“Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?”—Romans 6:1
“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.”—Titus 2:11-12
The reemergence of teaching on grace-based Christian living has been met with both praise and criticism. Praise has come largely from Christians fed up with or burned out on “boot strap” Christianity. “The rules have hampered us from living grace-filled lives,” they say. “God’s grace sets us free from rules and standards.” Critics charge these grace-walkers with recklessly abandoning standards of music, dress, and behavior, and charging down a path to loose living.
The minimizing of rules or standards by the new grace movement has been, in part, a knee-jerk reaction to a carnal approach to ministry and discipleship which emphasizes externals over a personal relationship with Jesus. The personal testimonies of how grace-walkers “came to grace” bear this out. Years of flesh-dependent living finally gave way to frustration and burnout. Grace seemed like the answer to all their fruitless trying. And they are partly right: for salvation, sanctification, and Christian ministry, God’s grace in Christ is the answer. But grace is not opposed to standards; it is opposed to earning.
The word grace in the New Testament has two meanings: graciousness, or a gift. The former was evident in the earthly life of the Lord Jesus: “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us… full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). The latter is evident in God’s saving of men: “For by grace are ye saved through faith” (Ephesians 2:8). In this regard, grace is God’s doing something for us that we could never do or deserve; it is a gift.
As Christians, God’s grace is also to be evident in us through how we live: “…when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord” (Acts 11:23). It was evident to Barnabas by the Antiochian Christians’ testimony of salvation (v. 21), by the fruitfulness of their ministry (v. 24), and by the manner in which they lived (v. 24, 26b) that God was at work. Barnabas saw Christianity in the disciples at Antioch. No doubt he saw brotherly love, humility, and holiness. Can it be denied that he also saw relational and behavioral trends in them that were counter to the culture around them?
The Grace Walk movement tends to confine Christianity to an ethereal and theoretical realm. Its focus is the potential of truth. Positional truth (meaning what we are in the sight of God because of Jesus) is the framework for most of their Bible interpretations. That leads them to redefine what a command is and to explain away its actual demands on a Christian’s behavior. They play semantics with what a “sinner” is and debate if a Christian is one after he is saved. Though it is true that in his position a Christian is not considered a sinner by God, sometimes a Christian contradicts his position by his practice.
Biblical Christianity is intensely practical. Theological? It’s that too, of course. But Christian theology bears itself out in practice. Our new position is a glorious fact, and Christians should live in light of who they are in Christ. But we must not stop at just knowing who we are in Christ! We must live it. Our practice should line up with our position. Living according to Bible principles practically demands an application of Bible principles to what I do. Guess what. That’s what standards are: applied principles. So when the Bible says, “Love not the world,” what does loving not the world look like? In that command is a principle that, when it is applied, will produce a standard. Applying Bible principles to life is merely taking God at His Word and depending on Him to live in light of it. That’s pretty basic stuff, but it is so important.
God’s Word spells out the principles; God’s grace enables you to live by them.