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A widely-held Christian view of salvation, known as Free Grace theology or Hyper-grace theology, states that eternal life is received by a person the moment he or she declares belief in Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior. Free grace / hyper-grace negates the need to follow Messiah (Christ) and obey His commandments. This article will define grace, discuss the dangers of Free Grace / Hyper-grace theology, and examine what God’s grace means for us today.

JAMES 2:19-20 (NKJV):
You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?

To merely believe in Yeshua Messiah (Jesus Christ) as Lord and Savior is insufficient for salvation. Faith (in Him) without works (of the law – obeying His commandments and doing good works) is dead faith.

2 PETER 2:4 (NKJV):
God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment.

The angels who sinned and became demons believed in Him; they are not saved and are awaiting judgment.

grace:
1. (In Christian belief) the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings.

2. A period officially allowed for payment of a sum due or for compliance with a law or condition, especially an extended period granted as a special favor.

Free grace and hyper-grace adherents focus on definition number one and ignore definition number two in the aforementioned definition of ‘grace.’

JOHN 1:17 (NKJV):
For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Yeshua Messiah (Jesus Christ).

Many free and hyper-grace adherents believe that Moses gave us the law and Yeshua (Jesus) abolished it through grace, by an incorrect twisted application and understanding of John 1:17, which should be understood as follows:

JOHN 1:17 (NKJV):
For the law was given [BY GOD] through Moses, but grace [MERCY] and truth [CONCERNING A GREATER UNDERSTANDING OF THE LAW] came through Yeshua Messiah (Jesus Christ).

Grace from God existed before Yeshua (Jesus) was born into the world. Noah found grace in the eyes of YHWH (the Lord), because he was living righteously, obeying the commands of God.

GENESIS 6:8 (NKJV):
Noah found grace in the eyes of YHWH (the Lord).

Yeshua (Jesus) paid the atonement ransom payment for all sinners by suffering and dying on the cross in place of us (Hosea 13:14; Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45; 1 Timothy 2:6). After He was resurrected, He commanded His disciples to teach others all [COMMANDMENTS] that He had taught them and to make [OBEDIENT] disciples of people of all the nations (Matthew 28:19-20).

ROMANS 6:14 (NKJV):
For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

Yeshua (Jesus) commanded, through the Apostle Paul, that His believers were not to live under the penalties for breaking the law, but live under grace. What many mainstream believers do not understand, nor seem to want to understand, is that the period of grace that we are currently living under will expire. The Master will return. How will He find you living when He comes?

MATTHEW 24:44-51 (NKJV):
“Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites.”

Grace is unmerited favor from God and our salvation was attained through unmerited grace. Grace is also a limited period in which to turn from sin in repentance and learn to live righteously by following God’s commands.

ROMANS 6:1-2 (NKJV):
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

2 THESSALONIANS 2:16 (NKJV):
Now may our Lord Yeshua Messiah (Jesus Christ) Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace.

HEBREWS 10:26-29 (NKJV):
For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?

JUDE 1:4 (NKJV):
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 lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Yeshua Messiah (Jesus Christ).

Grace does not abolish God’s commandments, nor does grace give anyone a license to sin freely continually. Grace is a period to overcome sin, not to live in it perpetually. God has given us everlasting consolation, not everlasting grace. Grace periods expire. People who rely solely on God’s grace, who are sinning willfully, who are refusing to repent, are insulting the grace period afforded them in this age and are in danger of losing their salvation.