Combating Cheap Grace

This article is inspired by a reminder God gave me tonight. Hopefully you can be reminded and encouraged in your walk with God as I was.

Earlier this evening I was just going about life as usual. Out of nowhere I began to notice a temptation creeping into my mind. As the enemy so craftily does, he began whispering lies as to why my sin would be justified. Now, I know we all know this, but I think it’s good to be reminded that the enemy is going to find our weak spot and attack there. He will take things we already believe about God and know to be true and twist them to move us away from God’s plan. The most notable example of this is found in Genesis at the fall. Satan was crafty in the way he twisted God’s words and made Adam and Eve believe that God was withholding something from them.

So anyways, back to my story. God has been teaching me a lot about living in His grace lately. I have often struggled with putting pressure on myself to maintain certain standards I have set. Slipping into this legalistic/moralistic mindset happens often and I am often having to remind myself of God’s mercy and grace in my life. With these thoughts prevalent in my mind, I found the enemy telling me that even if I sinned God would forgive me. This temptation has been a bit of a gray area for me, but I have come to the point where I know if I have any doubts I should look at the temptation as sin. Just as Paul discusses eating food that has been sacrificed to idols in Romans 14 (specifically v. 23) I want to live in full faith with a clear conscience. If I cannot do that, I will (at least attempt to) view it as sin.

Between the doubt the enemy brought about whether or not it was sin and the fake “reminder” of God’s grace, I stumbled and fell into sin. At that point, I began struggling to find the proper response to the sin in my life. In the process of God teaching me to live in His grace, I have struggled to find the balance of living in His grace without disregarding sin. Even after sinning I still struggled to not simply dismiss it and move on without a repentant heart. I didn’t know what to pray, but in seeking the Lord I asked that He would help me to avoid living with a mindset of cheap grace as I had. I never want a reminder of God’s grace to lead me into sin (Romans 2:4). As I prayed for a changed heart towards God’s grace, I was immediately reminded of Jesus’ last words on the cross. “And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” (Mark15:34). My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Take a minute to think about that question… stop reading, pause, think.

I thought about it… I know the answer to that question don’t I? The reason the Father forsook Jesus on the cross was because of my sin. As 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Jesus knew absolutely no sin. He came to this sinful earth, but He lived a sinless life. Yet, He took our sin upon Himself and became our sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God. This double imputation (fancy theology word meaning that our sin was attributed to Christ and His righteousness was attributed to us) made it so that, as we deserve to be forsaken by God, Jesus was forsaken by God; and in the same way the Father looked down on the Son and said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” the Father looks down on us and says the same words to His beloved children. I don’t know about you, but if there was ever anything that reminded me of the grievance of my sin AND maintained a view of God’s grace towards me, it is that. Jesus took your sin upon Himself! The reason He said “My God, why have you forsaken me?” is because of YOUR sin! Yes, even if it is only one white lie or the pride that so easily creeps into your life, He was forsaken! And He willingly took upon Himself what we deserve because He loves us! What an incredible God we serve! And how grateful I am for the mercy and grace He shows me every day! Thank you Lord for your grace; let me never make it cheap!