FALLEN FROM GRACE

                   FALLEN FROM GRACE

There is a word I grew up to hear in church and thought it was only used in my church until I visited other churches. I discovered most churches in the world, particularly in Africa are fond of this word or phrase. I could hardly stay in a church for one month without hearing the pastor use the word. Not only pastors but members alike are fond of this phrase. I thought they had an understanding of what they were saying. I thought they knew the real meaning of the word. I was tempted to believe that the bible will be full of verses talking about that word.

Now what is this word about which I am writing? It is the word “BACKSLIDE” or “BACKSLIDING”. This word is been replaced most times with another phrase “FALL FROM FAITH OR FALL FROM GRACE”

The church often use these words to mean that a Christian has fallen into sin or is struggling with a particular weakness. They think that to fall into sin when tempted is the same thing as to fall from grace or fall from faith. They think that to be overwhelmed by a certain weakness as a Christian, is synonymous with backsliding. They do not know the difference between the two.

TO FALL FROM GRACE

Before delving into details, I deem it important at this point to define what it means to fall from grace and I would love to allow the bible speak for itself.

² Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.

³ For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.

⁴ Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.

⁵ For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. {Galatians 5:2-5 KJV}

Did you notice in verse 4 that to fall from grace means to try to be justified by the laws of Moses? It means that the moment you begin to think that strict adherence to Jewish laws can make you righteous and acceptable before God, that same moment you fall from grace. Therefore to fall from grace means to try to be saved by obeying Jewish laws and Ten Commandments. When you try to obey one Jewish law then you must obey all of them. You become a debtor to obey all other laws. At this very point, you become cut off from Christ, alienated from Christ and Christ can no longer save you. Why can’t Christ save you? He can’t save you because you are depending on the law to save you. You simply have turned away from the grace of God which saves and have turned to the law which cannot save anyone. This is what it means to fall from grace.

To fall from grace doesn’t mean to fall into sin. Falling into sin cannot make a believer in Christ fall from grace. It doesn’t matter how many times you fall into the same sin over and again, you cannot fall from grace so long as you keep believing in Jesus Christ as your saviour from sin. Why can’t your sins make you fall from grace? Your sins can’t make you fall from grace because, whenever your sins increase, grace increase even much more for you. Your sins cannot overpower God’s grace for your life. His grace is stronger and greater than your sins. Therefore I submit that to fall into sin cannot make a man fall out of grace.

^20-21 All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life—a life that goes on and on and on, world without end. {Romans 5:20-21 MSG}

The church may need to be careful when using the phrase “fall from grace”. If the bible defines fall from grace to mean trying to be righteous by keeping Jewish rules, then we could say that all the self- righteous Christians and the pastors preaching Jewish laws as the criteria for righteousness, have all fallen from grace. I submit here that it is not the Christian fighting with the sin of anger, lies, envy, fornication etc. that has fallen from grace but the pastors and all self- righteous Christian. It is the bishop, pope, prophet, prayer warrior and the likes who are thinking that they are righteous because they obeyed a few Jewish laws that have fallen from grace. To fall from grace is to become self-righteous. It’s a pity that a greater percentage of church people have fallen from grace without even knowing it.

TURN AWAY FROM GOD’S GRACE

⁶ I am amazed that you are turning away so soon from God who, in his love and mercy, invited you to share the eternal life he gives through Christ; you are already following a different “way to heaven,” which really doesn’t go to heaven at all. ⁷ For there is no other way than the one we showed you; you are being fooled by those who twist and change the truth concerning Christ.   

⁸ Let God’s curses fall on anyone, including myself, who preaches any other way to be saved than the one we told you about; yes, if an angel comes from heaven and preaches any other message, let him be forever cursed. ⁹ I will say it again: if anyone preaches any other gospel than the one you welcomed, let God’s curse fall upon him. {Galatians 1:6-9 TLB}

The majority of church people who were once saved by graced have turned away from that grace and hoping to be saved by their works. They have turned from the love and mercy of God to another gospel, a wrong gospel; a gospel of Moses and the Jewish laws. They have abandoned the gospel of Jesus Christ which saved them by grace. They have lost the eternal life that only God’s grace through faith can give. They simply walked away from God.

This great turning away of many is due to the erroneous gospel of works that church pastors have preached for so long. Our churches have deceived us with a fake gospel and we’ve all been so deceived for so long that we can’t even detect that we’ve been fed with lies. We have come to accept falsehood as truth. We’ve turned the gospel upside down taking the real to be the unreal and vice versa. Our pastors are to be held responsible for this great deception and turning away.

¹⁰ For there are many who refuse to obey; this is especially true among those who say that all Christians must obey the Jewish laws. But this is foolish talk; it blinds people to the truth, ¹¹ and it must be stopped. Already whole families have been turned away from the grace of God. Such teachers are only after your money. ¹² One of their own men, a prophet from Crete, has said about them, “These men of Crete are all liars; they are like lazy animals, living only to satisfy their stomachs.”¹³ And this is true. So speak to the Christians there as sternly as necessary to make them strong in the faith ¹⁴ and to stop them from listening to Jewish folk tales and the demands of men who have turned their backs on the truth. {Titus 1:10-14 TLB}

BACKSLIDING

Did you notice from the last verse above that that some men have turned their backs on the truth? These men are the teachers, preachers and pastors that preach that Jewish laws can grant righteousness and salvation to Christians. Therefore to backslide means to turn your back on the truth. It means to turn your back on grace. It means to abandon your faith in Christ and to turn back to the Jewish law system.

 ³⁷ His coming will not be delayed much longer. ³⁸ And those whose faith has made them good in God’s sight must live by faith, trusting him in everything. Otherwise, if they shrink back, God will have no pleasure in them. {Hebrews 10:37-38 TLB}

To backslide means to shrink back from faith. It means to focus on the law as criteria for righteousness. It is faith that make the just righteous. It is faith that justifies. Therefore anyone who looks for justification from the Jewish laws has shrink back from faith and backslidden. This means that to backslide doesn’t mean to fall into sin. To backslide means to depend on rules and regulations for salvation. It means to return to the slavery of the law, to be entangled again by the yoke of the law.

So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law. {Galatians 5:1 NLT}

If believers sin, God is still pleased with them if they have faith in Jesus Christ to save them. This is because without faith it is impossible to please God and with faith in Christ God is pleased. However, God says he shall have no pleasure on anyone who backslides, who turn from faith to start depending on Jewish laws. God cannot be pleased by obeying Jewish laws. It’s sad to find out that many have backslidden though they are still preaching and praying in church. They have walked away from God and rejected the saviour.

²⁶ If anyone sins deliberately by rejecting the Savior after knowing the truth of forgiveness, this sin is not covered by Christ’s death; there is no way to get rid of it. ²⁷ There will be nothing to look forward to but the terrible punishment of God’s awful anger, which will consume all his enemies. {Hebrews 10:26-27 TLB}

The only sin that cannot be forgiven is the deliberate sin or the wilful sin. What is this wilful sin? The wilful sin is the sin of backsliding. It is rejecting forgiveness, rejecting grace, it is walking away from the cross of Christ to go embrace Jewish laws. The deliberate sin is losing faith in the power of the cross to save us. It means to think that the death of Christ did not completely pay for our sins and that we need to obey Jewish laws to be saved. Such a sin cannot be forgiven. All other sins can be forgiven except the sin of backsliding, the sin of falling from grace and turning away from God’s love and mercy.

I hope by now we understand that to fall into sin is not the same thing as to fall from grace and that when we fall into sin, we can receive forgiveness as long as we have faith in the cross of Christ and the grace of God. But to fall from grace is to backslide, turn back to the law, turn away from grace and mercy and there is no forgiveness for such a sin.