The Hyper-Grace Gospel: A Response to Michael Brown and Those Opposed to the Modern Grace Message (2 page)

What is the one thing that sets
Christianity apart from every other religion in the world? It is not turning
from sin, prayer, confession, or moral living, for all these practices can be
found, in one form or another, in other religions. The one thing that makes the
Christian faith unique is grace.

Grace is God’s
divine favor and loving-kindness toward you. Grace is God blessing you with
Himself for no other reason than it pleases Him to do so. Need proof? Look to
the cross where “Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom. 5:6). Christ did not die
for the good and the great and those on the top of the ladder. He died for the
weak and the lost and the poor and the needy.

Christ gave His
life for those who need life. To those honest enough to say, “Help! I don’t
have it all together,” God responds, “I am your very great Helper.” That’s
grace.

Grace is not a
doctrine but a Person and His name is Jesus. Grace is not one of God’s
blessings but all of them wrapped up together in Christ.

Grace is the Gift
of all gifts from the Giver of all givers.

I’m addicted to
grace like I’m addicted to oxygen. I can honestly say I would rather not live
if I can’t have it and I would probably be dead without it. It is God’s amazing
grace that has brought me safe thus far and His grace will lead me home.

I am in the
business of telling people the good news of God’s grace. I write so that you
may know that God loves you like a Father. No matter what you’ve done or how
bad you’ve been, your heavenly Father holds nothing against you. He longs to
hug you and kiss you and take care of you and be with you forever.

The good news
that brings great joy is that God is not against us but He is for us and with
us and through Christ He is
in us
.

The grace of God
is infinitely better than the dead religions of earth. Religion says you have
to get cleaned up before you can come to God but grace declares, “Come as you
are!” Religion says you need to do this and that but grace insists Jesus has
done it all. Religion says you have to keep the rules and make sacrifices but
grace proclaims Christ has kept all the rules on your behalf and His sacrifice has
no sequel.

Recently, a man told me how he and his
wife lost three babies during pregnancy. Then they lost the ability to have any
children. At that time they were a part of a church that preached
performance-based Christianity. The message they heard was, “Do well and God
will bless you.” It was a false promise. The man and his wife had done well but
they weren’t blessed. Instead, they were condemned, ridiculed, and worn out.

Then the man
heard Jesus speaking grace over him and everything changed. Captivated by the
goodness of their Father, the couple was set free from the unholy demands of religion.
Where previously they had been striving to secure the blessings of God, the man
could now say, “My wife and I are at rest in Jesus.” The supernatural grace of
God healed them and now they have three healthy boys. They have become living
testimonies of the healing power of their Father’s love.

I hear stories
like this all the time. I know people who would’ve died, marriages that would’ve
ended, and families that would’ve been destroyed except the grace of a good God
intervened and brought heaven to earth.

The gospel of grace
declares that God loves you with a love you cannot measure. To quote Philip
Yancey, “Grace means there is nothing I can do to make God love me more, and
nothing I can do to make God love me less.”
[1]

God does not love
you because you are good or decent or because you wear a suit on Sundays. He
loves you because He is your Father. The reason you exist is because God had a
dream and wrapped it up in you. You are your Daddy’s dream come true.

D.L. Moody once
said, “If you ask me why God should love us, I cannot tell. I suppose it is
because He is a true Father.”
[2]

And what a good
Father He is! We rejected Him, but He did not reject us. We ran and hid, but He
came and found us. He does not treat us as our sins deserve (Ps. 103:10).

Contrary to what
you may have heard, God is not frowning at you. He is smiling at you with
infinite delight. This may be news to you but I hope you will agree that it is
good
news. Indeed, it is the “the good, glad, merry news” that seventeenth-century
preachers said “makes a man fairly leap for joy!”
[3]

The apostle Paul
referred to the gospel as the “glad-message of … the happy God” (1 Tim. 1:11,
Rotherham’s Emphasized Bible). The gospel declares that God is happy and
through Christ He has given you everything you need for life and wholeness.

A friend of mine
wrote on my Facebook page: “Knowing how loved I am makes me want to dance for a
million years!” This is a normal reaction to the gospel of grace. When you see
how good your Father is and how much He cares for you, it makes you want to
shout and leap and attempt great things.

Those who are
secure in their Father’s love stride the earth with a supernatural confidence.
They release the fragrance of Jesus wherever they go. They shine in dark
places, bring freedom to captives, and release the oppressed. In the name of
their Father they give grace to the hurting and life to the dead.

And this is why
it saddens me to find some who are opposed to the glad-happy message of God’s
amazing grace.

In the past few months, there has been an
aggressive backlash against the gospel of grace. This backlash has been seen in
the Christian media, the blogosphere, and in the publication of books by
respected Bible teachers. I have come across articles with titles like
“Confronting the error of hyper-grace,” “The deception of hyper-grace,” and the
oddly-titled, “What’s wrong with grace?”

The authors of
these articles typically describe the gospel of grace as a “dangerous
teaching,” a “false message,” and “a hyped-up, watered-down, seeker-friendly
gospel.” Those who preach it are branded “false prophets,” “antichrists,” and
“pied pipers” leading people to hell.

What do these
critics have against the gospel of grace? Their criticisms are numerous. The
grace message is soft on sin. It’s opposed to the law. It’s a prosperity
gospel. It’s unbalanced. It’s extreme. It’s a fad.

Some of these
criticisms reflect abiding misperceptions (“grace promotes licentiousness”).
Others are just wrong (“grace is universalism in disguise”). Some of the
criticisms are slanderous (“grace preachers are closet sinners”), while others
are risible (“this message was responsible for the rise of Adolph Hitler and
the runaway Democratic party”).

Presented with
these sorts of claims, it is tempting to dismiss the opponents of the grace
message as ill informed and reactionary. But not all of them are.

In January 2014,
Dr. Michael L. Brown released a book entitled
Hyper-Grace: Exposing the
Dangers of the Modern Grace Message
. In his book, Dr. Brown seeks to
correct “some serious distortions and errors” that are being preached as part
of what he calls “the modern grace message.” Dr. Brown portrays hyper-grace
preachers as being opposed to repentance and the confession of sins, and he
claims we think the words of Jesus have no relevance for us today. Is this
true? Do hyper-grace preachers actually think this way?

Since I am one of
the hyper-grace preachers identified by Dr. Brown, I thought it might be
helpful to respond to these accusations. As we will see, a number of them are
based on misperceptions or they misrepresent what we are actually saying. Yet
other accusations are spot on. On several occasions reading his book I said to
myself, “Guilty as charged,” and I did so with a grace-addict’s grin.

I said I was one
of the hyper-grace preachers. Who are the others preaching this “distorted and
dangerous” message of grace?

In chapter 1 of
his book, Dr. Brown identifies six hyper-grace preachers: Joseph Prince, Clark
Whitten, Steve McVey, Andrew Farley, Rob Rufus, and me. I am honored to be
included in such a group. In his book Dr. Brown also cites the sermons and
writings of Andrew Wommack, Andre van der Merwe, Benjamin Dunn, Chuck Crisco,
John Crowder, Mick Mooney, Andre Rabe, and Ryan Rufus. In addition, Dr. Brown
further identifies in relatively few places; Rob Bell, Colin Dye, Francois du
Toit, John Sheasby, Sam Storms, Jeff Turner, Tony Ide, Michael Reyes, and Simon
Yap. I am familiar with the work of most of these men and count several of them
as my friends.

One could argue
that Dr. Brown has missed quite a few influential grace preachers. On my blog,
Escape to Reality, I have a book review page where you will find more than 50
grace-based books. Many of these seemed to have been missed by Dr. Brown. Since
my list is not comprehensive and excludes preachers who don’t write books, then
Dr. Brown’s smaller list can be said to be far from exhaustive. But that may
not be a problem if those he cites are representative of the so-called
hyper-grace community and preach the same message of grace. Do they? To a large
degree the answer is yes. Although there are differences of opinion on some
points, there is a general consensus as to what constitutes the gospel of
grace, as we shall see.

I should add that
while Dr. Brown calls it the “modern grace message,” those who preach it
consider it anything but. The gospel of grace is the ancient and eternal gospel
(Rev. 14:6). It is the good news of God’s grace that has been broadcast to
humanity from before Adam took his first breath.

I should also add
that the label “hyper-grace preacher” is one that has been given to us by our
critics. It is not how we see ourselves—although that may change as some are
coming to embrace this term. Most of the time we refer to ourselves as grace
preachers or gospel preachers or simply Christians. When we speak of the grace
of God, we typically use phrases like pure grace and radical grace rather than
hyper-grace. However, in the hope of promoting engagement, in this book I will
embrace the labels Dr. Brown has given us. From here on, I will refer to the
gospel of grace as either the modern grace message or the hyper-grace gospel.

I appreciate there is a temptation for any
preacher or writer to get defensive whenever their message is misrepresented or
misunderstood. However, if we live in reaction to our critics there is a danger
that we will become distracted from our primary task of proclaiming the gospel.
I am sensitive to this issue and it is something I wrestle with.

By the same
token, our critics do us a great service by showing us where we have been
unclear in presenting the gospel. By drawing attention to areas of
misunderstanding and confusion they signal an opportunity to clarify our
message, and for this I am grateful.

When Dr. Brown
and I first began corresponding about a year ago, he told me that he was
working on a book confronting the errors of the hyper-grace gospel. At that
time, and influenced by some of the articles I was reading in the Christian media,
I imagined that his book would be little more than a hatchet job. However, when
it came out I saw that it wasn’t. I was impressed that Dr. Brown had taken the
time to read many of our books and I was pleased with the way he positioned the
debate as “a dispute within the body, a set of strong differences among
fellow-believers,” which it is.

Dr. Brown’s book
is also refreshingly free of some of the more hysterical charges laid against
us. He doesn’t blame us for the rise of the Nazis and the Democrats.

I would have to
say that among the group of people who have seen fit to attack the modern grace
message and the hyper-grace movement generally, Dr. Brown is among the most
congenial and levelheaded. Our emailed exchanges have been amicable and
respectful. When he says on page 5 of his book that he is “truly thrilled” to
see many believers being liberated by the modern grace message, I believe him.
Although I then wonder why he feels the need to challenge that liberating
message.

There is no
question that Dr. Brown and I have some strong differences of opinion when it
comes to the gospel, but we both love Jesus and we both cherish the grace of
God. Neither of us would be having this conversation except that we have both
been profoundly changed by grace and consequently we feel passionately about
the subject. It is not essential for us to agree on everything. The fact is,
God’s grace is far bigger than we can imagine. I’m not sure anyone has a handle
on it. But what is important is that we discuss our different perspectives with
mutual regard and gentle words. Only by doing so do we properly honor the One
who gave us grace in the first place.

If Dr. Brown
speaks for the critics, permit me to speak for the preachers. But please don’t
imagine us as lawyers bickering across a courtroom. Heaven forbid. Instead,
let’s see ourselves sitting at Starbucks and having a chat. Actually, that
won’t work because Dr. Brown doesn’t drink coffee and neither do I.

Okay, forget
Starbucks. We’re out in the fresh air, sitting at a picnic table laden with
wine and bread. Take a seat. Join us. Where should you sit? It makes no
difference at all. Whether you think hyper-grace is a heresy or the best thing
ever, I hope you will agree that the people in the debate are more important than
the debate itself. Jesus didn’t die for an idea, a doctrine, or even the gospel
itself. He died for people.

So please discard
any notions of being in the right group or the wrong group. This isn’t about Us
versus Them, for we are all one in Christ. We’re not the Council of Nicaea
dealing with heresies. We’re brothers and sisters having a conversation about
Jesus and this wonderful thing called grace.

Got it? Good. Now
that’s all clear, let me answer the question above. Why did I write this book?
I didn’t write it to prove my critics wrong or because I am jealous for the
purity of the gospel. Nor do I have the slightest desire to play doctrinal
policeman. I think we all have better things to do than dot our doctrinal
i
’s
and cross our theological
t
’s.

I wrote it
because the love of Christ compels me to tell you that God is good and His face
is shining upon you. You need to know this. You’ll be messed up if you don’t.

In this book I’m
going to do three things. In Part A, I will give you a short introduction to
the hyper-grace gospel. I will tell you what it is and what it isn’t. Then in
Part B, I will look at some of the common misperceptions people have about it.
Finally, in Part C, I will respond to Dr. Brown’s specific accusations against
it. Again, I don’t do this to make him look bad, but to make Jesus look good!

My prayer is that
as you read this book you will hear Jesus speaking grace over you. My hope is
that as you receive His words of love and favor your heart will be filled with
great joy and your life will be radically blessed.