesn't matter what you do." (I realize some do preach that continual habitual sin in people's lives can be present in a believer til death, like Charles Stanley I believe). Calvinists do tend to err on the side of God's sovereignty and diminish human responsibility in an effort to exalt God, though Nazarenes tend to err on the side of legalism in an effort to spur others on to good works. Both need to be careful that "grace through faith" is not lost!!
Therefore it seems that preaching should be balanced: "you must persevere" mixed with "you will persevere;" "Christ chose you" mixed with "you must believe;" "saved by faith not works" with "do good;" "God is sovereign" with "you are responsible." Especially on the deep truths about God's purpose of salvation, we should not overemphasize any one part lest we unintentionally give people false assurance. I won't go so far as to say we should fully preach "both sides of the coin" every time one side comes up; but if our constant focus is on the "heads" side many in the congregation will not realize that "tails" even exists.
I agree with you 100%. For this reason I think it is crucial to preach the gospel the way the Lord and his apostles did, ie., with repentance included. It seems to me that repentance is the part of the gospel that I most easily miss when I am sharing my faith and it is a devastating mistake.
When we preach repentance people will understand that turning from their sin is part of what it means to put their faith in Christ. Of course, we can't expect people to grasp the entirety of the gospel when they are first saved. Good Bible teaching is crucial!
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