Hyper-grace Articles
Joseph Mattera, “Eight Signs of Hyper-grace Churches”
The past several decades, we have seen a dramatic decline in doctrinal and biblical
preaching. We have gone from theology to therapy in the pulpits. In the past decade, we
went from therapy to motivational speaking instead of preaching.
In addition to this, whole churches and movements have oriented themselves to a distorted
understanding of the gospel by espousing a “hyper-grace” approach that trickles down to
not only what they preach but who they allow to minister and teach.
Furthermore, many churches and preachers refuse to take a stand against sin and rarely if
ever mention the need for repentance or topics like hell and judgment. Many of these same
churches allow people to minister in music, as small group leaders and even as ministers
with no personal accountability while looking the other way when they are living sexually
immoral lives and regularly engaged in drunkenness!
This is nothing new. For centuries the body of Christ has wrestled with something
called antinomianism (anti means "against"; nomos means "law"). This is the belief that the
moral law of the Old Testament has been done away with and that, once we are in Christ,
there is free grace in which we can almost live any way we want since we are not under the
Law but under grace. Thus, according to this view, the Old Testament is not that important
to read except for metaphors, types and symbols regarding the coming of Christ. The New
Testament is all about grace and does away with the Old Testament Law!
Of course, Paul the apostle warned against this sort of thing in Romans 6:1-2 when he
rhetorically asked, Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? His response: God
forbid! How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer in it?
The first thing Jude the apostle says in his epistle (in the context of contending for the faith
in verse 3) is that ungodly men amongst them were turning the grace of our God into a
license to sin. Evidently these free-grace preachers were twisting the Scriptures by teaching
that "we are no longer under the Law" means "we are no longer under any obligation to
obey the moral law of God once we are saved."
The following are signs of a hypergrace church:
- The preachers never speak against sin.
If you are in a church like this, you will notice that the word sin is usually only mentioned in
the context of forgiveness of sins in Christ but hardly ever in the context of taking a stand
against sin, except of course when they condemn the sin of “legalists” and “Pharisees” who
are the ministers they denigrate for preaching against sin.
- The lead pastor never takes a cultural stand for righteousness.
When issues like abortion come up, these pastors will shy away from mentioning it because
they are afraid of offending new people. I can understand this to a point. But I counter that
we as ministers of Christ are obligated to at least mention our positions publicly so that we
use it as a teaching moment for the sheep following us. Not saying anything about an issue
like abortion is another way of condoning it!
- The Old Testament is almost totally ignored.
In these churches, the Old Testament is treated as only types and shadows for sermon
illustrations but has no real value regarding our standard of living today. As I show in this
article, my position is that the New Testament and Old Testament are organically
connected, with the New building upon the Old, not eradicating it altogether!
- People who live immoral lives are allowed to teach and lead ministries.
One pastor was telling me that sexual immorality and drunkenness is rampant in many
evangelical churches—even amongst small group leaders and other leaders in local
churches! This is because there is very little accountability.
- The lead pastor speaks often against the institutional church.
Many hypergrace pastors constantly denounce churches that are conservative in their
values because they believe those churches represent the "old school" that is no longer
relevant to today’s culture.
Regeneration and Hypergrace, by Jeremiah Johnson &
Wayne de Villiers (Grace to You)
But if you are a believer, you’re not the same as your unregenerate child—in fact, you’re
radically different. And blurring that line can have dangerous eternal repercussions.
Instead of teaching that the gospel offers forgiveness but leaves us hopelessly bound to
sin, we want to emphasize its value and power through the testimony of our transformed
lives. If anything, they need to see a stark and consistent difference between our lives
and theirs.
What Transformation?
Sadly, that difference isn’t a key feature of Hypergrace theology. In fact, what they teach
contradicts what Scripture says about our transformed nature. Here’s another quote
from the 2014 Liberate conference. David Zahl was the speaker for this particular
session, which Tchividjian later identified as his favorite from the conference.
Commenting on an article by Ted Haggard, Zahl said,
[Haggard saw] a link between [the suicides of pastors] and the widespread teaching . . .
that life transformation took place at salvation, and the power to overcome was inherent
in the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He does not see that teaching as simply off-base or
unhelpful, but he sees it as deadly. Now don’t mistake me. I’m not saying that . . . the
Holy Spirit doesn’t come in somebody’s life, that there isn’t the possibility for victory and
change—but the guarantee, the edict, that you must be transformed, is actually not
creating transformation. It’s fueling despair . . . and personalities splitting in believers
who find themselves coping with problems that don’t vanish after their . . . public
commitment of faith. . . . I’m not disputing the hope of transformation, I’m disputing the
guarantee of transformation. [5]
Contrast those shocking and hopeless words with Paul’s words in Titus 2:11-12: “For
the grace of God has appeared . . . instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly
desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age.”
Notice how the Hypergrace movement constantly stresses depravity and forgiveness,
with little or no emphasis on the transforming power of God’s grace. They lose sight of
God’s regenerating work in salvation. It paints the sinner into a helpless corner, and
makes God’s grace a drop cloth.
That’s not a biblically accurate portrayal of the transformation the Lord has wrought in
the lives of His people. Yes, we are dependent on His grace, but not as a daily excuse
for our sinful shortcomings.
We need to understand God’s grace as Paul describes it in Colossians 1:13, “For He
rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His
beloved Son.” In his commentary on that passage, John MacArthur says, “Believers do
not need deliverance from the domain of sin and Satan; they need to act as those who
have been delivered.” [6]
Got Questions? Org
Question: "What is hyper-grace?"
Answer: The term hyper-grace has been used to describe a new wave of teaching that emphasizes the grace of God to the exclusion of other vital teachings such as repentance and confession of sin. Hyper-grace teachers maintain that all sin, past, present, and future, has already been forgiven, so there is no need for a believer to ever confess it. Hyper-grace teaching says that, when God looks at us, He sees only a holy and righteous people. The conclusion of hyper-grace teaching is that we are not bound by Jesus’ teaching, even as we are not under the Law; that believers are not responsible for their sin; and that anyone who disagrees is a pharisaical legalist. In short, hyper-grace teachers “pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality” (Jude 1:4) and flirt with antinomianism.
Jesus’ words to the seven churches in the book of Revelation strongly contradict the idea that Christians never need to repent. To the church at Ephesus, Jesus said, “Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place” (Revelation 2:4). Jesus rebukes five of the seven churches and demands repentance from them (Revelation 2:4, 6, 20; 3:3, 15–19). Far from believers being unaccountable for their sin, they must answer to Jesus for their disobedience (see also 2 Corinthians 5:10).
Preachers of hyper-grace doctrine discount the Old Testament and the Ten Commandments as irrelevant to New Testament believers. They even teach that Jesus’ words spoken before His resurrection are part of the Old Covenant and no longer applicable to born-again believers. But is this true?
In Mark 13:31, Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” Before Jesus ascended into heaven, He promised that the Father would send the Holy Spirit who “will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (John 14:26). If Jesus’ words are no longer applicable to believers, why would we need to be reminded of them?
Hyper-grace teaching is a good example of mixing truth with error. An emphasis on the beauty and power of God’s grace is good, but some teachers are neglecting what Paul called the “whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). For example, it is true that Christians have been forgiven by God. But that doesn’t mean we never have to confess our sin. James 5:16 says, “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” If we are to confess our sins to each other, why would we not need to confess them to God, since every sin is ultimately a sin against God (Psalm 51:4)?
Michael L. Brown, Hyper-Grace Horror Stories
Here are three major concerns (out of many more) that must be addressed:
- Hyper-grace teachers (and their followers) denigrate those who differ with them, calling them legalistic Pharisees, branding them manipulators and tyrants who preach a counterfeit gospel, and sometimes even claiming that leaders who don’t preach hyper-grace are doing so for monetary gain (“sin management is lucrative;” there is an almost endless stream of quotes like this from respected hyper-grace leaders). This is destructive and divisive and needs to stop. (For the record, I use the term “hyper-grace” to be descriptive, not insulting, and some within the movement say, “Yes, we believe in hyper-grace!”)
- In their zeal to exalt God’s grace, hyper-grace teachers often make extreme statements that lead believers to think that they are not responsible for their sins. After all, if we are always perfectly holy in God’s sight, we don’t really sin. Our bodies do! This is dangerous and unbiblical.
- Hyper-grace teachers commonly claim that the words of Jesus no longer apply to us. Instead, they argue, Jesus’ teaching was for the Jews under the Law before the new covenant was inaugurated, whereas Paul brought the message of grace. If this false dichotomy doesn’t raise a red flag of warning, nothing will. Simply stated, any teaching that minimizes (or even ignores) the teachings of Jesus should be rejected.
I appeal to you, my brothers and sisters who are leaders in the hyper-grace camp (or, in your view, who are preaching the message of grace) to take these things to the Lord and make some serious course corrections before more lives are destroyed. Many have been helped by the truths you have taught, but many others have been damaged by your errors, and you cannot rejoice in the good without taking responsibility for the bad.
We don’t need any more horror stories.
Michael L. Brown, Confronting the Error of Hyper-
grace
One of the foundational doctrines of the hyper-grace message is that God does not see the
sins of his children, since we have already been made righteous by the blood of Jesus and
since all of our sins, past, present and future, have already been forgiven.
That means that the Holy Spirit never convicts believers of sin, that believers never need to
confess their sins to God, and that believers never need to repent of their sins, since God
sees them as perfect in his sight.
It is easy to see how such teaching can be dangerous, especially to a believer being
tempted to compromise.
One hyper-grace teacher wrote this: “When God looks at me, He doesn’t see me through
the blood of Christ, He sees me—cleansed! Likewise, He sees us as holy and righteous. He
sees us, and He loves what He sees!”
Really? Always? 24-7? God always loves what he sees when he looks at his people?
Yes, he loves us, but does he always love what he sees?
Did Jesus love what he saw when he rebuked five out of seven congregations in Asia Minor
in Revelation 2-3? Did Paul, writing on behalf of the Lord, love what he saw when he
warned the Galatians that they had fallen from grace and become trapped in legalism? Did
James, also writing as a servant of the Lord, love what he saw when he rebuked his readers
for being “friends of the world” and “adulterers and adulteresses”?
And if the Lord doesn’t see our sins, why did James write that if a believer who was sick had
also sinned, God would forgive him when he healed him (see James 5:14-15)? And if he
doesn’t see our sins, why did the Lord discipline believers in Corinth because of their sins
(see 1 Cor. 11:27-32)? (And pay careful attention to 1 Corinthians 11:32, “When we are
judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the
world.”)
If Jesus doesn’t see our sins, why did he say to the church in Ephesus, “Yet I hold this
against you: You have forsaken your first love” (Rev. 2:4, NIV)? And why did he says this to
the church in Sardis? “I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your
deeds complete in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and
heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not
know at what time I will come to you.” (Rev. 3:1-3)
Does it sound like the Lord was thrilled with what he saw in Ephesus and Sardis?
If the Lord always “sees us as holy and righteous” and always “loves what He sees,” why
did he rebuke the believers in Laodicea, telling them that they were “wretched, pitiful, poor,
blind and naked” (Rev. 3:17)? Why didn’t he say, “I see you as beautifully clothed, healthy,
and rich?"
If he was so happy with what he saw in Laodicea, why did he threaten to spit the
congregation out of his mouth (see Rev. 3:16)? And if believers never need to repent of
their sins, why did Jesus say, “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest,
and repent” (Rev. 3:19)? And how interesting it is that the same Greek word used in John
16:8—where Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will convict the world of its sins—is the word
used by the Lord in Revelation 3:19 (translated there as “rebuke”; and note Rev. 3:22: this
is the Spirit speaking!).
It is because God loves us that he rebukes us (not condemns us) and it is because sin is so
destructive that he calls us to turn from it. This is the goodness of God, and this is what
grace does, as Paul wrote in Titus 2:11-12, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has
appeared to all men. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to
live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.”
How tragic it is today when God’s people mistake the voice of His correcting love for the
condemning voice of Satan, and how sad it is when they resist the purifying work of the
Spirit, claiming that there’s nothing to purify since God no longer sees their sins.
Has He justified us by the blood of Jesus? Absolutely. Has He has set apart as holy to
Himself? Without a doubt. Has He called us to be His sons and daughters, all by His love
and grace? Yes He has. And it is because of these things that Paul wrote, “Since we have
these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body
and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God” (2 Cor. 7:1).
What a beautiful, lofty calling. Don’t let anyone steal it from you.
What is Hyper-grace gospel?
Hyper Grace or False Grace gospel is a new wave teaching that distorts the Biblical teaching of Grace and presents only bits and pieces of scripture laying emphasis on one sided view of grace.
Hyper Grace teachers teach that the past , present and future sins of a person are already forgiven on the cross and there is no need to repent of our sins nor confess our sins. Instead they teach that phrase "Just Believe and be Saved". They pick all their doctrines from the Bible, but the sad thing is they pick it totally out of context and put them all together and make a concocted doctrine.
Anyone who disagrees with them is often labelled as a Legalist, Pharisee or as a man bound by Religion . The sad thing is the hyper grace teachers have formed a religion of their own and they are more careful to use their arguments in a religious manner.
Hyper grace teachers often mock the evangelicals as "Hell fire preachers" and warn their followers not to be sin conscious. They stress on "Jesus Conscious" and the problem of sin is never addressed in their gospel.
When ever the hyper grace teachers come across a verse in the Bible that talks about repenting from sins, they would immediately say that particular verse was not written for believers. The Bible clearly talks about repenting from sin (Rev 2 and 3rd chapters).
Preachers of Hyper Grace gospel also say that the Old Testament commands are obsolete. They fail to realize that the moral commands and principles of the Old Covenant is still applicable for Christians. The only difference between the Old Covenant Moral Principles and the new covenant is that Man had to work to keep the old covenant; but God's grace makes Christians to obey the New Covenant.
But the Hyper grace teachers will say that if you follow the Ten commandments , you are bound by law. They fail to realize that one of the commandments that talk about "Honouring your father and mother" is a new covenant command too. When we dig deep into the word and have a discussion with the hyper grace preachers, they will escape saying that Bible is not the only word of God but Bible contains the word of God. The reason they use this escaping stance is because they can't justify many of their teachings. So they use this escape tactic to say that they have progressive revelation that were not even revealed to the apostles.
Hyper grace teachings sound so true on the surface level. For example, we are indeed saved by grace and not by works. This is the bait they use to lure innocent Christians. Once the christians are lured to this bait, they are given poisonous teachings and extra biblical revelations that contradict the foundation teachings of Christ and the Apostles.
If you do not have a grip of the whole counsel of the scriptures, it is better to avoid discussing with a hyper grace preacher because they just beat around the bush and jump from one topic to another without addressing the core issue of discussion.
What should you do if you find yourself in a Hyper Grace church?
Come out of that cult group and join a church where the whole counsel of scriptures is preached and followed.
- Shielded in God's Grace Prason
Bill Muehlenberg, Culture Watch: “Sin, Sleaze and
Hyper Grace”
15, 2015 Feb
One of the biggest problems in the Christian church in the West today is that of
.
antinomianism The Greek word for law is nomos, and most folks know what the prefix anti , “ ” “ ”.
means so this term basically means against the law or just plain lawlessness
,
The term can have various meanings but theologically speaking it has to do with the belief
, , ’ . that the Christian has no real obligation to or involvement with God s law and righteousness
, , Because we are saved by grace alone we are no longer under the law in any form and we
.
need not worry about the law and its demands
. 6:1-2 : “ Of course Paul had to deal with this error long ago In Romans he wrote What shall
, ? ? !
we say then Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase By no means We are
; ?”
those who have died to sin how can we live in it any longer
, -
But in an age of so much shallow preaching so many selfish and self centered gospels being
, ,
proclaimed and so much dangerous hyper grace teaching being heard it seems we now
.
have an epidemic of antinomianism in our churches today
- ,
Obligation free Christian living is all the rage where believers think that they can do whatever
, , ’ . they like even live like the devil because everything is covered by God s love and grace The
, , , ,
very concepts of sin holiness the wrath of God and judgment to come are almost never
.
heard from so many pulpits today
, ,
It is all about how God loves us unconditionally his grace is all we need and we should just
.
enjoy life and have our best self now That is the mush that is being preached more often
, , - . than not and as a result standards of Christian behaviour seem to be at an all time low
,
Christians are so blasé about their walk with the Lord thinking God just looks down upon
, , , them and smiles a lot that the very basic biblical notions of obedience sanctification
, .
holiness and the crucified life are rapidly disappearing Once again we see here a perfect
.
example of lousy teaching leading to lousy living
, . ,
Orthodoxy is vital as is orthopraxis But when a false gospel is proclaimed we will always see
. , it worked out in sinful and disobedient lifestyles Thus the constant need to guard the gospel
.
and make sure what we are proclaiming in fact is an expression of biblical truth
. 2000 , Of course concern about this is not new In addition to Paul dealing with it years ago
.
this has been the constant concern of men of God throughout church history Let me offer
.
just two voices who had to deal with this They both warned repeatedly about these issues
. , . . :
last century First listen to A W Pink
Healthy Christianity can only be maintained where the balance is properly preserved between a faithful exposition of the holy Law of God and a pressing of its claims upon the
, . conscience and by tenderly preaching the Gospel and applying its balm to stricken hearts
, -
Where the former predominates to the virtual exclusion of the latter self righteous pharisaism
; , is fostered and where the proclamation of the Gospel ousts the requirements of the Law
.
Antinomian licentiousness is engendered During the past hundred years Christendom has
,
probably heard fifty Gospel sermons or addresses to one on the Law and the consequence
: ,
has indeed been disastrous and deplorable a light and backboneless religion with loose and
.
careless walking
. . :
Now the words of A W Tozer
. Antinomianism is the doctrine of grace carried by uncorrected logic to the point of absurdity
.
It takes the teaching of justification by faith and twists it into deformity The creed of the
: “ ; ; Antinomian is easily stated We are saved by faith alone works have no place in salvation
, .
conduct is works and is therefore of no importance What we do cannot matter as long as
. .
we believe rightly The divorce between creed and conduct is absolute and final The question
;
of sin is settled by the Cross conduct is outside the circle of faith and cannot come between
.” , .
the believer and God Such in brief is the teaching of the Antinomian And so fully has it permeated the Fundamental element in modern Christianity that it is accepted by the religious
.
masses as the very truth of God
.
I write all this because on a daily basis I find evidence of this very thing All around me I
.
see people who profess to be believers who are living just like pagans They seem to not
, ,
have the slightest heart for holiness a passion for purity or a desire to be fully devoted to .
God
, Many would have put up their hand at an emotional gospel meeting some time ago said a ‘ ’ , . brief sinners prayer and now think they are home and hosed with nothing to worry about
,
They have their life insurance all ready so now they can go back to living just like they
.
always have
“ ” .
They sing ten choruses of Just As I Am and leave just as they were No real conversion
,
seems to have taken place and they are just as lawless now as they were when they were - .
non Christians An example of all this which I just came upon today still has me shaking in
.
my boots
, . On the one hand it is absolutely unbelievable but on the other hand it is easily believable
,
Given all the hyper grace antinomianism swirling all around us this should not be surprising . , at all I refer to Christians and the new book and film series Fifty Shades of Grey.
I just wrote :
on this here . /2015/02/10/ - - - /
, “ ‘ ’ /
And as I just wrote elsewhere If a Christian tells you he she has no problem
/
reading watching Fifty Shades of Grey, then I am quite willing to say that they are clearly not
.” : disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ But what made me absolutely shudder is this
’
One of our nation s leading Christian publishers conducted a survey asking respondents to
.
name the most influential book they had read in the past year A startling number of women – – “ ” . Christian women said Fifty Shades of Grey was their favorite book of the year Why is ? “ ”
that so noteworthy Because the Fifty Shades of Grey books are a written form of
, . ’ ’
pornography plain and simple It s a book series that s become nothing short of a cultural
, 100 . phenomenon having sold more than million copies in just a few short years
:
Jim Daly of Focus on the Family continues
’
The demand has been so intense a feature film is set to be released on Valentine s Day
.
weekend and talk of it has flooded mainstream entertainment news shows There are reports
- . ,
that sex scenes comprise one fifth of the film Of course it would be easy to simply slap a
- - . ’ ’ . label on the material and dismiss it out of hand But there s a deeper issue we d be missing
, ? How and why has pornography ensnared so many women including Christian women
?
Can you imagine that Women who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ saying this was their
? ,
favourite book of the year Not only should they not be reading such filth but to actually
? ?
label it as their favourite What in the world is wrong with these women
: .
I will tell you what is wrong they are just deceiving themselves They think they are
.
Christians but they are not Anyone who can happily swim in a cesspool of filth and sleaze
.
and claim to be a disciple of Christ is fooling themselves big time
: “ , Now I just happened to have somebody elsewhere throw this line at me Actually many will
. ’
and have and ARE real Christian women It s called temptation and sin and no Christian
. ’ anywhere is exempt from this Saying a Christian is not a real Christian because they ve engaged in something sinful is not what I would think a real Christian would say about
.”
another Christian
:
I replied to him as follows
. .
You miss the point big time Yes we are all tempted and we all can fall Our attitude is
: , , crucial here when we sin do we agree with God and say it is wrong and repent or do we
, ?
keep happily sinning thinking it is no big deal The attitude here makes all the difference in
. .
the world The real Christian always hates sin and avoids it as much as possible The fake
. Christian has no problems at all with indulging in porn like this and even justifying it And spare us this unbiblical foolishness that we can never exhort and encourage one another
. , , in holiness If a brother or sister is living in sin it is our obligation under God to warn them
, . .
speak to them and pray for them We are to love them enough to confront them
. , , But this mindset is all around us Sin is no big deal because God accepts us just as we are
. .
and makes no demands on any of us This is antinomianism pure and simple It is the deadly
. ,
error of the hyper grace movement It is cheap grace and no genuine disciple of Christ
.
should have anything to do with these damnable errors
. . Biblical grace never makes excuses for sin Real grace always leads us to holy living Anything
.
else is a sham Let me finish with a few words about real grace versus false grace from some
:
great Christians
“ .
The grace that does not make a man better than others is a worthless counterfeit Christ
, , . ,
saves His people not IN their sins but FROM their sins Without holiness no man shall see
.” -
the Lord Charles Spurgeon
“ , .” - Grace is the mother and nurse of holiness not the apologist of sin Charles Spurgeon
“ . Any concept of grace that makes us feel more comfortable sinning is not biblical grace ’ , , God s grace never encourages us to live in sin on the contrary it empowers us to say no to
.” -
sin and yes to truth Randy Alcorn
“ .
Grace is not simply leniency when we have sinned Grace is the enabling gift of God not to . , .” - sin Grace is power not just pardon John Piper