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Consider the "Lord’s Prayer"
There is a popular teaching that has been called “100% graceâ€, “extreme grace†and probably other things by those who are teaching it. It is a narrow and problematic teaching that accuses wrongly those who disagree as being legalists. Consider for a moment what Christ taught His disciples about prayer. This is a very familiar passage to most Christians and is found twice in the Gospels. It has been called The Lord’s Prayer because it is Christ teaching His disciples to pray. Luke records:
"And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread. " (Luke 11:2-3).
Daily Prayer in a Specific Way
There are several important things to note here. Christ tells His disciples that when you pray. Christ is assuming that this instruction is for their future times of prayer. He taught them to ask the Father for daily bread. This strongly implies that Christ intended them to pray daily in this way. It is not logical to think that this was limited to only three years while Christ was with them and not pertinent after Pentecost as some are teaching.
We have now reached the portion of this short passage that has been dismissed by those teaching “100% graceâ€. They don’t like the fact that Christ teaches His disciples to pray daily and to ask the Father to forgive us our sins. This does not fit with their narrow doctrine of grace. They believe and teach that forgiveness is already ours automatically without asking. Christ is contradicting what they teach. Christ is telling His disciples to ask daily. This leaves them with the choice of adjusting their teaching to what Christ taught His disciples or somehow dismissing Christ’s words. Adjusting your beliefs and submitting to what Christ teaches is a strong characteristic of a true disciple of Christ. Unfortunately, they chose to dismiss Christ’s words rather than submit to them.
Another Passage Where Christ Teaches the Same Thing
Before we look at how they dismiss Christ’s words, let’s look at the parallel passage in Matthew’s Gospel. Here is what Matthew records:
"After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matthew 6:9-15).
Christ Clearly Contradicts the Extreme Grace Teaching
Notice that this passage has the same elements. Christ teaches His disciples to pray for daily bread. This strongly implies that He means for them to pray this way each day. He teaches them to ask the Father for forgiveness. Christ so emphasizes the importance of this that He adds what the consequences of not forgiving men will be. Christ says that if they fail to forgive men, that the Father will not forgive their transgressions. This is again highly contradictory to the idea that we are already unconditionally forgiven. Therefore, for the teaching of “100% grace†to be accepted by others, they must do away with what Christ has taught His disciples about asking forgiveness. Actually, there are quite a number of passages that have to be explained away or dismissed.
A Bad Hermeneutic is Being Used to Support this Bad Doctrine
It may not be apparent for some how they go about doing this but here it is in a single statement that I “borrowed†from a book on “extreme graceâ€. The writer states:
Jesus carried our punishment. That is why you won’t find any scripture, after the establishment of the New Covenant of Grace that instructs a believer to seek forgiveness of sin.
This kind of statement is a hermeneutic, a way of interpreting the Scriptures. In this case, this hermeneutic allows this “extreme grace†author to greatly narrow and reduce the amount of New Testament Scripture that he will consider for doctrine. Using this hermeneutic, someone can reject all that contradicts their views, even the words of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Removing Christ’s Contradictions of This Doctrine
The statement after the establishment of the New Covenant of Grace means that this author will not consider anything that Christ says before the cross and resurrection as doctrine for forgiveness of sin. If this hermeneutic is applied consistently, this effectively removes 99% of the teaching of Christ to His disciples from consideration as doctrine for the age of grace. It casts doubt on everything that Christ teaches His followers. However, like most bad hermeneutics, it will be selectively applied rather than generally applied. If it were generally applied, no one would consider it even for a moment.
The Facts of History Contradict This Hermeneutic
This hermeneutic is wrongly teaching that what Christ taught His disciples in the Gospels was only for the short period before Pentecost and would not apply in the future. The clear facts of history are against this idea. All four Gospels were written AFTER the establishment of the New Covenant, after the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ and after Pentecost. The writers of the Gospels all knew about grace.
No Warnings of Limitations by the Apostolic Writers
If the “extreme grace†teachers are correct, then we ought to see some warnings about this limitation of the teaching of Christ in the Gospels. If this limitation actually existed, then the apostolic writers would have been aware of this limitation as they wrote the New Testament and made it clear to their readers that Christians do not practice any longer what Christ is teaching. We do not find this kind of warning in the Gospels. Instead we find a multitude of statements that contradict the limitation of this wrong hermeneutic. For instance, this statement is recorded by three Gospel writers. Christ says:
"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." (Matthew 24:35).
Of course, the hermeneutic says that Christ’s words pass away for all practical purposes when He makes the New Covenant. However, we should be aware that actually this statement is telling us that a proper hermeneutic would never limit Christ’s words neither before or after the establishment of the New Covenant.
There are many statements of Christ to chose from that contradict this narrow hermeneutic. Lets consider one more:
"Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:
He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great." (Luke 6:47-49).
This statement of Christ contradicts the limitations that this hermeneutic has imposed upon the words of Christ. Christ is telling us that anyone who fails to hear or act upon His words, will eventually suffer ruin. This doctrine, because of its hermeneutic that fails to seriously listen to Christ, is without a strong foundation. It will not hold up in the inevitable floods that enter every life. It has a weak foundation because it has chosen not to listen to Christ’s words where they do not agree with narrow ideas about grace.
Anyone using a bad hermeneutic like this will selectively chose what He wants in the Gospels to support his claims. He or she will abandon this very narrow and incredibly bad hermeneutic when it doesn’t work to support what he wants to teach. It ought to be abandoned completely and forever as it will lead to many wrong conclusions.
Getting Rid of the Rest of the Scriptural Contradictions
Earlier, it was noted that the contradictory words of Christ are done away with by this hermeneutic by saying after the establishment of the New Covenant of grace. How does this bad hermeneutic get rid of other contradicting passages that are not in the Gospels? It again narrows the amount of New Testament he will consider further by using the phrase instructs a believer. This effectively removes most of the other passages that would contradict what this extreme grace teaching.
For instance, many of the things found in the Book of Acts would contradict the idea that forgiveness is automatic and does not need to be sought by believers. By stating that these passages in Acts are not to believers but to the unsaved, a teacher of “extreme grace†can do away with them. If anything else in the Letters of Paul, Peter and John contradict his contention that forgiveness is already given and does not need to be received as Christ taught His disciples, this is dismissed as not written to Christians either.
Since the book of First John has a strong statement in the first chapter about receiving forgiveness through confession of sin, a teacher of “extreme†grace will have to dispose of this passage also. Here is that statement:
"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." (1 John 1:8-10)
There is a popular teaching that has been called “100% graceâ€, “extreme grace†and probably other things by those who are teaching it. It is a narrow and problematic teaching that accuses wrongly those who disagree as being legalists. Consider for a moment what Christ taught His disciples about prayer. This is a very familiar passage to most Christians and is found twice in the Gospels. It has been called The Lord’s Prayer because it is Christ teaching His disciples to pray. Luke records:
"And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread. " (Luke 11:2-3).
Daily Prayer in a Specific Way
There are several important things to note here. Christ tells His disciples that when you pray. Christ is assuming that this instruction is for their future times of prayer. He taught them to ask the Father for daily bread. This strongly implies that Christ intended them to pray daily in this way. It is not logical to think that this was limited to only three years while Christ was with them and not pertinent after Pentecost as some are teaching.
We have now reached the portion of this short passage that has been dismissed by those teaching “100% graceâ€. They don’t like the fact that Christ teaches His disciples to pray daily and to ask the Father to forgive us our sins. This does not fit with their narrow doctrine of grace. They believe and teach that forgiveness is already ours automatically without asking. Christ is contradicting what they teach. Christ is telling His disciples to ask daily. This leaves them with the choice of adjusting their teaching to what Christ taught His disciples or somehow dismissing Christ’s words. Adjusting your beliefs and submitting to what Christ teaches is a strong characteristic of a true disciple of Christ. Unfortunately, they chose to dismiss Christ’s words rather than submit to them.
Another Passage Where Christ Teaches the Same Thing
Before we look at how they dismiss Christ’s words, let’s look at the parallel passage in Matthew’s Gospel. Here is what Matthew records:
"After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matthew 6:9-15).
Christ Clearly Contradicts the Extreme Grace Teaching
Notice that this passage has the same elements. Christ teaches His disciples to pray for daily bread. This strongly implies that He means for them to pray this way each day. He teaches them to ask the Father for forgiveness. Christ so emphasizes the importance of this that He adds what the consequences of not forgiving men will be. Christ says that if they fail to forgive men, that the Father will not forgive their transgressions. This is again highly contradictory to the idea that we are already unconditionally forgiven. Therefore, for the teaching of “100% grace†to be accepted by others, they must do away with what Christ has taught His disciples about asking forgiveness. Actually, there are quite a number of passages that have to be explained away or dismissed.
A Bad Hermeneutic is Being Used to Support this Bad Doctrine
It may not be apparent for some how they go about doing this but here it is in a single statement that I “borrowed†from a book on “extreme graceâ€. The writer states:
Jesus carried our punishment. That is why you won’t find any scripture, after the establishment of the New Covenant of Grace that instructs a believer to seek forgiveness of sin.
This kind of statement is a hermeneutic, a way of interpreting the Scriptures. In this case, this hermeneutic allows this “extreme grace†author to greatly narrow and reduce the amount of New Testament Scripture that he will consider for doctrine. Using this hermeneutic, someone can reject all that contradicts their views, even the words of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Removing Christ’s Contradictions of This Doctrine
The statement after the establishment of the New Covenant of Grace means that this author will not consider anything that Christ says before the cross and resurrection as doctrine for forgiveness of sin. If this hermeneutic is applied consistently, this effectively removes 99% of the teaching of Christ to His disciples from consideration as doctrine for the age of grace. It casts doubt on everything that Christ teaches His followers. However, like most bad hermeneutics, it will be selectively applied rather than generally applied. If it were generally applied, no one would consider it even for a moment.
The Facts of History Contradict This Hermeneutic
This hermeneutic is wrongly teaching that what Christ taught His disciples in the Gospels was only for the short period before Pentecost and would not apply in the future. The clear facts of history are against this idea. All four Gospels were written AFTER the establishment of the New Covenant, after the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ and after Pentecost. The writers of the Gospels all knew about grace.
No Warnings of Limitations by the Apostolic Writers
If the “extreme grace†teachers are correct, then we ought to see some warnings about this limitation of the teaching of Christ in the Gospels. If this limitation actually existed, then the apostolic writers would have been aware of this limitation as they wrote the New Testament and made it clear to their readers that Christians do not practice any longer what Christ is teaching. We do not find this kind of warning in the Gospels. Instead we find a multitude of statements that contradict the limitation of this wrong hermeneutic. For instance, this statement is recorded by three Gospel writers. Christ says:
"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." (Matthew 24:35).
Of course, the hermeneutic says that Christ’s words pass away for all practical purposes when He makes the New Covenant. However, we should be aware that actually this statement is telling us that a proper hermeneutic would never limit Christ’s words neither before or after the establishment of the New Covenant.
There are many statements of Christ to chose from that contradict this narrow hermeneutic. Lets consider one more:
"Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:
He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great." (Luke 6:47-49).
This statement of Christ contradicts the limitations that this hermeneutic has imposed upon the words of Christ. Christ is telling us that anyone who fails to hear or act upon His words, will eventually suffer ruin. This doctrine, because of its hermeneutic that fails to seriously listen to Christ, is without a strong foundation. It will not hold up in the inevitable floods that enter every life. It has a weak foundation because it has chosen not to listen to Christ’s words where they do not agree with narrow ideas about grace.
Anyone using a bad hermeneutic like this will selectively chose what He wants in the Gospels to support his claims. He or she will abandon this very narrow and incredibly bad hermeneutic when it doesn’t work to support what he wants to teach. It ought to be abandoned completely and forever as it will lead to many wrong conclusions.
Getting Rid of the Rest of the Scriptural Contradictions
Earlier, it was noted that the contradictory words of Christ are done away with by this hermeneutic by saying after the establishment of the New Covenant of grace. How does this bad hermeneutic get rid of other contradicting passages that are not in the Gospels? It again narrows the amount of New Testament he will consider further by using the phrase instructs a believer. This effectively removes most of the other passages that would contradict what this extreme grace teaching.
For instance, many of the things found in the Book of Acts would contradict the idea that forgiveness is automatic and does not need to be sought by believers. By stating that these passages in Acts are not to believers but to the unsaved, a teacher of “extreme grace†can do away with them. If anything else in the Letters of Paul, Peter and John contradict his contention that forgiveness is already given and does not need to be received as Christ taught His disciples, this is dismissed as not written to Christians either.
Since the book of First John has a strong statement in the first chapter about receiving forgiveness through confession of sin, a teacher of “extreme†grace will have to dispose of this passage also. Here is that statement:
"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." (1 John 1:8-10)
that is for 'my' stupid question! No offence meant to whoever??)
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