What about falling from Grace?

Galatians 5:2-6

As a child growing up in beautiful Corpus Christi, Texas, with a mother, dad, brother and sister and dog skipper: we were Baptist and attended small Baptist Churches.  Now in those Baptist Churches, I was trained like a bird dog about what was good and what was bad, and it was there that I first heard about falling from grace.  Often, we heard sermons on backsliding, and I thought that meant going out and getting drunk on Saturday night and not showing up for church on Sunday.  You, the reader must understand I had no concept of Grace, being only a child, but as I got older those teachings began to become my reality.

I was a backslider, I must have fallen out of grace, for I so enjoyed the “don’ts” that those churches taught would bring you into condemnation.  And when you are religious, but lost, or you’re a believer that has no understanding of “Grace,” it is easy to attempt right standing with God by your actions.  That is what is happening in Galatians 5:1-6, these Galatians the apostle Paul is sharing with are people who have been freed from the control of sin by God’s grace.  What is Grace?  “Undeserved acceptance and love received from another, especially the characteristic attitude of God in providing salvation for sinners. For Christians, the word “grace” is virtually synonymous with the gospel of God's gift of unmerited salvation in Jesus Christ.” (Taken from the Holman Bible Dictionary)

To repent is to acknowledge to God and to others that you are without hope and to receive the redemption found in the victory of Christ’s shed blood on the Cross; the payment in full for sin.  That’s grace, for the Scriptures tell us that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.  That is undeserved acceptance and love.  There is only one way, one gate, one entrance into Christ and that is through the confession of your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believing in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, then you are saved.  Those are not my words, but what Scripture says in Romans 10:9, and that is how these Galatian sinners had entered into the forgiveness and freedom we have in Christ.

But some false teachers had come to them with a feel better message, it was called then what it is called today, “Grace Plus” and their form of “Grace Plus” was to accept circumcision, as if they needed the law of Moses, plus Christ to obtain favor with the Father.  Now getting back to my childhood, because I did not grasp grace, how was one who had experienced grace and fallen out of it, ever allowed to come back?

It took years to find the answer, and my beginning was by faith believing Romans 10:9, and accepting the free gift of grace.  What happened next was I agreed with God that all my efforts to gain His acceptance through acts of self-effort were of no value, and I began to seek men who would train me how to grow in Christ.  God was so faithful, but often I did things that I hated, and it seemed often that I had fallen out of grace, for I was one of those backsliders I had learned about as a youth.

Was I without hope, had God given up on me, have you ever had such thoughts?  I am so thankful for mentors, pastors, and teachers who were faithful to God’s word, and began to guide me to these truths: “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)  One of my mentors showed me Ephesians 1:13-14 and explained how the Holy Spirit had sealed me, that I was in Christ, Christ was in God the Father, and Christ was in me, and no one could break that seal.  We often grieve the Holy Spirit by not living by faith, but living by feelings, and we are instructed not to in Ephesians 4:30, for He has sealed us for the day of redemption.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice