GOD’S GRACE IS HIS MERCY

One of the biggest problems that I see in America’s churches is the misguided idea that anyone can just twist the words of Scripture around to mean anything that they want. I see this all the time. That is why I stress the fact that God wants us to believe and teach what the Bible actually says, not what someone claims that it says. For example: The Bible actually says, “you are saved by grace through faith,” (Ephesians 2:8). When we teach the actual words of Scripture God works through those words to win souls (Romans 10:17). However, in order to hinder that work, Satan comes up with explanations that make the words of Scripture of no effect (Mark 7:13).

During the middle-ages Satan used the Latin idea that grace enables us to keep the law, in order to change grace into works – thereby making the Word of God of no effect. Today that same error is being taught by Bill Gothard. And, those who have been harmed by it, and found it a hindrance in coming to salvation, are so numerous that they have a web-site. www.recoveringgrace.org Many of the people represented on that web-site struggled for years before they overcame the blindness caused by that one false definition. And, it could have been avoided simply by teaching the words of Scripture rather than the words of man.

If you wonder how the Bible explains the word “grace”, it does so by telling us in one verse that we are, “saved by grace” while telling us in another verse that we are saved by mercy. In other words, God’s grace consists of mercy (Compare Eph. 2:8 with Titus 3:5). The words, “we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace,” also tell us that God’s grace/mercy consists of the forgiveness of sins. That is not my opinion, it is a fact which anyone can verify simply by looking up Ephesians 1:7.