Philip Yancey’s book What’s So Amazing About Grace? had been mentioned as worth interacting with around this subject. In addition I suggested that we looked at the first epistle of John to help our study of the issue of sin and the Christian.
 
I am conscious that this is not a new subject for us to study and that many of the leaders of Newfrontiers could preach effective sermons on the subject of grace and holiness. Nevertheless I agree with David Holden that the subject is worth re-examining, particularly as many of our people (perhaps not only young people!) seem to be in danger of misunderstanding grace to mean an easy tolerance of sin and worldliness.
 
I propose to review Yancey’s book in the light of the subject of grace and holiness and in doing so to draw a few conclusions as to its part, if any, in an underplaying of holiness in the modern Christian thinking. Then I want to explore what it is to be a Christian and while doing this I will briefly address some of the issues David Pawson raised in his discussion on once saved, always saved; I will also look at the evidence of real faith and the New Testament approach to the problem of bad conduct amongst Christians. I will look at the grace – faith – holiness link and the life complicating factors known as the world, the flesh and the devil.
 
Finally, I will endeavour to point us to some practical conclusions with regard to individual pastoral challenges and possible solution to weaknesses in our churches with regard to ‘grace and holiness’.

Philip Yancey’s book What’s So Amazing About Grace?

 
Philip Yancey’s book was first published in 1997 and has been popular for a number of years. From the outset I must state that I do not think Yancey’s book is responsible for undermining holiness or popularising ‘cheap grace’ thinking.
 
However, there has been a problem of Christians superficially talking about ‘grace’, bandying the word about without full understanding of what it means and even developing a sort of popular misconception of its meaning. It often seems that such people put their own interpretations on the word grace and those interpretations are usually along the lines of; another word for ‘tolerance’; a freedom to enjoy worldly pleasures with no serious consequences; once I am saved I am always saved and it doesn’t matter what I do; a light treatment of sin because I can always ask for forgiveness afterwards! The spread of these ‘erroneous views of grace’ has been accelerated by the frequent use of the word and, therefore, Yancey’s book along with other paperbacks with grace in the title have made a contribution to the overuse of the word grace. This is particularly true for people who may have only read part of the book or have just responded to the title and their own ideas of what it might be about!
 
In the early part of his book Yancey complains about the fact that the church often appears legalistic and ungracious to the unbeliever. I would agree with Yancey’s basic point that on the wide front of church there is an under emphasis on grace in terms of our gospel and our approach to the world in general. Grace is the radical, outrageous, revolutionary aspect of the gospel. It is the unique and startling message of God’s grace that divides the real Christian faith from all other religions. We would all agree with this and would also support Yancey’s appeal to be more like Jesus in our attitude to unbelieving sinners. Yancey rightly cites examples from the gospels such as the forgiving of the dying thief, the parables of Luke 15, the wedding banquet, the forgiven debtor, and many others to support his case for the grace emphasis in much of Jesus’ teaching.  The New Testament emphasis is very clear, we cannot earn our salvation, it is a gift from God.
 
Yancey rightly reminds us that God’s grace is not a ‘niceness’ of a grandfather. Someone had to pay for our salvation. The law had to be satisfied. God’s wrath had to be appeased. Grace is about Jesus Christ being our substitute and bearing our sins in his own body on the cross. Therefore, we are legally and fully justified before a holy God. Yancey mentions this but my passing comment would be that this aspect of grace must always be emphasised fully in the battle for holiness. A proper understanding that Jesus Christ had to be judged and died for my sins can be sobering!
 
Yancey emphasises that there is nothing I can do to make God love me more and nothing I can do to make Him love me less. This is true and is a thought reflected in some recent worship songs! However, stated without qualification or further explanation it can fuel a sort of passivity and a carelessness about how we live.
 
Philip Yancey himself quite clearly mentions the life changing effect of grace on a believer. He particularly dwells on the fact that if we are forgiven much we will love much. Therefore one of the evidences of receiving grace is a change in our attitude to others, an ability to forgive and to love. This sobering challenge is put starkly in several places in the gospels with the implication that if we deny forgiveness to others then we have not received it ourselves.
 
Philip Yancey clearly believes, what I trust we believe, that the bible teaches that grace is more powerful to change us and make us righteous than law is.  Both scripture and experience support this. So it is vital that we never downplay grace in our concern for holiness.

“It is only by living in the stream of God’s grace that I will find the strength to respond in grace to others” Philip Yancey.

 
Yancey addresses the subject of the ‘loopholes’ in grace. This is similar to what Terry describes as ‘dangerous grace’. Here we touch on some of the issues that Dave Holden is concerned about. This is about people living carelessly because of grace teaching. Obviously, this is not a new problem and apart from many examples in history there were clearly those around in the time of the New Testament who were saying “Let us continue in sin that grace may abound”. Philip Yancey cites examples of people he knows who calculate when sinning that they will be able to ask for forgiveness afterwards. Many of us will have come across people like this in our own pastoral experience.
 
C. S. Lewis makes a very good point when he observes that ‘grace abuse’ stems from a confusion of condoning and forgiving.

“To condone an evil is simply to ignore it, to treat it as if it were good. But forgiveness needs to be accepted as well as offered if it is to be complete and a man who admits no guilt can accept no forgiveness.” C. S. Lewis.

The fact is grace is only received by the humble and repentant. True repentance means a serious reaction to our sin and a fervent desire to be forgiven and changed.
 
See 2 Corinthians 7 v. 10-11. The calculation of sinning and then asking for forgiveness later does not fit the profile of a true penitent.  The question must always remain: “if someone wants to abuse grace have they really experienced it?” This is a question that we will keep coming back to and is the reason why I wanted us to have read the first epistle of John when we were engaged in this study. The fact is the New Testament motivation for holiness is grace! The real receiving of grace leads to gratitude and love towards the grace giver. So calculated abuse of grace and the giver of grace means you have not received it! This is all linked to the motivation issue. Philip Yancey gives the example of the tedium of learning German for a graduate degree, after explaining the tedium of his studies he says “What would inspire me to learn German? can think of one powerful incentive. If my wife, the woman I fell in love with, spoke only German, I would have learned the language in record time.” He is touching on the subject of grace motivating us towards holiness. And of course it really does. Grace motivates us from the inside, from an inner affection and is much more powerful than law. But this truth does again leave us with serious questions over those who appear to be able to abuse grace and treat it so lightly. The alternative motivation to grace is of course law.
 
Philip Yancey does address the subject of legalism to some degree. He acknowledges that in a time of licence legalism has certain advantages and helps us to restrict the excesses of destructive sin. “In a world of ungrace, structured shame has considerable power.”  Philip Yancey. This is true and we know that the law has a benefit in curtailing some of the excesses of evil. It can hinder the spread of the most corrosive aspects of sin, or at least hinder them for a season.
 
However, law has severe limitations: it doesn’t change the inside of a person.  It provokes secret sin and hypocrisy. It encourages pride and judgmentalism.  Worst of all it does not work on the basis of a relationship with God. We cannot relate to God on the basis of law and in some ways we do not need to as we can make laws and live by them in a legalistic way without a relationship with God. Evidence for this abounds as we look at the hundreds of false religions and the many examples of dead, legalistic Christianity!
 
It is a sobering fact that Jesus got most angry at the legalistic Pharisees and teachers of the law. So we can confidently say that whatever our battles with sin and our desire for holiness, law and legalism is not the answer! Legalism has the subtle danger of making me blind to my sin, I keep the law of my religion or my group and so I consider myself righteous. In such a position I cannot receive grace because awareness of my own impurity is what opens the door to grace.

“The solution to sin is not to impose an even stricter code of behaviour. It is to know God”. Philip Yancey.

 
Most of us will agree with much of what Yancey says in his book. However, the fact is that Yancey appears to have a particular target in mind when writing this book and the final sections of the book make that clear. He is obviously writing from a USA standpoint and is gravely concerned at the public face of evangelical Christianity in the United States. He is particularly troubled by the politicised ‘Moral Right’ and politically motivated fundamentalist Christians. He feels that these people give an ungracious, judgmental, legalistic impression of what Christians are and, worse still, they make the church and the gospel unattractive to the sinner. The gospel of grace is lost in the harsh political rhetoric.
 
I am inclined to agree with Yancey when he makes the point that our message is not political. He cites one US spiritual leader “The only way to have a genuine spiritual revival is to have legislative reform.” I would agree with Yancey’s comment that this is exactly the wrong way around!
 
Although I can sympathise with Yancey’s point of view I do not feel he is addressing our particular battle ground. We must learn lessons from what has happened to the USA but these are not the sort of issues we are tussling with and the sort of things that David Holden is concerned about.
 
Where Yancey’s concerns are not irrelevant to our subject is in the general point. He is worried about a church that talks a lot about grace but doesn’t understand it and of a church that doesn’t look very different from the world.  Yancey attributes this to a lack of ‘seeing’ and understanding grace and the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. I would agree with that so I want us to explore more on that subject in a few moments.
 
I found Philip Yancey to be a good writer who emphasised well the unique beauty and power of the gospel of grace and showed the radical impact grace-filled Christians can have on the world.
 
However, there is no ‘fear of God’ involved in Philip Yancey’s understanding of grace. The phrase “unconditional love” can be an awkward one and I sometimes wonder how accurate it is in describing God’s love. The problem is that it can often be equated to “like” i.e. God likes you however you behave! And this of course is not true. Or it can be misunderstood as God “tolerates” whatever you do. And again this is not true.
 
Jesus is gracious but He is not simply inclusive! The writers of the New Testament got angry at sinners and false teachers!
Philip Yancey does not give any attention to these above facts.  Nor is there much on the internal work of grace that leads to holiness.
 
Obviously, Philip Yancey did not set out to write a book on the subject of holiness but the above omissions do lead to an imbalance in the view of grace that comes from reading the book. We must explore some of these if we are to find keys to the problems we face.
 

The Grace Issue

Dangers of over familiarity with the word ‘grace’
Grace is the unmerited, undeserved favour of God towards men and women.  “Something for nothing to those who don’t deserve anything”. Grace is the radical, outrageous, revolutionary aspect of the Christian gospel. It is a unique feature of our message that distinguishes the Christian faith (the New Testament gospel) from all other religions.
 
The danger that the Church often appears legalistic and ungracious to the sinner and unbeliever.
Jesus’ radical examples e.g. the woman at the well in John 4; forgiving the dying thief; the ‘atrocious mathematics’ of some of the parables; the parable of the wedding banquet, etc. These parables and teachings by Jesus correct our notions of who God is and who He loves. As Philip Yancey says “in the realm of grace, ‘deserved’ doesn’t apply”. The New Testament is full of the glorious truth that you cannot earn your salvation. We don’t get saved on the basis of merit or, frankly, no one would be saved. Grace is tough and real – grace is about Jesus Christ being our substitute and bearing our sins in His own body on the cross (2 Corinthians 5 v.21). Grace is more powerful to change us and make us righteous than law is!
 
C. S. Lewis pointed out that grace is only received by the humble and repentant i.e. it is only someone with a true desire to be forgiven and changed who will receive grace properly. A true experience of grace will inevitably mean a softened heart. The only alternative to motivation by grace is motivation by law! Law can hinder the spread of corrupting aspects of sin but it has very severe limits:

“The solution to sin is not to impose and even stricter code of behaviour. It is to know God” (Philip Yancey).

 
There are ‘loopholes’ in grace. Or what Terry Virgo describes as ‘dangerous grace’. It is logically true that the truth of the gospel of God’s grace can lead to the conclusion that I can live however I like and still be saved. However the searching question remains “if someone wants to abuse grace have they really experienced it?”

The Holiness Issue: What does it mean to be a Christian?

 
This is all of GRACE. A free gift from God motivated by His love! The question to pose is this: Is it possible to receive all this (listed above) and NOT to be changed? To not move towards holiness at all? To not be renewed? The answer the first epistle of John gives is a resounding NO! “The man who says “I know him”, but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him” 1 John 2 v.4 The New Testament does not teach sinless perfection. I John does not teach sinless perfection, see I John 1 v. 8 and I John 2 v.1
 
The fundamental difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant is law as opposed to spirit. An external force for righteousness as opposed to an internal one. The Spirit achieves what the law working with human flesh could never achieve. The Spirit gives life and works internally, in our hearts. The Holy Spirit transforms us “into His likeness”; “from one degree of glory to another”
 
The identity mark of the New Covenant is the Spirit. Indeed the covenant mark is the circumcision of the heart through the Holy Spirit. This is a life changing experience. It is an ‘evidence’ that you are one of God’s New Covenant people. The glorification caused by the New Covenant is much greater than that seen under the Old Covenant (2 Cor 3).
 
Let’s pick our way carefully through some basic truths:
 
i. The New Testament is not interested in teaching good conduct to people who aren’t Christians.
ii. The New Testament’s ethical teaching is to Christians and it always follows the pattern: “This is what you are in Christ.  Therefore…..”  e.g. 1John 3 v. 1-3.
iii. The New Testament sees our failure in practice as a failure in belief.
iv. Conduct does not determine relationship but relationship will affect conduct.
v. You are either a child of God or you are not. What indications can I have that I am a child of God? Using 1 John as a background we could summarise as follows:

 
vi. Christians are a sanctified people. Christians are saints. ”Sanctification” is the act or process by which people or things are cleansed and dedicated to God, ritually and morally.  For Christians this is first of all a saving event in the past, we were chosen and called and thus ‘set apart’ for God and then, secondly, this is also seen as an ongoing and future work of God (1Thessalonians 4 v.3 and 1Thessalonians 5 v.23).  The ongoing work of sanctification requires human co-operation (1Thessalonians 4 v. 7-8).  Christians must live holy lives in correspondence to their imputed holiness (Ephesians 5 v.3 and v. 8,9). So sanctification is seen as a one time event and a process, the believers BEING and BECOMING holy! Christians are called to sanctification. This is God’s main purpose for us! This is where grace is taking us! God is most concerned about our character and our sanctification. For Him it is character before career! Maturity before ministry! We are called to walk as Jesus walked (1John 2 v.6). Grace is a power to change us and to teach us to say ‘no’ to ungodliness.
 
vii. There are three major complications for the Christian this side of the age to come.

 
viii. Christians will be judged at the last day and rewarded or denied reward according to how they have behaved on earth and responded to the grace of God in their lives. 1 Corinthians 3 v. 10-15.  This is an important New Testament incentive on how we live our lives.  We are expected to be seriously interested in the rewards, which do mean something! The vital importance of “Walking in The Spirit”.
 
The corporate aspect of sanctification: “What makes a healthy convert is being added to a healthy church”. 

So where does all this leave us with regard to pastoral, practical realities in individual Christians’ lives?

 
I believe some major issues need to be explored and taught to our people;

 
The fact is GRACE – FAITH – HOLINESS are an unbroken and interdependent chain in scripture. There is no sense of one or the other, it is all three in living organic link. We are saved by grace through faith and we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.
 
Questions

1. What does Holiness look like? In Acts 11 v.23 what do we think Barnabas saw when he saw “the evidence of the grace of God”?

2. In what ways was Jesus “Holy” in a recognisable way? What did Holiness look like in Jesus?

3. Who are the people we’ve met in our lives who we’d recognise as having the most clear characteristics of “Holiness”?

4. It’s important that we don’t define Holiness merely by what we ‘don’t do’ but also by what we do do! What are the positives about Holiness i.e. what we “put on”

5. What are the “works” that accompany faith?

6. What is unacceptable behaviour for the Christian? How much does it change with culture?