CHRISTIANITY, GRACE 
AND GRACE INVALIDATED
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 IN THE DECEMBER issue of the Reader’s Digest (2001) there is an article about Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay), former heavyweight boxing champion. The interview was scheduled to take place on September 11, and it did take place, but was on a delayed basis because of the terrible events that were unfolding that morning. The interview covered many things involving the life of Ali, and one of the first dealt with was his religion (as he had years ago converted to Mohammedanism). Mr. Bingham, who was conducting the interview, asked, "What does your faith mean to you?" Ali replied, "[It] means [a] ticket to heaven. One day we’re all going to die, and God’s going to judge us, [our] good and bad deeds. [If the] bad outweighs the good, you go to hell; if the good outweighs the bad, you go to heaven."
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What Christianity is All About
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 What Muhammad Ali believes is his business, responsibility and privilege (as a free moral agent). But, in the light of Christianity, what is wrong with this statement? Christianity teaches that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23); that none can be saved by his own righteousness alone (Titus 3:5; Ephesians 2:8,9). Sin is so bad that one sin made the human race a dying race (Genesis 3; Romans 5:12), "For the wages of sin [singular, one sin] is death…" (Romans 6:23). To think that the good can somehow outweigh the bad is not to understand the nature of sin, just how bad it is in the sight of a perfect, all-holy God. All of our righteousness on one side and just even one sin on the other could not tip the scales in our favor. It is like a balloon being punctured by just one hole. That is all that it takes to destroy the balloon. Christianity teaches that the grace factor must enter the picture to accomplish salvation. Grace is what makes the difference. That is what Christianity is all about.
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What is Grace?
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 What is grace? To better understand grace, let us consider grace and mercy together. Grace and mercy are opposite sides of the same coin. Mercy is where punishment is deserved, but has been withheld. Grace is where favor is not deserved, but it has been granted. Grace is God’s unmerited favor toward man. Punishment has been withheld and merit has been bestowed. That is what the cross of Christ is all about. Christ, the sinless Lamb of God, died in our place. In God’s scheme and plan of things, his blood washes away our sins and his righteousness is imputed to us in forgiveness (Titus 3:5; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Revelation 1:5; Acts 2:38). As Christians we avail ourselves of the privilege that the Hebrews writer enjoined upon his readers: "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16).
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Grace Can Be Invalidated
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 But, according to the apostle Paul, grace can be invalidated. He wrote in Galatians 2:21, "I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain" (KJV). This word translated "frustrate," athetéo, in more recent translations is rendered "set aside," "make void," and "nullify." It means to invalidate. The Galatians were invalidating the grace of God by going back under the Law of Moses for justification. Paul says that to disallow Christ, and claim to be justified by law, is to put us back in the category of a transgressor (Galatians 2:18). We still are unforgiven sinners. Since all have sinned, and no one is perfect, the only thing the law can do is condemn us.
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 Really, grace can be invalidated in two ways: (1) By thinking that we can be good enough to be saved, and (2) By thinking that we can be saved without being good.
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By Thinking That We Can 
Be Good Enough to Be Saved
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 To think that we can be good enough to be saved by ourselves is to negate the whole New Testament system. It is to say that God made a mistake, that the death of Christ upon the cross was unnecessary. The status quo should have remained. But we have noticed the seriousness of sin. To break one law is to be guilty of all, "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all" (James 2:10; also, Galatians 3:10,22). Paul said to the Galatians, who were returning to the law mentality, "Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace" (Galatians 5:4). But we assert, again, with the apostle Paul, "Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses" (Acts 13:38,39). Then the apostle Peter even made a more universal statement when he declared, "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).
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By Thinking That We Can 
Be Saved Without Being Good
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 Some might think that since we can’t be good enough to be saved that we can be saved without being good. But this is not true; it equally invalidates grace. Remember that the angel in the announcement of the coming birth of Christ said, "And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from [not in] their sins" (Matthew 1:21). Paul wrote to Titus, "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world" (Titus 2:10,11). This is even made more emphatic as he wrote to the Romans, "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?" (Romans 6:1,2). We are brought into the grace of God to "grow in grace and the knowledge" of the Lord (2 Peter 3:17,18; 1:1-11). But we are to beware, "Looking diligently lest any man fail [footnote: fall from] of the grace of God…" (Hebrews 12:15). "For if we sin willfully [keep right on sinning] after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin" (Hebrews 10:26) because we "have trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath [have] counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was [we were] sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath [have] done despite unto the Spirit of grace" (12:29). "Turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness" is an awful thing (Jude, verse 4; 2 Peter, chapter 2). And to say that we all sin more or less anyway, being indifferent to the awfulness of sin and not trying to do better, is to be guilty of the same thing. We are not saved by our goodness, but to think that we can be saved without being good invalidates grace.
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Closing and Appendage Thought
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 As closing and appendage thought, let us go back to the September 11 date already mentioned. This day of infamy will long be remembered. On September 23, several days after the terrorists’ attack, the political leaders and leaders of several different religions conducted a prayer service in New York’s Yankee Stadium in behalf of the victims and families. The religious leaders were representative of several different faiths. On a video tape of this gathering, one participant was seen standing and reading the last part of the 8th chapter of Romans, a potentially powerful portion of Scripture. He read, "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God…" and he stopped there! What did he leave out? "which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Was this left out because it would have been offensive to the non-Christian participants? But the love of God is stripped of its meaning if Christ is not in the picture. John 3:16 still reads, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." That alone is the hope (and comfort) of a sinful, lost and dying world. God’s grace is needed.
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