Hyper-Grace: Exposing the Dangers of the Modern Grace Message

“Once saved, always saved.”I hear this in church all the time. Without doubting it, I have been amazed by its efficacy and spread.It seems to be attached to another quotation, this time found in the Bible, reducing Galatians 2:15 to: “Not by works, but by faith.”However, since from the beginning, when I was born again, I resolved to read the whole Bible, Old and New Testaments, and not only parts of it, I also know what James 2:17 said: “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” Or in short, “Faith without works is dead.”The moment I was born again in the Holy Spirit, I not only resolved to read the whole Bible cover-to-cover (jumping, of course, from John to Genesis, then on to Matthew, Exodus and so on), I read the Good News Bible, including the Apocrypha, in six months.Not satisfied with that, I went on to read the King James Bible, again cover-to cover, chronologically this time, then the Claretian Community Bible, the Revised Standard Version, the New Revised Standard Version, and so on. I even borrowed Fr. James Reuters’ Douai-Rheims Version just to see if it really said in Genesis that the snake would be under the heel of the woman. It did.You see, after a while I wasn’t satisfied to read the Bible alone. I also bought a Concordance and thick Commentaries to accompany my reading of it, and so was able to get wind of the controversies swelling around it.Recently I’ve taken to reading the Bible (as much as my limited intelligence will allow it) in Hebrew, in the same way I’ve tried it in Spanish and French — in patches.Perhaps that is why I’m not so easily taken by sweeping statements like “Once saved, always saved,” or “Once saved, you cannot sin, because you're under grace.”I tend to submit all statements I hear to the Bible as a whole, as well as to authorities who elucidate on or question them.There is another reason why I cannot easily accept a statement like the above, aside from my accumulated 25 years of Bible study.My lifelong trajectory has been transformation. Early in childhood, I already wanted to transform myself from a spoiled kid to a socially responsible person. When I went underground, I was highly conscious of the fact that I could not transform society, even with the help of tens of thousands, even millions, of others, without transforming myself.My first encounter with the Five Golden Rays of Mao Tsetung confirmed my trajectory. In these essays I found a servant of the people willing to clean toilets even if that was his only task, and an old man who moved mountains. I wanted to be this janitor, this old man, if only to get rid of my inability to do physical work.In the underground, we practiced what we called CSC, or criticism-self-criticism. They sometimes became bloody sessions, with comrades ending in tears at all the harsh words flung. But basically, I continued to believe in their necessity -- with modulation in handling -- because I thought CSC was the best way of effecting self-transfomation.As a Christian, I became sensitive in a positive way to what I heard bruited about me, every time giving what I thought should be changed in me to the Lord, because I knew that His grace alone, and not my human efforts, could change every part of me.What made the process of change so much easier than when I did not yet believe in Jesus as Christ and Lord is that I had but to sincerely surrender my weaknesses to Him, and He would take them away.Sure I’m sure of eternal life, because I believe in Jesus, Yeshua in the original Hebrew, as my Lord and Savior. I acknowledge that I am a saint like all fervent believers. But that doesn’t mean I’m perfect, or that I will be perfected only in heaven. In my long life on earth I will seek to have Jesus cleanse every dark pore in my body and soul, and am therefore open to whatever criticism I encounter.Because I don't want to end up like a Christian politician or government employee/contractor or businessman who continues thieving, or a Christian who hides his or her sexual immorality, whatever type or shade that may be. Or not even those extremes. I just don't want to end up a Christian who keeps sinning or denies sin, whether mine or others'.I was unpleasantly surprised, therefore, to find that other Christians did not take to criticism in the same way.They felt insulted to be rebuked, or even just told a minor fault, even one-on-one. One’s indirect appeal to me was to be handled like her aunt always did her, positively, encouragingly, uplifting her with nary a negative.I began to understand where she and many other Christians were coming from only when I started reading Dr. Michael Brown’s Hyper-Grace.Oh, I’m certain that most if not all of these Christians have no idea of theology whatsoever, even if names like Dr. Paul Ellis and the popular Joseph Prince are dropped before them from time to time.But reading Michael Brown has convinced me that they have been influenced one way or another, even if third, fourth, fifth or even sixth-hand, by the hyper-grace teachers that he quotes heavily and chastises in 15 chapters.Michael Brown has to be read to be appreciated. I will not attempt to summarize his book here. You have to read it yourself, then tell me (or yourself) whether you agree or violently disagree with it.But I will tell you 10 manifestations of hyper-grace teaching that I have heard so far, whether audibly or not:1. I am already saved and justified, Jesus took away all my sins past present and future.2. Don't mind my faults, Jesus will take them away magically. Just keep on upholding me and encouraging me, because that's what a good brother/sister does.3. I am NOT capable of sinning because I am under grace.4. Jesus did away with the Ten Commandments and the Old Testament. All you have to do is to love God above all else, and love your neighbor as yourself. If you love me, you will not criticize me. Just love me.5. Ako'y tao lamang (I'm only human). I can never be perfected here on earth, so don't make me even try. I will be automatically perfected once I get to heaven. In the meantime I'm under grace, God loves me no matter what I do. Just ignore whatever you see, tomorrow we'll be happy together again.6. The Torah? That's for Jews! I'm under the New Covenant, living a grace-filled life.7. I surrendered all my sins to Jesus when I acknowledged Him as my Lord and Savior. I have nothing else to surrender because I'm already under grace. Surrender? That's works, not grace! He has taken over my life! So stop telling me to surrender.8. If YOU'RE still sinning, then you were never born again! You're a fake Christian! Just like Ananias and Sapphira!9. Let's just fellowship together and enjoy each other's company. Don't talk to me about bad news (especially not about myself). It destroys grace.10. Justification and sanctification are the same. When I was justified, I was sanctified. I will be glorified only after my body dies, when I reach heaven. I can never be perfect while I'm on earth, but since I live under grace, who cares? Jesus has already forgiven all my sins. Hallelujah!Michael Brown demolishes all these and more using extensive quotes from hyper-grace teachers and the Bible verses their teachings contradict together with his deep knowledge of crucial words from the original Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic.He is worth reading if we're serious about being born again.[Also published on my FB timeline.]

I've known Dr. Michael Brown for 20 years. He's always been a man full of God's grace and his new book, Hyper-Grace, reflects that grace. It begins with a great testimony of God's grace in his life through which he was set free from a life of drugs and a decadent rock and roll lifestyle. He then graciously proceeds to share his concerns about the current errors in the hyper-grace movement. He’s has been accused of being in an attack mode. Nothing could be further from the truth. His manner is gentle and he treats those he disagrees with, with the upmost respect.He goes in clear detail about several areas of departure from orthodoxy; these include the idea that God has already forgiven us of all our future sins the moment we are saved ignoring clear scriptural admonitions that we should confess our sins one to another and that Jesus pointed out the sins in chapters 2 and 3 in the book of Revelation of the 7 churches of Asia minor who were clearly followers of Jesus but had fallen into sin (there’s much more on this matter in the book).Next he corrects the concept that believers no longer need to ask God for forgiveness by bringing clear scripture testimony to the misguided idea that Christians don’t have to confess their sins to God in clear opposition to scriptures like Matthew 18:21-35 (the hyper-grace camp believes that Jesus’ teaching here is not relevant because it was given before Jesus died on the cross, I guess we need to ignore most of what he taught then since it occurred before the cross. Dr. Brown clearly and graciously shows where this concept is incorrect – there’s a whole chapter on this later in the book).Then Dr. Brown, with the full support of the scriptures shows that the false concept that the Holy Spirit never convicts Christians is clearly misguided and flies in the face of accounts in Revelation 2 and 3 where we clearly see the Holy Spirit telling the church to listen to a sound rebuke. (If this is not conviction I don’t know what is). There’s much more in his chapter on this as well. He goes on in his book to bring clear scriptural support to correct additional errors that purport that there is no on-going work of sanctification in the believers life as is clearly taught in 1 Thess 4:4,5 and that God is always pleased with us even though scriptures like 1 Cor 11:27-32 warn us that we can greatly grieve God and need to be careful not to do it and that we need to look for ways to please Him .1 Thess 4:1, Eph 4-6.He also addresses the erroneous idea that spirituality is effortless. He corrects this with many biblical passages like Heb 4:1,11; 10:35-36, 2 Peter 3:13-14. Then there is the misnomer that “God is always in a good mood”. This is clearly refuted by many scriptural passages showing that God’s wrath is as real as His mercy and he will deal with sin. He also shows that all that Christ said applies to us today and we cannot safely ignore it or just write it off as not relevant to us today. I’ve just briefly touched on these subjects but Dr. Brown gives a thorough and in-depth coverage to all the errors in the hyper-grace teaching.In summary let me quote from the beginning of his book. “I'm afraid that many modern grace teachers, in their zeal to safe-guard the glories of grace, preach their message without fundamental aspects of biblical truth. These would include: 1) God requires holy living from His people; 2) our sins do have an impact on our relationship with God; 3) you can preach grace and preach against sin at the same time; 4) there is much in the Old Testament that remains of foundational relevance to believers under grace."In closing let me say this book is written with a grace and gentleness of a man who is secure in God’s grace and is gracious toward others who often misquote him and attack him without really investigating what he’s said. It’s also written by a man who is one of the most brilliant and studied students of scripture. I highly recommend this book.

another superb book from this great author.i always knew there was something utterly wrong and sinister with the grace movement, but michael brown elouently describes the what!worth a read, although the regular references from some of the grace movement greater celebrities will make your brain hurt as you seek to read them, especially when Michael Brown puts the appropriate scripture next to them!

This book is a balanced well researched response to some very extreme teaching going round in the body of Christ at this time, if you are in some form of leadership in the church this is a must read,It brings a balanced true perspective of the wonderful grace we have in Christ

When I was first confronted with the hyper-grace teachings it left me quite confused. Dr. Brown's book cleared things up for me and answered a lot of my questions. My favorite part is that Dr. Brown constantly points towards the Scriptures as the dividing line between truth and error. The book is thorough, challenging and will make you think. I highly recommend it.

Well worth reading. Michael Brown knows the scriptures and demonstrates humility in tackling the dangers of hyper-grace in a loving way.

a good, gracious (no pun intended) response to what is the unfolding chaos of the resurgent liberalism of the hyper-grace teaching.