To De-Value Grace ...

In our last study, Peter began enumerating the degeneration that occurs, even within a “spiritual leader” when once the concept of “self” is introduced into the process of our salvation.  It begins with pride; perhaps pride in the idea that “we” alone have found some nugget of truth in an interpretation of prophecy or scripture, and therefore all others are by definition … wrong.  Instead of attributing the cost of our salvation to Jesus Christ alone, we begin to assume that our own efforts matter as well.  We begin to think that perhaps through study and dedication, we can fix some portion of ourselves, and simply leave the remainder that is broken to Christ.  Instead of success, we only prolong failure, but in the stubbornness of our pride, we cling to our ideas that “we” too, must have some measure of control in the process of our salvation.  Holding on to the value of self in our religion, we begin to tailor our worship services to be pleasing to us.  We begin to confine the notion of family to those only of blood or marital relations and when once marriage is discarded, those former soul-mates are cast to the winds.  None of these end-states were envisioned when once we started down the slippery slopes of self or pride.  Lucifer could not imagine killing God when he merely pondered the idea of loving himself instead of others, even if only for the briefest of time.  But degeneration is the nature of sin.

The insidious doctrine of Satan must not be wholly in error, or else it would be discovered and eliminated quickly.  So even the teachings of Satan must include some measure of truth.  For Christians, this measure of truth could rely upon the concept of forgiveness.  Forgiveness, is the Christian’s “get out of jail free” card.  There is an unlimited supply of forgiveness.  There are no limits to the sins it will cover, everything from the serial rape and murder of children, to little white lies.  Forgiveness erases it all.  Forgiveness allows us to be “saved” with a clean slate, a complete do-over, a white-out of the sins of our past.  Without it we could never begin a face to face relationship with God.  For whatever reason, God never seems to hold forgiveness back from us, whether we commit sin knowing full well in advance what we were doing, or just stumbling in on it by accident.

So Satan does not attempt to destroy the idea of forgiveness, instead he amplifies it.  He makes forgiveness the “king” of Christian doctrine and philosophy … to the exclusion of any further thoughts on the subject.  By leveraging forgiveness, we can effectively remain in our sins, content with “who” we are.  We can come to believe that “God understands our weaknesses” and therefore invented forgiveness in order to keep loving us.  We begin to tell ourselves, that what we do must actually be God’s fault because He made us this way.  So in reality forgiveness is something He owes us, in order to keep up His end of the justice equation.  Over time, we come to believe that forgiveness is automatic, we don’t need to ask for it every time, because God “knows our hearts” and provided forgiveness in advance for every deed we will ever do.  And at some point, we decide the value of forgiveness is just not that great, so whether God grants it or not, becomes much less important to us.  Apparently God wants us to “enjoy life” and has provided forgiveness as our Christian reset button when life comes to an end.

For those who have embraced the idea that “self” plays a role in our salvation process, it is VERY easy to fall into this thinking on the topic of forgiveness.  For having embraced the notion of “self” in salvation, our failure to find perfection, to avoid the desire for sin, goes away.  We find we want sin as much as we ever did.  No measure of self-discipline or self-control ever eliminates the desire to sin; at best it eliminates the actions of sin.  In our hearts, we remain with longing for the forbidden.  In our hearts, our lust consumes our thoughts, and we enact (if only in our minds) the object of sin over and over again.  This process repeats until at some point, our actions follow our desires, and down into sin we plunge.  Our guilt may drive us back to forgiveness, perhaps because some relative or friend still enlists God’s intervention on our behalf even though we no longer want Him ourselves.  Perhaps He gladly answers their prayers for us, since we keep telling Him “no”.  But forgiveness only wipes our slate clean.  It does not transform what we “want” to do again and again.

This is why Satan ONLY amplifies forgiveness.  He hopes that in our repeated failure and degeneration over time, we will come to a point where we no longer even care about it.  He hopes that the sins of the flesh will so overwhelm us; that the gratification of self will so consume us and warp our desires, that nothing will provide an allure to return to God and his path of self-denial (translate unhappiness).  And Satan is VERY successful at luring “backsliders” out of the church through this path.  He is even MORE successful creating hypocrites that remain in the pews, content to sin, and cast stones at others.  All of us denying the central core tenant of salvation that would free us from this course of perpetuated pain and slow torturous death.  The truth that “we” have NOTHING to do with our salvation, that Jesus Christ alone purchased us with His blood, and through our submission of our will to Him, He re-creates “new” desires in us, eliminating the sins we were once so bound to and enslaved by.  The power of transformation is LOST on those who continue to insert self into salvation.  This was Peter’s greatest fear.  And he wanted to make sure we all knew where it would lead.

So he begins in his second letter to the church in chapter 2 and verse 10 saying … “But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.”  The men to which Peter refers are not just members of a church, or babes in the faith.  They are spiritual leaders, they are false teachers, they do not just commit these sins, they advocate them to others.  They assert their independence and their individuality and despise unity and conformity.  They misuse their unique perspective of Jesus to assert there is no other.  And they despise both correction, and transformation, as they have come to accept themselves for “who” they are.  The repeated failures of self to perfect them, have led them to the idea that perfection is simply not possible.  And since perfection is impossible, it must not be required.  They never for a second believe that perfection might be possible, if they gave up on the idea of having “self” achieve it.

Peter continues in verse 11 … “Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord. [verse 12] But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;”  Peter is astounded at how far a corrupt spiritual leader can fall.  One who should know the truth and the power of transformation instead after relying upon self, offers criticism of things they do not understand at all.  Even fallen angels do not rail as these “brute beasts” of men do.  They march like cattle to the slaughter understanding not the effect of evil upon the soul and warping of the mind.  They lack transformation, and begin to de-value both forgiveness and grace, and in so doing they insure their destruction, running from the only source that would otherwise save them.

Peter continues in verse 13 … “And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you;”  These false religious leaders are not timid, shy, or ashamed.  They are bold, arrogant, and desire to be the center of attention.  They insert themselves in the lives of believers.  They sin in heart and deed, and are “content” to do so.  Yet they feast with the saints, spreading their heresy, and hoping to have others join in their behavior as if in some way validating what they do.  But they remain a cancer on the body of Christ because they will not see past themselves.

Peter continues in verse 14 … “Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:”  Here is one of the saddest warnings in all of scripture.  Having “eyes” full of adultery; literally everything we see inspires in us only the desire to gratify self.  It is not the banner ads of scantily clad women selling perfume or cars on the roadside that inspire lust in us.  It is our own natural inclination that does so.  It is not the preponderance of sex on TV, and in every form of media, that causes us to lust.  Our lust merely feeds on these things.  If they did not exist, we would find other ways to feed.  And in this counsel is laid base the NATURE OF ADDICTION.  Our eyes are so full of adultery, that we … “cannot cease from sin”.  Cannot.  Not “will not”.  We are unable to stop sinning, in mind, heart, or deed.  This is not about sin as some choice we make.  This is about sin being “who” we are.  This is about the core of us being the very thing that needs to be remade by Christ, lest we remain enslaved to this kind of thinking.

Sin is NOT something we free ourselves from.  Sin is NOT something we can cease from committing by simply not allowing ourselves to “actually” commit adultery.  Adultery happens repeatedly in our minds, in our thoughts, in our fantasies, before it happens in our flesh.  We sow the seeds of it long before we reap the harvest.  It is the desire to sin that must be altered, if the deeds that follow are to ever stop occurring.  If the desire remains in us to sin, we will sin.  And most unfortunately, those accursed children who have rejected the transformation that Jesus Christ longs to give us, are not content to keep their sins confined to their minds, hearts, and thoughts; they must find expression with another person.  They work to “beguile” unstable souls.  How many a pastor or counselor has taken advantage of the weakness of a supplicant struggling against the desire to sin, to commit that very sin with them?  How often has a spiritual leader used the lure of God, to attempt to lure another soul into actions neither should take?  These false teachers preach self-indulgence combined with forgiveness, and advocate abandon to selfish desires, instead of to Jesus Christ to be remade.

Peter continues in verse 15 … “Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; [verse 16] But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbad the madness of the prophet.”  These spiritual leaders and false teachers have completely abandoned allowing Christ to remake them.  Instead they would use the supernatural powers of Satan in their ministry.  They crave money, fame, admiration, way more than they ever craved the humility of service found in the true ministry of Christ.  But God is not unaware of their actions and intentions.  He is not willing to abandon His sheep in His flock.  And He does intervene from time to time to supernaturally interfere when Satan attempts to use his own power to destroy the flock of God.

Peter continues beginning in verse 17 … “These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever. [verse 18] For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. [verse 19] While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.”  These are “wells without water”.  They look like a place of refreshing in a dry desert, but they have NOTHING to offer, but further thirst.  These pastors, conference leaders, evangelists, or neighbors in the pew, can all TALK about salvation, but none have experienced it yet.  They speak with great swelling words of vanity, meaning they exalt their positions, their knowledge of scripture, their time with the Lord.  But none know what it means to really be saved, to really be made free from sin, any sin.  Their base desires remain within them, and are a constant focus of self-gratification on any level.  So they preach forgiveness and the liberty that comes with a clean slate, having no idea how to change the underlying desire for sin.  They are servants of corruption, inspiring others to join them in bondage to self, allowing none to escape the notion of “self” inserted in our salvation.

Peter concludes, starting in verse 20 … “For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. [verse 21] For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. [verse 22] But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.”  Again Peter introduces the concept that it IS possible to fall from grace.  Even spiritual leaders who perhaps at one time knew what it was like to be made free from the grip of sin, have instead of furthering their surrender to Christ, taken back a measure of “control”.  They have allowed the idea of “self” back into the process of salvation. 

Perhaps they reasoned that God would free them from the “big” sins, and they would work on the “little” ones.  Perhaps they reasoned that God would only free them from sins once or twice, not every time.  Perhaps they came to believe that it was never really God who freed them, but through their devotion and study, it was actually their own dedication that saw that sin go away.  It does not really matter how they came to deny the power of Jesus Christ in their original transformation, only that they did deny it.  It does not matter why they stopped surrendering their will to Jesus Christ, only that they did stop surrendering, trusting to self, and common sense, and will power, instead of to Christ alone.  Having tasted only briefly of the freedom of salvation, must be devastating when it is fully lost.  The end-state even a worse form of torture for them than never knowing it at all.  For now, they know it is possible, but no longer possible for them.  A dog returning to his vomit, the thing that should most repulse him – a pig returning to their own poo and mud that should most repulse any creature – yet both find “happiness” in this pit of despair.  More accurately, both are bound to seeing this pit of disgust, as a pinnacle to rise to.

This is the level of perversion that will occur in the mind of even a spiritual leader who relies upon self in the process of salvation.  They will not simply die alone in their sins, they will work avidly to have others join them.  They will not simply withdraw from the membership of the body of Christ, they will instead assert leadership in that body, and attempt to destroy from within what should have been preserved.  They will seek the company of saints, if only to corrupt them.  They will preach forgiveness because this is the part of the process they understand.  But they will never preach transformation because this is the part of the process that “self” keeps them from experiencing.  They will preach the need for “good works” but never understand the motives that would drive them.  They will preach adherence to the Law of God, but never understand how to be in harmony with that Law.  The best doctrines of Satan have a measure of truth within them.  The fostering of guilt within the church does nothing to purify it.  The knowledge of committing sin is not the same as a release from it. As long as “self” is allowed to be part of our thinking in salvation, we will continue to deny ourselves the ability of Jesus Christ to actually rid us of the desire to sin.

Those who would choose to believe in the natural “goodness” of mankind must examine the words and warnings of Peter and see where the degeneration of self leads … even in spiritual leaders.  We de-value grace when we assert self.  We de-value grace when we choose to rely upon forgiveness and never let Christ build upon that foundation, the transformation of who we are.  We de-value grace when we become “content” with “who” we are, instead of aspiring to allow Jesus Christ to remake us into “who” He intended we become.  There is so much more for us, than the clean slate we begin life with post forgiveness.  There is a life without the pain of self-serving sin.  There is a life no longer bound by eyes full of adultery.  There is a life where the idea of sinning no longer appeals to us.  There is a freedom and happiness found in loving others like Jesus loves others.  This is the life Peter wants us to find, through the transforming love of Christ.  And it was important to Peter, that we were not deceived into de-valuing the grace of our God.

And Peter had more yet to say …