The first thing that may come to your mind when you see this title is that popular song from Hillsong that says "Scandal of grace. You died in my place so my soul may live."....
In all honesty, that's how I got inspired to write this.
I was scrolling through their new album , Zion (you should really listen to that album),and the title caught my eyes. It had me asking myself "How can someone scandalize grace?" Because grace is just grace. So I asked God to answer that question for me.
In doing that, a very popular scripture flashed across my thinking space. Romans 6: 1-2
" Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? 2 Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?"
Grace was already put to shame on the cross when Jesus was crucified. All the morals of grace were offended and humiliated on that cross.Grace was mocked and jeered. It was made fun of and taken for a joke. But afterwards, the same ones who scandalized grace were the ones later begging for it to be extended to them. Ironic right?
Grace is set up in such a way that no matter how deep in sin you are, grace is naturally designed to go deeper than that sin just to rescue you.
Paul was saying in that scripture that we shouldn't just deliberately sin because we know we are under the grace of God. In fact, being under the grace of God means that we are no longer subjected to the harsh punishments that come along as a result of sin because we should be dead to sin.
And that is how we abuse the scandal of grace....by deliberately sinning
Have you ever had someone tell you as a Christian "It doesn't matter if you do it. You can just ask God for forgiveness after." Whether it be a peer, family member, or even a fellow Christian?
Most if not all of us have had that kind of experience at one point or the other. Someone asks us to deliberately sin then run to God for forgiveness. That is not how grace works. In fact when we do that, we are now scandalizing the grace that was already scandalized enough on the cross. In other words, they want us to continue in sin under the name of grace. Kind of like a wolf in sheep's clothing.
In doing that, we are now telling lies on grace, that if you knowingly accept this sin then choose to repent after, grace will infinitely abound with mercy. That will happen for a time because God is merciful. But what happens when God decides that enough is enough and that you've abused his grace for too long?
You may ask "But can God withdraw his grace?" The answer to that is no. Grace is a gift given by God to mankind so that they may have life and have it more abundantly. But what God does is instead of postponing the punishment that comes with the sin, he pours it out on whoever.
Let's look back at Israel. They knew they were in sin, but they didn't care. They would just sin under the name of God, which got God very upset. God decided to show mercy and give them countless chances to turn from their wicked ways and stick to His ways. But they refused. Instead of turning away for good, they continued to sin under the name of God. When God finally got fed up, He just poured out His anger on them to get them to understand that He only gives so much and no more chances.
Have you ever thought about what would happen if God was to pour out his anger on an individual? Think of all the things that happened to Israel as a result of sin- enslavement, drought, famine, etc. That was just a nation. Imagine what could happen to an individual? Any person who has been subject to that can tell you that when the bible says you don't want to fall into the hands of God, you REALLY don't want to fall into the hands of God because we never know what he's going to do to punish us. Sometimes, persons get so caught up in fulfilling their own fleshly needs that they're willing to abuse the grace they've been given just to get it done.
So fellow brethren, let us not abuse the grace of God that was already scandalized on the cross. Think about it. Imagine if you had to bear the weight of sin for the world and die an embarrassing death for all of them, only to have persons live the same sinful life afterwards. You may be upset because you're saying after you died for these persons' sinful lifestyle, they come under the grace that was scandalized for their sins, and revert right back to their deliberately sinful lifestyle afterwards.
Don't abuse the scandal of grace. Instead, live for God to the best you know how, and where you genuinely fall short, ask Him to fill in.
