ON THE VANGUARD

CHEAP GRACE
“How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?...It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God”
Hebrews 10:29, 31

I shared with you a few days back my memory of the day I started a second apricot fight, testing my dad and feeling his wrath. I had hoped he would have had grace, relenting from the anger for the sin I had committed. But he did not. Instead of finding grace I found the punishment for my disobedience. While I can look back now and understand that the punishment was done in love, I did not see it that way at the time. The fact is I expected him to give me the benefit of his grace as he had done in other situations. Perhaps it is better said that I was at a point where I had taken his warnings and grace for granted in the past, and therefore assumed this time around would only be another stern warning as opposed to physical discipline. I question as I consider this again, is this not how we at times treat God concerning His grace?
Forgive me for being repetitive, as I know I have shared this passage a few other times, but in light of today’s subject I believe it needs to be heard again. Romans 6:14-15 reads, “For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!” Grace is given, but never in every situation. True, grace can be the forgiving or a sin or a debt, an action of offense, or the waiving of a punishment, but grace should never be expected each time. If grace is expected with each mishap and crime, then what is it really? It is cheap. It is worthless. It loses its quality. How can we expect to learn lessons when it will only be ignored of its value?
As a parent, I find myself being asked by my children to buy them something each time I go to the store. “Daddy, buy me…”, can be an annoying sound. Many times I will not cave in because if I do buy something each time, it no longer becomes special but expected. So I wait. I wait for the times when it is not expected, when I want to reward them for something they did or as a way to show them my love. I want it to be something done because I want to. I feel that always giving into their requests moves me from being dad to their own personal bank account. My title is not “bank account”, nor is God’s title “trample all over Me and sin on purpose.” In fact, Hebrews 10:29 warns against this when it states, “How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?” How much more severely God will handle the one who cheapens His grace, who sins on purpose with the backup plan of seeking God’s grace in forgiveness. Yes, God will do His part and forgive, but should we not do our part to stay away from sin from the start? Shall we sin because there is a backup plan? By no means! Then why do we?
Hebrews 10:31 adds to this thought how dreadful it is to fall into the hands of a living God. Grace is given, but grace has limits. There comes a point in my shopping with my kids where when the whiny requests do not cease, I grow frustrated. In my frustration I have to deal with their behavior which will cause them to not only get nothing at the store, but also a time out or grounding or some sort of punishment once we get home. And the same was true in my apricot war. I pushed the envelope of my dad’s grace and therefore fell into his hands of punishment. Will we not find ourselves in the hands of God’s punishment if we continue to cheapen and expect His grace? Let us then change our ways, seeking to obey His commands from the beginning as opposed to sinning purposefully believing that grace will be given again, as it always is. Let us stop cheapening God’s grace.