There seems to be a movement in many of the Christian communities, especially in what we would call the younger generation (generation Y and the culture war generation), that has put an extreme focus on the unconditional love of God. It’s a push away from the legalistic lives the Pharisees lived during the time of Christ that was condemned by Christ Himself. It’s an acute focus on the grace of Christ, like the reflection of a magnifying glass in the heat of summer. It’s a drive that has rightfully moved many Christian communities away from a life concerned with good works and performance, and placed it upon the individual.

But over the past year or so, I’ve been feeling this momentum on my heart that in many instances, it’s gone too far. It’s crucial that we continually recognize that our salvation is not dependent only on what we do on a daily basis, but at times, I feel like this has been abused. I feel that the grace of God is abused when spiritually compromising actions are justified by the unconditional love of God.

It’s important for us to notice that regarding this issue, we can miss the point of God’s grace in two different directions. First of all, we can mistakenly live a life that is so focused on what works we do, we become proud of our own humility. But the other side of the coin presents an equally dangerous problem as well. When we move away from a legalistic society in such a resilient fashion, the seriousness of our sin becomes camouflaged into a life with no discipline, a life with no deep remorse. We forget that what we do today and tomorrow contributed to Christ going to the cross. Too often, the grace is used in such a way that we forget that the same actions that this grace is bearing are what put Christ on the cross in the first place.

It’s like people think that since they are sinning after the crucifixion took place, and after all of their sins have been forgiven, that they have a free pass; a free pass to do anything, because it’s already forgiven. But God calls for the exact opposite response from salvation. At one point, the apostle Paul asks the Romans, “Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be.”

When we live like we have a free pass with no remorse when we screw up, we’re living selfishly. The life God wants us to live has no place for selfishness.

While living with my parents after graduating from college, we had a neighbor of ours who had been cheating on his wife repeatedly for a few months without his wife having a clue to what had been taking place after she left for work in the morning. It was one of those situations in life where you just don’t know how to address the issue, but hated the fact that you knew what was taking place. The idea of committing adultery makes me want to vomit.

Disgusting.

Cheap.

Pathetic.

I hate it.

It’s not possible for a man to cheat on his wife and love her at the same time. It’s the same for a woman as well. That’s not love. It’s the furthest thing from it.

And what if this same person begged his or her spouse for forgiveness, and was lucky enough to get it, and then cheated on this person again, showing NO remorse, would you say this person loves his or her spouse?

This is how I feel when you have someone that claims to be a Christian, asks God to forgive his or her sins, but then has no change in their actions. I don’t see how a person can love Jesus, and not at least try to avoid sinning. To me, living irresponsibly is only evidence that the God you claim to serve isn’t real to you. People who know God deeply would live like it. Sure, we’re all going to mess up at times, but that’s not the point. The point is that when you love someone, and are truly appreciative, you should act like it. We are so quick to admit this when it comes to a husband and wife, a parent and a child, or best friend, but when it comes to God, it’s thrown out the window. To me, that’s taking advantage of God’s grace.

You see, this type of living is built upon people who believe that our repentance comes after God has already saved us from death. This type of life is lived by those who for some reason, think the world owes them something, when in reality, for what we’ve done, we all deserve hell. By living like we are entitled to something, essentially, we can do whatever we want without any ramifications, because our salvation isn’t dependent upon works. But we can’t forget that we are saved because we love God, and have asked Him to forgive us from our sins through Christ’s resurrection. Sure Christ loved us first, but if we reject His love, we are eternally separated from Him.

Somehow, someway, we have got this notion that because God loves us unconditionally, that whatever we do is permissible by Him. We need to understand that if it was God’s choice, we would all be with Him forever in heaven. But he wanted authentic love. That’s why He has given us the freedom to choose Him over anything else. In the same way He loves us, he wants us to love each other. He refused to make us do it because he wants us to love authentically from our own desire. He wants real love, not manipulated love. But just because we love sinners doesn’t mean that what they do is okay. It’s like when a parent deeply loves a child, the child can’t do whatever he or she wants and get away with it just because the parent loves him or her, because there is a difference between love and approval.

God loves us regardless of what we do, but just because He loves us doesn’t mean that we can do whatever we want to and get away with highway robbery.

The point is simple, when you love someone, you live like it. You don’t embrace the fact that you can do whatever you want, and you’re saved. I find it hard to believe that anyone who truly loves God would do this to Him.

The grace of God is supposed to change this world. If we don’t live any different after we have received it, how is grace supposed to change this place? If we don’t change it, then who will? The world isn’t going to change with a bunch of yuppie Christians looking for the easy way in to heaven. It’s not going change with people trying to milk Christianity for all it’s worth. We’re not going to make a difference if we try to get away with as much as we can, but still get to heaven. I feel sorry for people who live this way, because they think they are getting away with a better life, but they’re really not. They think they’re beating the system, when they’re really losing. They’re missing out on so much more that’s offered through Jesus.

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