Evangelicals are renowned for using crazy-sounding adjectives to highlight the outlandish nature of God’s grace. This is often appropriate when speaking of God's love, but an overuse of such language potentially opens Christians up to progressive infiltration of the Gospel. Under the auspices of God’s grace being so “outrageous” that it overcomes all prior categories, some professing “evangelicals” are now saying repentance is simply “optional” and that some sin is not actually sin, after all. Might this actually devalue the outrageousness of grace by undermining the power of the Incarnation and the Cross? Whilst relishing God’s wonderful grace remains key, how do we stop this emphasis from condoning sin on our terms?

RESOURCES:

- https://www.terryvirgo.org/series/gods-lavish-grace/

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (1937)

- John Stott, The Cross of Christ (1986)

- https://www.premierchristianity.com/opinion/why-sex-outside-marriage-is-not-a-salvation-issue/16880.article

- https://www.premierchristianity.com/apologetics/from-islam-to-atheism-to-christianity-the-unlikely-conversion-of-ayaan-hirsi-ali/16741.article

CLOSING MUSIC

- "Little Town of Bethlehem" by Kate Rusby, from her album "While Mortals Sleep"