Cheap Grace

Cheap Grace and the Place of Repentance in the Gospel

Hello, and thank you for listening to the Testing the Spirits podcast. In this episode, we're going to be addressing the issue of cheap grace. We're going to do something a little different. Instead of me talking to you in this setting, we're going to go to Morris Corner Church.

I'm going to play part of a sermon that I did several years ago, where I'm talking about this matter and addressing the subject of repentance. Where does repentance fit in to the gospel? So let's play the message.

Probably the most popular book of this generation that Christians, I don't know, was it 15, 20 years ago? Man, Christians were eating this book up. You know what the book said? You know what the pastor said in the book?

Repeat these words after me. Say this simple prayer. Repeat these words and ta-da, you're a Christian now. Congratulations. Okay, he didn't say ta-da.

I added that part.

But no, he said, repeat after me, congratulations, you're a Christian. Very popular book. And listen, I'm not saying there isn't anything true in it or that it didn't help people. I don't know. But it was critiqued by another pastor.

You could probably guess who that other pastor was, some of you. He pointed out what should have been a glaring error in the book, a glaring problem. You know what the problem was? Guess what wasn't mentioned at all?

Repentance. No repentance, just believe this concept and it will make your life better. Christianity is a lot more than that. But how can you leave repentance out of the gospel? Well, you can't because it's an elementary part of the gospel.

Repentance as an Elementary Principle of Christ

Look at Hebrews 6 verse 1, therefore, and I believe Paul wrote Hebrews. So if I say, Paul said, just bear with me, you can disagree with that if you want. Hebrews 6, 1, therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ.

You know what that means, elementary.

He wants to leave that.

He says, let us go on to perfection. Not laying again, this is going back to the elementary principles, not laying again the foundation of what? Repentance from dead works and of faith toward God. So what does that tell you?

Repentance, this is an elementary principle. This is what you should learn in spiritual kindergarten, in first or second grade. This is so basic. How can you not know this? And if repentance is avoided, and I think it is avoided because it's one of those words that just seems a little too preachy, repentance.

I'm serious.

This is left out of many, the modern seeker-friendly evangelical movement, where the thinking is in order to reach people, you shouldn't use words like repentance or God's wrath or hell. These are words that you don't want to use in order to reach people.

Well, if you never talk or preach about repentance, how are you going to move on to perfection? You can't if you left out the basics. Now turn back to 2 Corinthians chapter seven. And as you're turning there, I think it's important that I mentioned how like everything else, this concept of repentance, it can be distorted.

It can be distorted. We talked about easy believism or cheap grace, as it's sometimes called. That's one distortion where repentance is often left out of the conversation altogether. But then, and I want you to listen, don't react, just listen to what I have to say.

But then there are those maybe on the other side who say you must repent of all your sins to be saved. You must repent of your sins in order to be saved. Listen, I don't have a problem with that statement, depending on what is meant by that.

Because hear me say it. You do need to repent of your sin to be saved. You heard me say it, right? You do need to repent of your sin to be saved. But if someone means by that, that you must stop, you must just stop sinning in order to be saved.

My first reaction is, well, who are all these people that have stopped sinning? Now on the one hand, there are things that you don't do anymore. Since you came to Christ, there are things you don't do anymore.

There are things I don't do anymore. Are you really going to stand up in front of people and say, I have repented of all my sin? I have just stopped sinning. You're not going to make that blanket statement because you know better.

So if somebody means that, they're talking about some sort of perfection or something close to it, then no, we understand that's not the case. However, if there's no change in your life, you know, if there's not any evidence of any change and you're still thinking about sin the same way you did before, I guess there was no repentance.

And then if you say that you must do this, you must stop doing that. You must stop doing this over here. How is that different from salvation by faith plus the works of the law? It doesn't sound all that different.

So it's a thing you have to be careful with and you have to try to figure out what people mean by these words. So if what is meant is that you must repent of your sin, meaning that you have a change of mind about it before you loved it, now you don't.

Before you lived in it, now you want it out of your life, then yes, a Christian must repent of their sin in order to be saved. But it's a lifelong process of mortifying the flesh in the sanctification process.

The Meaning of Metanoia and a Change of Mind

All right.

I had mentioned at the beginning, the Greek word translated repentance.

What is it?

Who is listening? Metanoia.

Yeah.

To change.

Right.

So you're pronouncing it differently. But a lot of different language.

Okay. Yeah.

Greek.

Yes.

So to be a Christian, you must have a change of mind about your sin. Can I just use this example?

All right.

I want to use the example of smoking cigarettes.

All right.

Now, again, this isn't a guilt trip because there's probably someone here who does smoke. I am not aware of anyone who smokes and I don't want to be aware of it. So don't come to me and say, oh, this person does.

Listen.

I just want to use this as an illustration.

Okay.

And I'm not trying to run anyone down. If somebody who listens and inevitably there will be, I know I've known enough smokers to know that when people start, they usually at some point wish they never had started.

So I'm not trying to make anyone feel bad. Someone once called a Christian radio show that was doing Q &A and they asked, I love this story. They said, the caller, can someone smoke cigarettes and still get to heaven?

And the caller is like, well, yeah, I believe someone can smoke and still get to heaven. Matter of fact, I think they'll probably get there even sooner, he said. Let's just say for the sake of argument, because there's going to be someone, well, where's this in the Bible?

Let's just say for the sake of argument, smoking is a sin because it's defiling the temple of the Holy Spirit. That's what a lot of people would say, or it's unhealthy, everybody knows it, and it's doing harm to your body, which God is.

So let's just say for the sake of argument, nobody's arguing about it, that it's a sin.

Okay.

If somebody came to me, and again, don't do this, I don't want to know, but if somebody came to me and said, you know that person, they smoke a pack a day. Would that surprise me? If there is a Christian somewhere who smoked a packet, would that surprise me?

No, of course not. Doesn't surprise me. There might even be a new believer who hasn't kicked the habit yet, whatever. I would never assume that someone was not a Christian just because they smoke. That wouldn't surprise me.

Here's what would surprise me. If somebody said, I smoke, I think it's great, and I think you should smoke too, and I'm a Christian, that would surprise me. What's the point? The point is this. Yeah, someone could be doing something that is wrong and be a Christian because that's the case with everybody.

It might be something you consider minor or something that someone doesn't know about, and it might be something more serious. Christian sin, newsflash, hello, Christians sin. Christians have been guilty of all kinds of different sin, but to affirm it, to promote it, that's something different.

If someone affirms sin and it's ongoing, that would indicate that there has never really been any godly sorrow because you don't seem to think it's a problem to offend a righteous and holy God. To offend a holy God, you have done it, you will do it, and hopefully not intentionally.

But to say, yeah, that's fine, I think it's good. Christians can't do that. So the Corinthian church sinned. We went through the book of 1 Corinthians, man, we read all about it. And then Paul wrote the severe letter, and it made them sorry, it even made Paul sorry for a time.

But the Corinthian church was a true church because they responded to biblical truth. They had a change of mind, they repented of their sin. And then over time, and it probably didn't happen overnight, but over time, people started to notice.

The church has changed, we can see it. And then Paul hears about it, he writes the letter. And now, you know, Paul is so proud of them. Paul is so proud of the church. He's encouraged by what they saw.

Look at 2 Corinthians 7, verse 10. For godly sorrow produces repentance, leading to salvation. Not to be regretted, but the sorrow of the world produces death. So what does repentance lead to? What does it lead to?

Salvation. Logically, if there was no repentance, then what? How can it lead to salvation? You never had it, never experienced it. So the false convert, because I think there's two ways that people look at God.

The true convert, who understands offending a holy and righteous God, and the false convert. So there's two ways, generally, to look at God. The false convert looks at God as their sky buddy, who exists up there to just help them out and to send down blessings to improve their life.

The true convert looks at God as their creator and Lord, who sent his only begotten son to suffer and die for their sin. And then it's like, whoa, thank you, and I want to live to serve you for what you've done for me.

Two totally different things. The sky buddy, who is there to serve us, versus the creator and Lord, whom we live to serve. That's quite a contrast when you think about it. So what's the difference between the two?

Because both will say, I affirm that there is a God. Both will say, I believe. What's the difference then? One has repented, had a godly sorrow, the other has not.