No Compromise!

Friday, 7th December 2007

[Warning: this post contains what some may consider to be "severely disturbing" content. Please read with care and caution.]

If you are someone who has been reading my blog regularly, something may be causing you to be puzzled. On the one hand, I come across as someone who strongly advocates grace teachings. Yet on the other hand, some of my posts give the impression that I am someone who is very uncompromising. Where is the grace, some might ask?

If the above describes you, please allow me to cite 2 examples in the scriptures.

I believe all of us are familiar with the fruit of the Spirit as recorded in Gal 5:22-23. But in the very same epistle, do you know that Paul, the great apostle of the gospel of grace, did something that seem rather ungracious? If we look at Gal 2:11, we read that he opposed the apostle Peter to his face. Not only that, he admonished Peter not in private but in front of others (Gal 2:14). If that wasn't enough, he recorded this in his letter to the entire Galatian church! And now that the book of Galatians forms part of the canon, millions of others down through the generations get to read about it! Where is the grace, you might ask?

I believe many of us are also familiar with the term "lukewarm" and the passage where in appears in the Bible.
In Rev 3:15-16, the church in Laodicea was told, "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth." Not very gracious words now, are they? Well, guess who said them? None other than Jesus, who is supposed to be grace personified!

In fact, the Greek word used there is "emeo" (Strongs' G1692), which actually means "vomit"!

So why is it Paul and Jesus appear to be so uncompromising in the above situations. Because the message of grace was being diluted!

In the first example, Peter had started to re-embrace the Law and insisted that the church in Galatia practice customs of Judaism. What resulted was a mixture of law and grace. What's the big deal about this, some of you might ask? I mean, we still believe in God's grace, but to be safe, we should balance it with some laws. Otherwise, people will take it as cheap grace, and think we are giving them a licence to sin!

Well, mixing law and grace IS a big deal. In Gal 1:6-7, Paul labelled this "confusion" and "perverting the gospel of Christ". In fact, he even goes on in Gal 1:8-9 to pronounce a double curse on anyone who preaches this type of gospel.

If you are still not convinced that it is not a big deal to mix law and grace, let's go on to the second example. Here, Jesus is telling the church in Laodicea that He would have preferred them to be either hot or cold, but because they were lukewarm, He would spit them out.

When I was younger, I was told that being a lukewarm Christian means not being passionate enough for Jesus. But if that is the correct interpretation, then why did Jesus say that He preferred us to be cold? Wouldn't a lukewarm Christian still be better off than a cold one? At least, his level of zeal and passion would be more than the cold one.

I now realise that the illustration of hot and cold refers to being under the Law and being under Grace. Jesus said that He would prefer someone to be totally under grace or totally under law. The one who is totally under law is better off than the one who embraces a mixture of law and grace. This is because in due time, he will realise that his own efforts only bring frustrations and when driven to despair, he will ultimately turn to Jesus.

The one who embraces both law and grace has a false sense of self-sufficiency. On the one hand, he knows he is saved and justified by grace. Yet, on the other, he continues to trust in his own efforts in the process of sanctification by trying to live a life of holiness and right doings. If this describes you, sorry to tell you this but Jesus vomits you out of His mouth.

If there is one thing where there can be no compromise, that is the gospel of grace. It has to be pure and adulterated, not to be mixed even with one single bit of the law. Amen?