“But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out.” (Numb. 32:23)
What do you consider a sin and which of those sins do you believe God does not consider, that He winks at? Do you think that the Almighty understands that we are but dust, and thereby expects us to sin, looking at those thoughts and actions with little regard? That my friends is called easy grace, it presumes upon the automatic forgiveness of the Lord, we sin with impunity in our minds, doing so with no regard to who we sin against, then simply repeating 1st John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Not repenting mind you, and not repeating the same sin continuously perhaps, but nevertheless living a life that believes because He knows we are but dust, that His grace and mercy forgives because of His love for us.
Easy grace.
Then there are those who do not truly understand grace, these believe that every action of life must be in strict accordance to some law, whether it be the Ten Commandments, certain parts of those mentioned in the Old Testament, even those moral laws they have manufactured in their own mind, precepts that if they follow will bring the favor of God upon them. Do not kill or steal, keep the Sabbath, which they believe now is Sunday, or at least Sunday morning for an hour or so, have no evil thoughts, adhere to every “good” thing, and God’s grace will continue to flow into their lives. Step out of line and expect His disfavor, expect chastisement, even punishment.
This is not grace, this is works, an attempt by our actions to stay on the Almighty’s good side, seeing Christ in their mind at the right hand of the Father trying to keep the wrath of God from falling on them.
This works-based ideology is just as sinful as that easy grace we spoke of, one envisions a wrathful creator just waiting for you to make a mistake so He can punish you, the other a God of love, and nothing but love, ready and willing to forgive even when no true repentance enters into the heart of the supplicant.
These are the two main groups of what we call Christians today, easy grace and works-based. There is a third group, one that few sadly are part of, those that are willing and available, no matter the cost to themselves, those that understand that grace means unmerited favor, that understand Isaiah 64:6 as a truth, even after we are saved. “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”
That know in their soul the truth of Ephesians 2:8-9, that it is grace that saved us, not works of our own of any kind.
Grace does not say, “I will do this for you if you will do that first,” it does not say, “I have done this, so now you must do that before I will bless you.” That third group submits to the will of God because of love, and for no other reason. That third group says, “Thy will be done,” that third group sees the price that was paid for them as not an easy thing, or as something they can add to.
