1076. Identifying Those People With "Itching Ears"

In his letters to Timothy, Paul talked about people with itching ears who would pursue myths and fables as they strayed from sound teaching. Have you ever had someone from the legalistic side of the fence make the accusation it is a reference to those 'hyper-grace radicals?'

So ... who are these people Paul mentions with mosquito bites on their ears? 🙂 Suffice it to say that it wasn't people who embraced unlimited and overflowing grace—but some might be surprised to discover it was quite the opposite.




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889. How Important Is Grace? Hint: Jesus Needed It

Our narrow and limited view of eternal things can lead to a ripple effect on some of the foundational basics regarding the message of gospel. For example, grace may often be viewed as something we seek or fall back on only when we sin or fail. Surely people are saved and justified by God’s grace, but it so much more.

Consider Jesus … the Bible states the grace of God was upon Him. Jesus the man—who was also the son of God—if He didn’t sin and had no need to be saved, why did He need God’s grace to be upon Him? Why do legalistic religious advocates try to warn people about too much grace? Why do they put forth a faulty message that it gives a license to sin and that it is grace that leads to an increase in sin? How does that contrast with the many things the Apostle Paul wrote about the abundance of grace we have freely received? Let’s encourage each other in grace as we grow in our understanding of it and begin to realize that it is an integral part of our lives in Christ on an hourly and daily basis.

During this episode, Joel mentioned an article he'd written several years ago on the sufficiency of grace, and how it's not merely a subject to be talked about now and then. You can find the article here, and as a bonus, in that article you will also find a link to a much earlier podcast episode we did on grace being the essence of life in Christ.



   
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882. Legalistic Religion’s Push for Cheap Law (Grace Isn’t Cheap)

Those who advocate for a works-based attempt at getting right with God will often accuse the message of faith-based righteousness as nothing more than “cheap grace.” Of course, the Bible doesn’t caution against grace at all. Pure grace is not “dangerous ground” or something we can have too much of because God has poured out an abundance of grace—grace upon grace—which overflows beyond what is needed. There is no such thing as cheap grace because it cost God everything to bring people into a place of perfection through the bloody sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

However, there is something we don’t hear much about, but it dominates the corporate church communities … and that is cheap law. This is where the wolves will try to convince the sheep they can actually achieve success in keeping the rules and regulations of the Mosaic law (more accurately, a modernized, shrunken version of it). As members of the “hyper-grace” community, we realize the law of God given to Israel was something so holy, so good and so righteous, that nobody could possibly live up to that perfect standard. It was never given for that purpose … which is why it would be fulfilled by Jesus, allowing us to receive life by grace through faith, apart from works.



   
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715. Grace Is Never Dangerous

The bad news police who are established in a legalistic mindset will caution believers in Christ that too much teaching about God’s grace will lead to an unhealthy and perilous plight. Their tangled view of the testaments wrongly assumes grace needs to be balanced with law.

We’ve been supplied with an abundance of grace for a reason and it has no connection to law or a rules-based religion.



   
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412. The Accusation of 'Hypergrace'

The term "hypergrace" has been used recently by some who apparently believe that grace is being taken to an extreme. We address a few of these concerns from an article in a popular Christian publication. The first thing that needs to be confronted here is the misunderstanding that legalistic religion has clung to and that is the belief that the New Covenant is a more perfect continuation of the Old Covenant. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, this line of thinking will point entirely in the wrong direction and will lead to many more misunderstandings regarding the gospel of grace.

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411. Too Much Grace?

When you hear people talking about the dangers of "hypergrace" or too much grace, one has to ask the question: How much is too much? Think carefully about this. Imagine someone claiming to believe the gospel and yet warning that too much grace can be dangerous. You don't have to imagine very hard because we hear it from people on a regular basis. Our thoughts this week on why the abundance of grace we have in Christ isn't the problem, but is in fact the only solution.

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Download Too Much Grace?
(Click to Play or Right-Click to Download.)

"Watch" this episode on YouTube.

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This week's GIG Bite - A bite-sized chunk of this week's program!

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