Theme: THE UNSEARCHABLE RICHES OF HIS GRACE
DAY 26, Read Galatians 1:6-10; 2:21
THE ABUSE OF GRACE
Key Verse: “For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for his condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 4).
The doctrine of the grace of God has been a subject of much abuse over the centuries. Perhaps, because the grace of God is freely given to us, this is why it has been highly abused. What is not paid for is hardly valued!
Both the Apostle Paul and Peter took time to warn us to be wary of those who would pervert the gospel and abuse the grace of God. Jude warned about, “ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ”
How has the doctrine of the grace of God been abused? Some use the grace of God as a license to sin. Whenever the grace of God is employed as a license or cover to sin or to live in sin then it is an abuse of grace.
Others use grace for subversion. When we use the cover of grace to subvert others in the faith, then, it is an abuse of grace.
When we teach or preach a false doctrine to our own advantage, then, it is an abuse of grace. Paul warned the church at Ephesus to be wary of those who will arise from among them “speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves.” (Acts. 20:29,30).
On the other hand, Peter warned us that some people who are “untaught and unstable” would twist the Scriptures “to their own destruction.” He cautioned us not to fall from our steadfastness, but rather to grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. “You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and forever. Amen” (2 Peter 3:17,18).
Even in these present times, some preachers have been twisting and perverting the doctrine of grace to their own selfish ends. Let us be wary of this kind of preachers no matter how highly placed they may be in ministry.
PRAYER: Oh Lord, deliver us from those who pervert your gospel to their own selfish ends. Give us discerning minds to detect their subtle ways.
