Apostasy and Fearless Grace

I felt the need to do this post on "Fearless Grace" because it goes right along with "Lawless Grace". Prov. 1:7 says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge". It seems once we take away the "fear of the Lord", it becomes relatively simple to then start taking away His laws. If we believe that God's grace saved us once and for all through the blood of Jesus Christ - then we no longer need to worry about being obedient to His laws. You know, "Once saved - always saved". Right? Well, maybe not.

I found a little phrase in Hebrews 10:29 that kind of bothers me, and maybe it should bother you as well. It says that we can be guilty of "insulting the Spirit of grace". How do we do that? By "counting the blood of the covenant by which we are sanctified a common thing." God said, "Vengeance is Mine. I will repay". (vs. 30) And again, "The Lord will judge His people." (vs. 30) In verse 31 it says, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Since these verses are talking to God's people, why then would God be telling His people to be fearful of Him if grace will cover His people - no matter whether we are obedient or disobedient?

When we remove the fear of the Lord from our lives, we think we don't have to worry about being obedient to His laws. You see, it was because of the law - the covenant, that Jesus died for us. So when we treat the law of the covenant as a "common thing" - we are "trampling underfoot the Son of God". (Heb. 10:29) Also, when we remove the fear of the Lord from our lives, we have no urgency to tell others about Jesus Christ and the need to be saved from the fires of hell. We have been so deceived into believing that God is only a God of love, and therefore, we have nothing to fear! We then become lukewarm, complacent, and become compromising with the world system.

Philippians 2:12 says, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." The two previous verses tell us why. Because "at the name of Jesus every knee will bow...and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord." Obedience and the fear of the Lord go together. Christians - Wake up! There is a Judgment Day coming both for the saved and the unsaved. Let's stop "insulting the Spirit of Grace".