In the Age of Grace
by Terry Wane Benton
I talked to a gentleman today at the dentist's office who noticed me reading my Bible, and he struck up a conversation about churches and the Bible. He said the church today is more about rules than grace. I said that is true in some cases, and in other cases, religious people use grace to excuse themselves from ignoring God’s rules. He went on to say that baptism is not part of the age of grace. I pointed out that the age of grace began on the Pentecost of Acts 2 and that the Spirit had Peter command the people to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ “for remission of sins” (to receive the grace offered). While the conversation didn’t seem to make any progress, I was called into my appointment. I invited him to visit with us, and he said he might just do that.
The conversation reminded me that so many people know just enough scriptures to justify anything. Many think that Jesus died for all our sins, and that allows us in this “age of grace” to hold a false assurance that as long as we have faith of any content or measure, we are automatically covered and can believe and practice any number of errors and still go to heaven. I feel a need to correct that concept.
The Bible teaches that grace covers sins we repent of, not sins we are determined to practice (Acts 8:22f). Grace “teaches us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts” (Titus 2:11). If grace doesn’t teach us this, we are not exposed to “true grace,” but a false version of grace not taught by the Bible. Jesus died for our sins so that we would see God’s love and renounce the works of the flesh (the things that nailed Jesus to the cross) and listen to the Spirit of grace teach us how to escape the bondage of sin.
We are in the age of grace, and this means that grace provides what the Law of Moses did not, a real means of pardon. Every animal sacrifice in that system pointed to the ultimate, all-efficient, and sufficient sacrifice of Jesus. It does not mean we are now free to sin. Grace taught the 3000 to repent of their sins, bury their past in baptism, and, in the name of Jesus, rise up to walk in the newness of life, now forgiven and now determined to live under the rule of our king, Jesus the Messiah (Acts 2:38; Romans 6:3-6). The grace of God teaches us to live godly and soberly (Titus 2:11f), or we have not been under grace as of yet. Beware of those who “turn the grace of God into a license to sin” (Jude 3-4). Grace provides pardon and a drive toward righteous living, not a license to “continue in sin that grace may abound.” God forbid that we view grace in that manner (Romans 6:1ff).
