The Graceless Man — E.A. Johnston

When a man finds religion through a decision, based on a mental flip for a Jesus he has never met, he ends up assuming that, because he has performed a physical act, he has proved positive of his salvation.

But the sad reality is, he is yet a graceless man, though a religious man. He is a baptized man, but an unregenerate man. He has convinced himself that he has found salvation from the penalty of sin, though he is yet in his sins.

Outward Reformation and Self-Righteousness

He mistakes an outward reformation for inward repentance, and cleans himself up enough to pass muster at church, but he is still like the man from Proverbs. There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness.

In other words, though he is now a good church member, he is still outside the blood of Christ Jesus for forgiveness of sin. Therefore, he carries the name Christian without ever having his sins washed in Christ's blood.

The graceless man is a religious man, clothed in his own fig leaves of self-righteousness. The graceless man has found religion, but he has missed Christ. The graceless man is quick to condemn others and accuse those who do not measure up to his standards.

Judgment Without Grace

The graceless man has no grace toward another sinner, but only judgment. The graceless man carries a good opinion of himself and a poor opinion of others, but he is a man who has never seen the corrupt windings of his own deceitful heart.

He elevates himself by putting others down. The graceless man cannot minister grace to others because he has no grace himself. The love of Jesus will not be evident in a graceless man. The graceless man can often be an ordained minister at a church and be in a position to do a great deal of harm to others.

The graceless man cannot see himself for what he is, an unregenerate man who travels a religious road to hell. The graceless man is a stranger to Holy Spirit conviction. The graceless man is a stranger to heartfelt repentance toward God.

Dead Religion and False Christianity

The graceless man is a fraud, a phony, and a fake imitation of true vital Christianity. The graceless man has no grace, and his hope of heaven is nothing more than a hole in the wall. God has never wrought a work of grace upon his heart in the supernatural act of regeneration.

The graceless man is a Christian in name only. The graceless man is a man in bondage. Like a mummy without life, he moves about wrapped in the grave clothes of a dead religion. He speaks but without authority from on high.

He acts but lacks the grace to be a spiritual blessing to others. He is nothing but a sham whose own shadow shrinks from him. Our churches are full of graceless men and women who have never been awakened to their lost condition, have never known Holy Spirit conviction.

They have missed repentance and therefore missed faith, and therefore are strangers to Christ Jesus. The graceless man is a dangerous man who represents to the world a Christ he has never met. The Pharisees were religious, graceless men who crucified the Lord of Glory.

Salvation by Grace Through Faith

Salvation is through grace. In Ephesians 2 .8 we read, For by grace are ye saved through faith and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. The graceless man will live upon a false foundation of an empty religious profession while he travels a religious road to hell, and his graceless soul will one day bust hell wide open when he dies in his sins.

A hell is full of religious, graceless men who never found Christ Jesus, and they fill hell by the hour.