"According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon."

                                                       1 Corinthians 3:10

       One of the greatest revelations we can be given in God's Word is to understand the role that grace is to have in our Christian life.  Nothing holds the power of transformation like grace.  Everything we are and everything we hope to be rests on this truth.

       Unfortunately, we are seeing some things infiltrating into the church where the grace of God is being misapplied, resulting in the misuse and abuse of it.  Some of the very things we are dealing with today are things Paul had to deal with in his day.  In Romans chapter five he makes this powerful statement: "Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" (Romans 5:20).   What a wonderful truth!  Thank God that the grace of God is bigger than sin.  Thank God that no matter how pervading sin may appear to be, the grace of God is much more pervading!  In other words, sin will never be able to outdo what grace can do.

       That's a great promise, but Paul didn't stop there. He went on into the next chapter and said: "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?" God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? (Rom. 6:1-2).  Just because grace is so much greater than sin that does not give us a license to sin for the sole purpose of seeing God's grace work its wonders.No, grace teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, that we are to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world (Titus 2:11-12). 

       What is behind the grace of God is a deep, overwhelming passion and love that God has for each and every person.  When we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, we enter into that grace.  It isn't just to save us from our sins, but it is to change us so that we are disconnected from the power that generated sin-which is our old sinful nature.  Grace has redeeming power.  It can take a miserable, wretched sinner and change him or her into a saint.  No amount of self-improvement or rehabilitation can make that happen, only grace.

       But to take the love of God and stretch it to the point that we somehow think God doesn't see sin in us (when we do sin) or that we can no longer be affected by it because we now have his grace working in us, is taking things a bit too far.  Thank God there is forgiveness, and there is no amount of sin or depth of sin that is bigger than God's grace that can forgive us and cleanse us. However, we cannot be so naïve to think that sin left to itself is not going to have an impact on our Christian life! We have to take heed how we build upon the foundation of our faith.  That means we apply grace, not as some back door exit to sin, but that we use grace to overcome it and live above it! 

       I really have to say, it amazes me to hear and to read after well-known ministers of our day that teach inclusionism or some sort of hyper-grace message.  How they can twist the scriptures and teach such things is absolutely beyond me.  I realize that if I had a mind to, I could take scriptures out of context and teach both extremes and make them convincible.  But what would I do with such verses in the scriptures that deal with the purpose of evangelism, the need for repentance, and the call to warn us to watch out for sin, to admonish us to continue in the faith, to live holy, to obey God and to keep the faith!  If the idea that once we experience the grace of God we then become so protected by God's love that it is impossible to fall away or be affected by our drawing back, or that somehow this grace is so irresistible that it overpowers our will, then what purpose does all the warnings, all the exhortations, all the admonishments serve?

       To believe that the first epistle of John was not written to believers-that it was written to the Gnostics, and therefore, to confess our sins does not apply to the Christian, or to somehow read into God's forgiveness that he has already dealt with our sins-past, present, and future, and therefore, to confess our sin is unnecessary, is simply false teaching.  I believe in God's grace and I am very conscious of building my entire life on the power it has to change me and transform me, but I also know there are conditions to grace that I cannot overlook or neglect, that constantly remind me that I must take heed how I build thereupon.