A Veil of Deceit or Covering of Grace
© 2006-2008, by Martha K. Miller
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(References are not in numerical order within the article.)
If you are a Berean and you dare question the teachings coming forth (even from your friends), you will be persecuted, even by those who claim to love you. I have been accused of many things in these last few years. I've been called warped, brainwashed, crazy, self-absorbed, judgmental, a Pharisee, and accused of not having faith in God (if I didn't have faith, I wouldn't be contending for it), and also worried about what man thinks of me. I believe we are to be without reproach, so God can receive the glory; that's the only reason I concern myself with "outward appearances" (1 Corinthians 11:31). The Scripture says we are to abstain from the "appearance" of evil (1 Thessalonians 5:22), so I'm just obeying what God has told me to do, not fearing man's opinions. I'm not going to address the other accusations, because God knows the thoughts and intents of my heart. I don't have to answer to my accusers, only to God. If I am any of those things, the Lord will show me in HIS time, when He is ready to deal with those things. I will never attain perfection, but I still have to earnestly contend for the faith, as the word commands.
Liberty or License?
Grace basically is the underserved favor of God and divine assistance for daily living.1 Liberty is freedom from servitude to sin and the law. However, many who claim "liberty" are denying the Lord by their ungodly lives. I'm sure you've seen these people who always deal deceitfully yet claim to be Christians. You don't believe a word they say about Jesus; because you see the lie they are living in front of you. By the very nature of the Scriptures and the whole counsel of God, I don't believe the liberty we have is meant to permit sinful self-indulgence. Jesus said that if you love Me, you'll keep my commandments. (John 14:15) The Scriptures say, "Pursue peace and holiness, without which no man shall see God" (Hebrews 12:14). God calls us to holiness (1 Thessalonians 4:7-8). Paul states in Galatians 5:19-21 that those who live according to the flesh and obey its lusts will NOT enter into the kingdom of heaven. Sin is deceitful by nature; not only is it a crime against the Lord, but also it blinds those who do it (Romans 7:11). Those who are unrepentant try to justify their sins with their own reasoning and by their own understanding, which is typically "a veil of deceit" woven with "threads of excuses". The cloak of liberty is a very thin transparent veil with weak threads. People can see through it in nearly all cases when you are using it to hide sin. It cannot, nor will it ever, protect you from any attacks, and it will not justify nor atone for your sins. It was never intended to be a replacement for grace, nor a justification for licentiousness. Jude verse 4 states, "For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ." They use the grace of God as their "license" to commit sin.
"Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage." ~ Galatians 5:1
Unfortunately, many "Christians" use the above verse in as an excuse to live a life of sinful, fleshly indulgence. They defiantly declare (by their actions) "Let us break Their bonds in pieces and cast away Their cords from us!" (Psalm 2:3 - "Their" is referring to the Triune Godhead). But picking and choosing certain verses to justify our sins is hypocrisy. And believe me, the whole world will see your hypocrisy if you choose to live liberally rather than righteously. The Bible says, "he who knows to do good and does it not, commits sin" (James 4:17). Those who claim Galatians 5:1 to excuse their sins, must either ignore, or conveniently forget, what Paul states later in verse 13, "For you brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another." Unfortunately, the church has become self-pampering and self-indulgent. It's about pleasing ourselves rather than God. Our liberties, our schedules, our time, our families, our wants, and etc. are more important than reaching lost souls, or ministering to those in the body of Christ. Like Ephesus, the church today has left its first love (Revelation 2:4). We love our pleasures [and our selves] more than we love God [or His people]. (2 Timothy 3:4). But in Galatians 5:24, he states that, "…those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires". True liberty is freedom from sin, not freedom to sin. Jesus' purpose was to set us free from our sins. (Matthew 1:21) Paul writes in Romans 6:18, "And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness." (NKJV) Liberty is freedom to be servants of God not slaves to worldly vices (1 Peter 2:16). Jesus said that he who commits sin is a slave to sin (John 8:34). When we sin, we are despising God's grace (Hebrews 10:29).2 We are not to take advantage of the grace of God, and that is what we are doing by willfully continuing in a sinful lifestyle.
Anyone declaring that they can live a lifestyle of sin, such as homosexuality, when the Bible expressly says the opposite, are deceiving themselves. "There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness" (Proverbs 30:12 KJV). Sin deceives you into believing that you are a "special case," or God will understand and make an exception just for you. He'll understand that you have an "addiction" problem rather than what the Bible calls it -- sin (i.e. high treason against God). All sin is addictive; we're all born bound to sin; we are all born with a selfish, sinful nature, so sin is built into our very being. What makes sin so "addictive?" It stimulates our pleasure center, and the lust for power, and glory (lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life). We also want to be a god, and we want to be the ones who are adored and pampered, and in total control of our lives. It depends upon the individual as to what sin easily besets them or they take the most pleasure in. But you cannot practice a lifestyle of homosexuality and still be a born-again Christian any more than you can be a Christian prostitute. It's an oxymoron. If you are a true Christian and love Jesus, you'll obey the Bible and conform your beliefs to God's word rather than going by your own feelings and desires. Your emotions, intuition, or feelings are not the indicators for God's will in your life, God's word is. All of our fleshly indicators are easily manipulated and deceived by false experiences, false beliefs, and false teachings.
"The Scriptures in no way support the notion that homosexuality is a morally acceptable alternative life-style. Rather, the Bible labels homosexual acts sin, even as it identifies heterosexual acts outside of marriage as sin."3 [emphasis added]
Unregenerate homosexuals don't seem to understand the true power of Godliness. Paul reminds the Corinthians in verse 11, "And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified [set apart], but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God." He is saying that because they were washed, sanctified, and justified, they were free to not practice those sinful lifestyles any longer. The power of God can and will deliver them from it. Further down, Paul continues to say, "Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body …Flee sexual immorality [including homosexuality]. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality [including homosexuality] sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's (1 Corinthians 6:13b, 18-20). Paul warned the Thessalonians that sexual immorality was also taking advantage of and defrauding your brother (1 Thessalonians 4:3-6).
By embracing and accepting your sin, you are erasing the power of the Cross and making the sacrifice of Jesus of no effect. Jesus Christ, and the power of the Cross, will bring a life transformation to your heart, mind, and soul. He doesn't save people to keep them in bondage to sin. Those willfully practicing a known sinful lifestyle either don't want to give it up (Jeremiah 17:9), or love the pleasure it brings more than they love God (2 Timothy 3:4), or they are completely deceived by their sin (given over to a reprobate [debased] mind) (Romans 1:28; 7:11). Using the Scriptures in Romans 7, where he says, "For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I… Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me (KJV)", to justify yourself, is no excuse. That's just as bad as saying, "The devil made me do it." He was not advocating the right to sin and live as we please. He was speaking of the warring between the flesh and the Spirit in everyday life where sometimes the flesh wins. He was not talking about continuous sinful practices, but times where we do sinful things out of moments of weakness or ignorance or that were unintentional. The reason I say that is because in the previous chapters of Romans he stated, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? … Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin." (Romans 6:1-3, 6-7 KJV). We are to reject, spurn, and despise our sins, fighting against their influence, crucifying them, and dying to them daily. Even our sinful thoughts must be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).
Jesus said that the path to life is narrow and difficult [which means confined] (Matthew 7:14). The Apostles taught that maturity comes through trials and tribulation (Romans 5:3-4; James 1:2-3). With these Scriptures in mind it seems obvious that as a believer matures in the Lord, his path will become more narrow, more confined, and more trying. In today's Western world the "retirement mentality" sees our mature years as easy, and spread out wide before us. The church has adopted that philosophy by believing that the more mature we become in Christ, the more liberty we have for fleshly indulgences. It has been my observation that as we walk down the narrow path, if it's becoming easier and wider, then, we are going the wrong way or are on the wrong path all together.
Liberty or Law?
So which is it? Do we have the liberty to do whatever we want, or do we have to obey the Law? First of all, the Law of Moses was given to show us what sin is. It was the indictment of God toward mankind.2 So since the Law defined sin, and we are to be free from the servitude of sin, we must still obey the "moral laws" of God to crucify sin in our lives. Not as a method to get saved, because then the Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons would be saved, but to work out your own salvation (Philippians 2:12). Now the once saved always saved advocates will not like this, but you can forfeit your salvation by choosing to walk continuously in the flesh. Colossians 1:23 clearly states, "if indeed you continue in the faith grounded and settled, and not being moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard proclaimed in all the creation under Heaven,…." 16
A former preacher named Templeton wrote a book called Farewell to God because he believed the false beliefs of evolution over the truth of God's word. Some would argue that he was never saved. Well an unsaved person could not lead thousands to the Lord like Templeton did in his crusades. This shows that if you doubt any part of God's word (including His law), you open yourself up to deception to the point of "discarding your salvation". Some argue that Jesus' hand is able to keep you and He promised us everlasting life if we believe on Him. Wouldn't I be calling Jesus a liar if He didn't? No, because He will never force you to stay with Him nor push a life on you that you have demonstrated through taking sinful liberties that you don't really want. It's like those who didn't count the cost before building; they didn't have enough to finish. They received the word, but were too selfish to finish the race. I'd like to add that we do have a choice in whether or not we serve the Lord. Joshua 24:15 clearly states that we have a free choice in whether we will serve the Lord or not. Israel was God's chosen people, but they were serving other gods, but Joshua made the decision that he and his household were going to serve the Lord. If the Lord didn't allow us a choice and we were His mindless drones, then that would not be love, it would be tyranny.
Pastor Bill Randles says that today's seeker friendly churches have "the new all - grace - no - law salvation of the harlot church!…Her message is all 'love'. There are no calls to repentance or obedience to the Lord. There are no moral demands made in the name of the Holy God."4 The Scriptures define "holiness" as being set apart, or separate. Holiness is a general term used to indicate sanctity or separation from all that is sinful, impure, or morally imperfect. 5 God is holy and he commands His children to be holy (1 Peter 1:16). If you don't want to live holy now, why would you want to live holy in heaven? You may think that once you are in heaven that you'll know everything, and want to live holy then. Oh really? Then
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