How Can I Minister To Those Trapped By The Hyper Grace False Teaching?
Dr. Duke Jeyaraj gives the answers in the acronym G-R-A-C-E
The Hyper Grace Doctrine has sadly captured the imagination of today’s youth and broadcast widely by social media channels. Here are some of the core-teachings of Hyper-Grace teachers:
1) All our future sins are forgiven the moment we are saved;
2) Holy Spirit does not convict believers of sin;
3) Message of Judgement/warning is not relevant for believers;
4) Believers need not repent and ask Jesus for forgiveness when they fall into sin.
When point four is practiced, a person’s sin remains unforgiven and unforgiven people go to hell. Therefore I call the hyper-grace group (the preachers and followers) a cult. A cult – I believe - is any sect of Christianity which goes wrong in the fundamental doctrines of Christianity so as to affect the salvation of those who follow it. It is not my purpose in this brief article to give a point by point rebuttal of hyper-grace.
But I want to use the acronym G-R-A-C-E to bring out the main points where hyper-grace doctrine strays from Scripture.
G- Gehenna. The word Gehenna is the Greek word Jesus used for hell.
Jesus preached about Hell to “believers” – his disciples who gave up all to follow him in the one life they had (Matt. 10:28). The disciples had to fear God who could destroy their bodies and souls in hell, this verse says.
When Paul was teaching believers the ways to overcome sin, he warns them about ‘death’ which is ultimately hell punishment in the book of Romans 6:23 (Rev. 21:7,8).
Hyper grace teachers would never warn believers of hell. You’ve got to go with Jesus and Paul or with the Hyper grace false teachers.
Hyper grace teachers argue that Paul did not write about hell and therefore believers should not be taught about hell. Really? Different Spirit-inspired Bible writers used different imageries/concepts to teach the doctrine of Hell. They did not have 'copy paste' from each other.
Each had their own style of presenting hell so that it would be relevant for their first audiences. Isaiah used this imagery: a place where worm will never die and fire will never be put out (Isa 66).
For Jesus, Hell was the 'lake of fire'. In fact, Jesus was the greatest hell preacher of the Bible and that should suffice for us. If we don't believe in hell, we don't believe in Jesus.
By including hell in the sermon on the mount which is basically teaching for believers (Math 5:28 - living in lust can take you to hell) Jesus warned believers of the real possibility of going to hell, if they were careless in holy living. For John also hell is a lake of fire (Rev. 19:20).
For Peter hell was a place of 'darkest blackness' (2 Peter 2:17).
And Paul .... Let's hear Paul describe hell for us directly from his mouth: 'the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might' (2 Thess 1:7-9).
Paul also taught hell this way: he presented hell as divine judgement (See Acts 17:30-31; 24:24-25).
Paul also presented hell as 'the wrath of God' that is coming (Rom 1:18).
Paul also taught that hell exists by telling us that if we delayed repentance we store up God's wrath (Rom 2:4-5).
Paul did not use the same word Jesus used for Hell (Gehenna) because that was a word that only those from Jewish background would have readily understood.
The word Gehenna, the greek word Jesus used for Hell, was used for the Valley of Hinnom in Jerusalem originally. It was the place that the city's waste went into and fire kept burning there, non-stop, consuming the waste dumped there. Jesus used that powerful picture which every Jew could easily envision to teach about Hell.
Paul's ministry, mainly, was to gentiles and to believers from the gentile faith. And therefore, he did not choose to use certain Jew-friendly images to teach doctrine. But that did not mean that he did not believe in hell or teach about hell.
R- Repent/Rope.
Jesus preached repentance to Church Believers in the book of Revelation (See Rev.2:16; 2:22; 3:3; 3:19).
When hyper-grace teachers say that believers need not repent, they are directly contradicting Scripture.
David Ravenhill’s explanation is helpful here: “If (hyper-grace teachers) say that repentance is no longer necessary because all sin has already been forgiven, then why do we need to repent the first time in order to be saved? There is the belief by some that since all sin has been atoned for, all are saved but just don’t know it. This is the old but still very much alive false doctrine of universalism or ultimate reconciliation." So, hyper-grace false teaching is actually tending towards universalism ('all will be eventually saved' doctrine), which passages like Matthew 25, the sheep and goat separation passage, come strongly against.
“You believe in salvation by works” – this is one accusation of the Hyper Grace party against us. Nothing is more further from the truth.
The letter R reminds me of another key word that I use to counter the poisonous hyper-grace teaching. That word is Rope. Jesus holds the rope at the top of a cliff. The rope of salvation. We are holding onto the rope. Below us is hell with its furious flames. Would anyone who holds fast to the rope boast that he got saved from hell because of his own effort? He wouldn’t if he were in his right senses. He would always deflect all glory to the Rope-Holder, Jesus. Our conscious abiding in Christ is akin to holding the rope which in turn Christ holds. This abiding is essential for our salvation and it cannot be called “works”.
A – Attire/Annulled
Jesus narrated a parable in Matthew 22:1-13 about a man who was bound and bounced in hell because he did not come for the Wedding Feast of Jesus in proper clothes.
The message of this parable is simple: One needs to wear both the garments – the garment of salvation and the garment of sanctification to enter Heaven; one needs both forgiveness and holiness to enter heaven (as David Pawson put it).
Both the garment of sanctification and the garment of forgiveness are given by grace. But the man in that parable deliberately chose not to wear it.
The implication is this: he having received gift of holiness by faith, he failed keep it by continued faith (Romans 8:1 says, “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” and not “There is no condemnation for those who once were in Christ Jesus”. The present continuous tense used must not be missed!).
And the man without proper wedding robes paid the price for the same. Matthew’s gospel was a manual of discipleship in the early church. And it is in this manual we find this parable. The implication: this message of this parable is for believers.
Hyper grace folks argue that the “law” is now annulled. This brings me to yet another key word starting with ‘a’ – Annulled – in this hyper grace discussion. What is annulled? Only the ceremonial law.
Read Mathew 23:23-24. In that passage there is a “subordination of the ritual to the moral law.” The book of Hebrews teaches that the ceremonial law is annulled following Christ’s ultimate sacrifice on the cross (Heb 8:13).
If moral laws were also done away with, we would not have moral/spiritual instructions for believers found in the book of Hebrews in Hebrews 13:1-19. Believers are called/challenged to still follow the moral law. The law in entirety is not annulled. Same with other epistles – Romans…..Ephesians….
C- Coming of Christ.
Hyper grace poison-teaching serving folks often say that judgement teaching is never used in Scripture to motive God's people for holiness. This is a black lie.
See this passage from 2 Peter: "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness." (2 Peter 3:10,11).
The message here is clear: Jesus is coming back. A day of judgement is at hand. Therefore, be holy!
I Cor. 10:6-11 is another passage where the same approach is used. A record of God's judgement upon folks is narrated and a clear call to overcome temptation is issued keeping that in mind is issued. See that passage for yourself, posted here in modern English (the Eugene Peterson version) and come to own conclusion: "The same thing could happen to us. We must be on guard so that we never get caught up in wanting our own way as they did. And we must not turn our religion into a circus as they did—“First the people partied, then they threw a dance.” We must not be sexually promiscuous—they paid for that, remember, with 23,000 deaths in one day! We must never try to get Christ to serve us instead of us serving him; they tried it, and God launched an epidemic of poisonous snakes. We must be careful not to stir up discontent; discontent destroyed them. These are all warning markers—danger!—in our history books, written down so that we don’t repeat their mistakes. Our positions in the story are parallel—they at the beginning, we at the end—and we are just as capable of messing it up as they were. Don’t be so naive and self-confident. You’re not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else."
Please note here that - I say that again - history of God's judgement upon people is used by Spirit-inspired writers of the Bible to warn believers to desist from returning to sin and to live holy. I don't care, if hyper-grace false teachers find that unpalatable. What I care about, is the pattern put forth in the Bible.
E- Endure.
The New Testament calls believers to ‘endure’ time and again.
Here is a sample: ‘But all of you who endure to the end shall be saved’ (Math.10:22). ‘If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples’ (John 8:31, RSV);
“When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated you can’t produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is dead wood, gathered up and thrown on bonfire” (John 15:5-6);
‘Keep your eyes open for spiritual danger, stand true to the Lord’(1 Cor 16:13);
‘ For we share in Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end’(Heb. 3:14);
“Don’t quit, even if it costs your life. Stay there believing. I have life-crown sized and ready for you”(Rev 2:10);
“Keep tight grip on what you have ,so one distracts you and steal your crown” (Rev 3:11).
Renowned Charismatic Systematic Theologian, J. Rodman Williams says, “Although God’s grace is unconditional, and there is no un-conditional persistence in Salvation.” Starting from 1 Corinthians 10:12 – ‘So if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!’
He lists the conditions for perseverance, arranging a gamete of scripture verses under each condition. They are our abiding (1 John 2:24-25; Heb. 2:1,3.Jn 15:3-4,6,7), our continuing (Col. 1:21-23; Rom. 11:11,22; 1 Tim. 4:16), our enduring (2 Tim. 2:10-12; Heb. 10:34-39,Matt. 24:12,13), our firmness (Heb. 3:1-6, 2 Peter 1:10-11,5-7;2:1,20,21) and our faithfulness (Rev. 2:10, 2:4-5, Heb. 3:1-6, Heb. 6:4-8).
The theology, that jumps out from Judas Iscariot's sad life is a slap on the face for hyper grace false teachers. He was saved. His name, Jesus himself said, was written in heaven, as all the names of the disciples were (Luke 10:20). Yet, we know, he is going to or has gone to hell. Jesus called him 'son of destruction' (John 17:12). Yes, a saved man can be lost, if he does not endure till the end, that was Jesus' point (Mt 10:22). Yes, a saved man can be cut off and be cast into the fire, if he is not careful to remain in the vine, that was Jesus' teaching (John 15:6).
So, go ahead and use this G-R-A-C-E acronym to bust the hyper-grace false doctrine!
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Dr. Duke Jeyaraj holds a M. Div. Gold Medal and Doctor of Ministry degree from Center for Global Leadership Development, formerly, Southern Asia Bible College. He is the founder of Grabbing the Google Generation from Gehenna Mission, an inter-church ministry to presentday people. Duke who has formerly served as a youth pastor, Bible College Teacher, missionary, editor of a Christian mag, is an itinerant speaker-writer.
The Hyper Grace Doctrine has sadly captured the imagination of today’s youth and broadcast widely by social media channels. Here are some of the core-teachings of Hyper-Grace teachers:
1) All our future sins are forgiven the moment we are saved;
2) Holy Spirit does not convict believers of sin;
3) Message of Judgement/warning is not relevant for believers;
4) Believers need not repent and ask Jesus for forgiveness when they fall into sin.
When point four is practiced, a person’s sin remains unforgiven and unforgiven people go to hell. Therefore I call the hyper-grace group (the preachers and followers) a cult. A cult – I believe - is any sect of Christianity which goes wrong in the fundamental doctrines of Christianity so as to affect the salvation of those who follow it. It is not my purpose in this brief article to give a point by point rebuttal of hyper-grace.
But I want to use the acronym G-R-A-C-E to bring out the main points where hyper-grace doctrine strays from Scripture.
G- Gehenna. The word Gehenna is the Greek word Jesus used for hell.
Jesus preached about Hell to “believers” – his disciples who gave up all to follow him in the one life they had (Matt. 10:28). The disciples had to fear God who could destroy their bodies and souls in hell, this verse says.
When Paul was teaching believers the ways to overcome sin, he warns them about ‘death’ which is ultimately hell punishment in the book of Romans 6:23 (Rev. 21:7,8).
Hyper grace teachers would never warn believers of hell. You’ve got to go with Jesus and Paul or with the Hyper grace false teachers.
Hyper grace teachers argue that Paul did not write about hell and therefore believers should not be taught about hell. Really? Different Spirit-inspired Bible writers used different imageries/concepts to teach the doctrine of Hell. They did not have 'copy paste' from each other.
Each had their own style of presenting hell so that it would be relevant for their first audiences. Isaiah used this imagery: a place where worm will never die and fire will never be put out (Isa 66).
For Jesus, Hell was the 'lake of fire'. In fact, Jesus was the greatest hell preacher of the Bible and that should suffice for us. If we don't believe in hell, we don't believe in Jesus.
By including hell in the sermon on the mount which is basically teaching for believers (Math 5:28 - living in lust can take you to hell) Jesus warned believers of the real possibility of going to hell, if they were careless in holy living. For John also hell is a lake of fire (Rev. 19:20).
For Peter hell was a place of 'darkest blackness' (2 Peter 2:17).
And Paul .... Let's hear Paul describe hell for us directly from his mouth: 'the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might' (2 Thess 1:7-9).
Paul also taught hell this way: he presented hell as divine judgement (See Acts 17:30-31; 24:24-25).
Paul also presented hell as 'the wrath of God' that is coming (Rom 1:18).
Paul also taught that hell exists by telling us that if we delayed repentance we store up God's wrath (Rom 2:4-5).
Paul did not use the same word Jesus used for Hell (Gehenna) because that was a word that only those from Jewish background would have readily understood.
The word Gehenna, the greek word Jesus used for Hell, was used for the Valley of Hinnom in Jerusalem originally. It was the place that the city's waste went into and fire kept burning there, non-stop, consuming the waste dumped there. Jesus used that powerful picture which every Jew could easily envision to teach about Hell.
Paul's ministry, mainly, was to gentiles and to believers from the gentile faith. And therefore, he did not choose to use certain Jew-friendly images to teach doctrine. But that did not mean that he did not believe in hell or teach about hell.
R- Repent/Rope.
Jesus preached repentance to Church Believers in the book of Revelation (See Rev.2:16; 2:22; 3:3; 3:19).
When hyper-grace teachers say that believers need not repent, they are directly contradicting Scripture.
David Ravenhill’s explanation is helpful here: “If (hyper-grace teachers) say that repentance is no longer necessary because all sin has already been forgiven, then why do we need to repent the first time in order to be saved? There is the belief by some that since all sin has been atoned for, all are saved but just don’t know it. This is the old but still very much alive false doctrine of universalism or ultimate reconciliation." So, hyper-grace false teaching is actually tending towards universalism ('all will be eventually saved' doctrine), which passages like Matthew 25, the sheep and goat separation passage, come strongly against.
“You believe in salvation by works” – this is one accusation of the Hyper Grace party against us. Nothing is more further from the truth.
The letter R reminds me of another key word that I use to counter the poisonous hyper-grace teaching. That word is Rope. Jesus holds the rope at the top of a cliff. The rope of salvation. We are holding onto the rope. Below us is hell with its furious flames. Would anyone who holds fast to the rope boast that he got saved from hell because of his own effort? He wouldn’t if he were in his right senses. He would always deflect all glory to the Rope-Holder, Jesus. Our conscious abiding in Christ is akin to holding the rope which in turn Christ holds. This abiding is essential for our salvation and it cannot be called “works”.
A – Attire/Annulled
Jesus narrated a parable in Matthew 22:1-13 about a man who was bound and bounced in hell because he did not come for the Wedding Feast of Jesus in proper clothes.
The message of this parable is simple: One needs to wear both the garments – the garment of salvation and the garment of sanctification to enter Heaven; one needs both forgiveness and holiness to enter heaven (as David Pawson put it).
Both the garment of sanctification and the garment of forgiveness are given by grace. But the man in that parable deliberately chose not to wear it.
The implication is this: he having received gift of holiness by faith, he failed keep it by continued faith (Romans 8:1 says, “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” and not “There is no condemnation for those who once were in Christ Jesus”. The present continuous tense used must not be missed!).
And the man without proper wedding robes paid the price for the same. Matthew’s gospel was a manual of discipleship in the early church. And it is in this manual we find this parable. The implication: this message of this parable is for believers.
Hyper grace folks argue that the “law” is now annulled. This brings me to yet another key word starting with ‘a’ – Annulled – in this hyper grace discussion. What is annulled? Only the ceremonial law.
Read Mathew 23:23-24. In that passage there is a “subordination of the ritual to the moral law.” The book of Hebrews teaches that the ceremonial law is annulled following Christ’s ultimate sacrifice on the cross (Heb 8:13).
If moral laws were also done away with, we would not have moral/spiritual instructions for believers found in the book of Hebrews in Hebrews 13:1-19. Believers are called/challenged to still follow the moral law. The law in entirety is not annulled. Same with other epistles – Romans…..Ephesians….
C- Coming of Christ.
Hyper grace poison-teaching serving folks often say that judgement teaching is never used in Scripture to motive God's people for holiness. This is a black lie.
See this passage from 2 Peter: "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness." (2 Peter 3:10,11).
The message here is clear: Jesus is coming back. A day of judgement is at hand. Therefore, be holy!
I Cor. 10:6-11 is another passage where the same approach is used. A record of God's judgement upon folks is narrated and a clear call to overcome temptation is issued keeping that in mind is issued. See that passage for yourself, posted here in modern English (the Eugene Peterson version) and come to own conclusion: "The same thing could happen to us. We must be on guard so that we never get caught up in wanting our own way as they did. And we must not turn our religion into a circus as they did—“First the people partied, then they threw a dance.” We must not be sexually promiscuous—they paid for that, remember, with 23,000 deaths in one day! We must never try to get Christ to serve us instead of us serving him; they tried it, and God launched an epidemic of poisonous snakes. We must be careful not to stir up discontent; discontent destroyed them. These are all warning markers—danger!—in our history books, written down so that we don’t repeat their mistakes. Our positions in the story are parallel—they at the beginning, we at the end—and we are just as capable of messing it up as they were. Don’t be so naive and self-confident. You’re not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else."
Please note here that - I say that again - history of God's judgement upon people is used by Spirit-inspired writers of the Bible to warn believers to desist from returning to sin and to live holy. I don't care, if hyper-grace false teachers find that unpalatable. What I care about, is the pattern put forth in the Bible.
E- Endure.
The New Testament calls believers to ‘endure’ time and again.
Here is a sample: ‘But all of you who endure to the end shall be saved’ (Math.10:22). ‘If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples’ (John 8:31, RSV);
“When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated you can’t produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is dead wood, gathered up and thrown on bonfire” (John 15:5-6);
‘Keep your eyes open for spiritual danger, stand true to the Lord’(1 Cor 16:13);
‘ For we share in Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end’(Heb. 3:14);
“Don’t quit, even if it costs your life. Stay there believing. I have life-crown sized and ready for you”(Rev 2:10);
“Keep tight grip on what you have ,so one distracts you and steal your crown” (Rev 3:11).
Renowned Charismatic Systematic Theologian, J. Rodman Williams says, “Although God’s grace is unconditional, and there is no un-conditional persistence in Salvation.” Starting from 1 Corinthians 10:12 – ‘So if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!’
He lists the conditions for perseverance, arranging a gamete of scripture verses under each condition. They are our abiding (1 John 2:24-25; Heb. 2:1,3.Jn 15:3-4,6,7), our continuing (Col. 1:21-23; Rom. 11:11,22; 1 Tim. 4:16), our enduring (2 Tim. 2:10-12; Heb. 10:34-39,Matt. 24:12,13), our firmness (Heb. 3:1-6, 2 Peter 1:10-11,5-7;2:1,20,21) and our faithfulness (Rev. 2:10, 2:4-5, Heb. 3:1-6, Heb. 6:4-8).
The theology, that jumps out from Judas Iscariot's sad life is a slap on the face for hyper grace false teachers. He was saved. His name, Jesus himself said, was written in heaven, as all the names of the disciples were (Luke 10:20). Yet, we know, he is going to or has gone to hell. Jesus called him 'son of destruction' (John 17:12). Yes, a saved man can be lost, if he does not endure till the end, that was Jesus' point (Mt 10:22). Yes, a saved man can be cut off and be cast into the fire, if he is not careful to remain in the vine, that was Jesus' teaching (John 15:6).
So, go ahead and use this G-R-A-C-E acronym to bust the hyper-grace false doctrine!
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