A quandary about grace
“For certain men have secretly slipped in among you—men who long ago were marked out for the condemnation I am about to describe—ungodly men who have turned the grace of our God into a license for evil and who deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (Jude 1:4 NET).
A quandary is a state in which you are caught in the difficult situation of confusion and uncertainty about what you should do. It is extremely sad to know that this is where a substantial number of believers are found. I remember telling a minister friend in a conference that I was writing a book on grace. Her eyes widened and she quickly cautioned me, “I hope it is not what is out there!” I find it very saddening that our first reaction to the word grace is that of repulsion because of what some folks have done with grace.
The scripture above says “ungodly men who have turned the grace of our God into a license for evil.” This is what is driving the repulsive attitude of many believers toward grace. Yes, grace can be turned into a license. Yes, it started long ago—in fact, from the first day the message was preached. Did you notice how these men are described as “ungodly”? Ungodly men continue today to use grace to justify all sorts of sinful practices. In fact, that is not all. The Apostle Peter tells us of another group, who have seen the grace of God as a business opportunity to exploit, using God as a money-making scheme: “And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words” (2 Pet. 2:3 NET). When people want to do evil, they will do evil and use any opportunity to justify it. This should in no way deter us from actively pursuing an understanding of grace. If Satan succeeds in making us repel grace by using the ungodly deeds of ungodly men, then we have lost Christianity and are left only with religion.
MEDITATE
Can you bring to mind any incidents you have heard about wherein grace was abused?
APPLY THE WORD!
The reason many believers still find themselves in this quandary of grace is because they do not know the truth about grace, and so they allow abusers to tell them what grace is. Reject this and look into the Word for yourself!
PRAY
Ask the Lord to help you out of this quandary that ungodly men want to put us in.
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