The Hyper-Grace Gospel: A Response to Michael Brown and Those Opposed to the Modern Grace Message (14 page)

This is why I say
Sinai was a bad day for the Israelites. Refusing to believe in the goodness of
God—despite all the evidence of His grace—they asked for the stick and they got
it.

The Israelites
said, “We will do whatever you command us.” Dr. Brown is impressed by their
desire to obey the Lord. “It was a
good
response—the right response”
(page 195). But it wasn’t. It was a presumptuous and arrogant response.

The Israelites
already had a covenant with the Lord, a grace-based covenant. But instead of
trusting in God’s faithfulness, which they had witnessed again and again, they
opted to trust in their own. “We will do whatever you command us” was not a
good response but a catastrophically bad one. As Joseph Prince has said, the
Israelites fell from grace at Mt Sinai. “Man presumed on his ability” and the
result was idolatry and death.
[103]

Page 197: Dr.
Brown writes: “I can’t tell you how deeply it grieves my spirit when I see the
Bible being radically reinterpreted to support a particular doctrine …” This
sentiment is shared by grace-preachers. To see the life-giving words of Jesus
being turned into death-dealing commands or the old covenant law being used to beat
God’s kids is heart-breaking.

Page 200: Dr.
Brown takes issue with grace preachers who don’t follow the example of the
Puritans by preaching the law to sinners. Well neither did Jesus. Although
Jesus preached the law to the religious, there is no evidence He ever preached
law to the tax-collectors, adulterers, or sinners that He regularly ate with.
Usually He gave them radical, hyper-grace and it was His grace that changed
them.

Page 201: Dr.
Brown overreaches when he says the words love and grace are not found in any
sermon preached in the book of Acts. The implication is that we should drop all
mention of love and grace from our sermons and preach more on “self-control and
the coming judgment,” as Paul did to the corrupt governor Felix. To this I have
three responses.

First, Dr.
Brown’s claim is a little misleading for the grace of God drips from the pages
of Acts (e.g., Acts 4:33, 11:23, 14:3, 15:11, etc.). Second, Dr. Brown’s
implicit recommendation is at odds with Paul’s explicit goal of “testifying to
the gospel of God’s grace” (Acts 20:24). Paul spoke of God’s grace everywhere
he went. Whenever people responded to grace he typically urged them to continue
in it and not fall for some mixed-up message of grace plus works (see Acts
13:43 and Galatians). Third, Paul’s message of judgment to the corrupt governor
Felix bore no fruit. All it did was fill Felix with fear (Acts 24:25). It’s
easy to make people afraid by preaching about hell and judgment and you may
even scare some into making a decision for Christ. But fear is a poor basis for
any relationship.

Page 202: Dr.
Brown writes: “It is clear that we must recover a love and appreciation for
God’s Law, along with the New Testament commands for living, if we are to be in
harmony with Him.” How is this not a subtle form of legalism? Any time you sell
the blessings of God, whether it’s righteousness, holiness, or harmony with
Him, for the price of a little command-keeping, you’re promoting works-based
Christianity. It’s a flesh trip.

The gospel of
reconciliation is not, “Keep the rules, steer clear of sin, and you’ll be in
harmony with God.” The gospel is, “God has reconciled the world to Himself
through Christ and is no longer counting your sins against you” (see 2 Cor.
5:19).

Who’s running? In this chapter Dr. Brown
claims that hyper-grace preachers reject the pre-cross teachings of Jesus.
Apparently, we steer people away from the Sermon on the Mount, we say the most
popular verse in the Bible (John 3:16) is not for us, and the parables of Jesus
are law sermons. These are astonishing accusations but, as we saw in Part B,
they are all based on a misperception (see Myth #8). The truth is, hyper-grace
preachers love the words of Jesus. How could we not? Jesus is the Lord of
grace. He is the good news that we preach.

Dr. Brown says
hyper-grace teachers dismiss the teachings of Jesus as old covenant. Although
there is a measure of truth behind this claim, you will not find Joseph Prince,
Andrew Wommack, or any prominent hyper-grace teacher saying, “the words of
Jesus are not for us today” (page 203). If they did, Dr. Brown would surely
quote them in his book.

Page 204: A
question which confuses some people is: When did the new covenant begin? A
hyper-grace preacher will tell you the new covenant began at the cross, not in
Matthew chapter 1. Andrew Farley has said this and Dr. Brown is shocked.
“Really?” But Farley was repeating something Jesus said on the night before He
died.

Jesus:
“This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the
forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28).

Farley:
“The new covenant did not begin at Jesus’ birth but at His death.”
[104]

Oddly, Dr. Brown agrees with Farley ten
pages later when he says Jesus ratified the covenant with His blood when He
died on the cross (page 214). So why does he play the role of the shocked
lawyer at the start of his chapter? Farley’s statement is unambiguous and
wholly based on the words of Jesus. If anyone is being dismissive of Christ’s
words here, it is not the grace preacher.

Page 205: Dr.
Brown indulges in a little sarcasm by saying that modern grace teachers would
have you ignore some of the classic sayings of Jesus. It’s mildly entertaining
but it’s ham-fisted and unhelpful. This discussion adds nothing to Dr. Brown’s
charges against us and only reinforces common misperceptions.

Page 207: Dr.
Brown writes: “Modern grace teachers would have to say John 3:16 is not the
gospel and is not ‘new covenant.’” Since John 3:16 is one of the foundational
scriptures of the hyper-grace gospel this is a baffling thing to say. It’s like
saying Mozart hated music or Shakespeare hated poetry. Dr. Brown seems to think
that grace teachers have taken a hatchet to everything written in the Bible
prior to the cross.

Page 208: Dr.
Brown quotes Ryan Rufus who said, “Unless you really understand grace, don’t go
near the Beatitudes. They will mess you up!” Again, Dr. Brown is shocked.
How
can a respected preacher diss the Beatitudes?
But who’s dissing the
Beatitudes? Not Ryan Rufus. Look at his words again: “Unless you really
understand grace, don’t go near the Beatitudes.” Why is this bad advice? The
Beatitudes are the words of Jesus and they point to Jesus. If you read these
words and see something other than Jesus, you will have missed their
significance.

Consider the
fourth Beatitude:

Blessed are those
who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. (Matthew 5:6)

If you don’t understand grace, you may
interpret Jesus’ words as a call to get hungry and thirsty. But if you do
understand grace, you will realize that Jesus is giving us a promise about
Himself. He is the Righteousness you and I both need. He is the meal that truly
satisfies.

I have written
about this Beatitude elsewhere:

The
word for “filled” means gorged, indicating that the Chef of Heaven serves
hearty dishes. He is not stingy with grace. When you partake of His
righteousness you are filled to the point of satisfaction. When you eat the
Bread of Life you get a meal that sustains and nourishes you for eternity. You
will never hunger again.
[105]

Miss grace and you will miss the Beauty
behind the Beatitudes. Jesus is not saying “hunger is a virtue” or “being in a
constant state of thirst is a good thing.” He is saying those who are honest
and open about their needs and the needs of this world will be satisfied
because God promises to meet all our needs in Christ Jesus. He’s saying, only
those who are hungry and thirsty can receive the blessings of His grace.

I like what Brian
Zahnd says about the Beatitudes:

The Beatitudes are
not advice or instructions or qualifications. They are nothing like that.
They’re not dictates or laws; the Beatitudes are
announcements
.
[106]

In the same way that the gospel is an
announcement, the Beatitudes are announcements. They are declarations of the
Kingdom come. They are snapshots of the abundant life that is ours in Christ.

Page 211: Dr.
Brown quotes Jesus’ words about coming to Him for rest—“Come to me, all you who
are weary and burdened …” (Matt. 11:28–30)—and wonders, “Is a hyper-grace
teacher going to tell me that these are ‘old covenant’ words that applied only
to Yeshua’s Jewish hearers?” Well, since I am a hyper-grace teacher, permit me
to answer that question. “No, Michael, of course not.” These words of Jesus are
for all of us. They are particularly for those who are weary and burdened and
looking for effortless spirituality, as you claim to be doing.

Page 212: Dr.
Brown writes, “Don’t believe those who tell you that Jesus preached the Law and
Paul preached the gospel. Not so!” This leads into his point that Jesus and
Paul both preached the gospel, which is true. But why is it untrue to say that
Jesus also preached the law? Bizarrely, Dr. Brown says as much two pages later:
“Did Jesus minister as a Law-abiding Jew to His fellow Jews? Of course He did”
(page 214).

So what’s the
problem? The problem is Dr. Brown has been attacking a misperception for so
long that he’s actually come full circle and ended up agreeing with us.

Like many critics
of the modern grace message, Dr. Brown is confused about what he is opposing.
He says Jesus preached the law; we say Jesus preached the law. He says Jesus
also preached the gospel; we say Jesus also preached the gospel. He says the
new covenant was ratified on the cross; we say the new covenant was ratified on
the cross. The only point of difference in this chapter is the imaginary one,
the misperception that hyper-grace preachers are running from the words of
Jesus.

Page 213: Dr.
Brown writes that Jesus and Paul preached the same gospel of the kingdom. “When
Paul preached the gospel of grace he was proclaiming the kingdom, and when
Jesus preached the kingdom, He was proclaiming the gospel of grace.” I find it
hard to disagree with this since it’s almost word-for-word identical to
something I wrote several years ago:

The
gospel of
the kingdom
is the
gospel of Christ
which is the
gospel of God
which is the
gospel of grace
. They are different labels for the exact
same gospel message.
[107]

Page 213: Dr. Brown writes, “How can
hyper-grace teachers tell us that Jesus’ faithful earthly followers received
law upon law and harsh teaching upon harsh teaching?” We don’t. We believe
Jesus preached the law
and
He revealed grace. He gave law to those who
were confident of their own righteousness and He gave grace to the poor and
needy.

Page 214: Dr.
Brown wonders how anyone could suggest that the parable of the prodigal son was
a law story rather than a grace story. I don’t know anyone who is suggesting
this. Nor does Dr. Brown, for he names no names.

Instead of
dismissing the parable of the prodigal son as law, most hyper-grace preachers
hold it up as a brilliant illustration of the Father’s radical grace. This
parable features in many of our books: Watchman Nee wrote about it in chapter 7
of
The Normal Christian Life
; Steve McVey wrote about it in chapter 9 of
Grace Walk
;
Joseph Prince wrote about it in chapter 12 of
Destined
to Reign
; Tullian Tchividjian wrote about it in chapter 2 of
One Way
Love
; I wrote about it in chapter 7 of
The Gospel in Twenty Questions
;
Malcolm Smith wrote about it in many places in
The Lost Secret of the
New Covenant
; and John Sheasby wrote an entire book about it called
The
Birthright.

Page 217: Dr.
Brown writes, “Why do so many in the hyper-grace camp want to reject the words
of Jesus?” Again, this is tilting at windmills. Who is rejecting the words of
Jesus? If there are “so many” of us saying we should reject the words of Jesus,
how is it that Dr. Brown can’t find one of us who actually says this?

Dr. Brown has
read our books. He knows that every prominent hyper-grace teacher quotes the
words of Jesus extensively. How could we not? The gospel we preach is a
revelation of Jesus Himself. To say that grace preachers reject the words of
the one called Grace is like saying legalists reject the law. It’s bizarre.

Page 219: Dr.
Brown finishes his chapter with Jesus’ warning about being “ashamed of me and
of my words” (Luke 9:26). Given his allegations that hyper-grace teachers
reject the words of Jesus, this is no doubt meant as a warning for us. The
implication is that Jesus will be ashamed of us when He returns. If so, then I
guess we are fortunate indeed that Dr. Brown is not ashamed to call us his
brothers!