Away from God's Grace? 5 Danger Signs

The Apostle Paul wrote about half of the books and a third of the verses in the protestant New Testament. Yet, there was a time when he was operating completely outside God's grace. Paul believed in and zealously worked "for" God. But he was striving against the truth, reality, and salvation of God's Son.

Let's avoid this same pitfall. It is very possible for us to fervently serve God, yet operate completely out of His will. We can be powered by the determination of our own agendas. Like Paul, we need a way to stop us along the wrong path and correct our course. Below are five signs that we are in danger of operating outside God's grace:

1. Obsessive Judgment of the Lost

If the focus of our conversation and interaction with others is often to point out the depth of the lost condition of the world, we may be on Paul's Damascus Road. Much of the New Testament tells us that the world we live in will continuously deteriorate morally and spiritually. It also warns us that while "the harvest is plenty" that the "workers are few." Could this scarcity of workers be due, not to inadequate numbers, but energy wasted on the problem (sin) versus the solution (Jesus)?!

2. Tendency to Weigh, Measure Sin

Sometimes we find ourselves absorbed in the focus of judging the world for a particular sin or set(s) of sins. Often the failings we don't struggle with (any longer) are easy fodder. Yet "all have sinned and fall short" and every sin has equal consequence ("let him without sin cast the first stone"). Before we address the sins of others let's stop glossing over our own and repent from them ("before you remove the speck from your neighbor's eye, remove the beam from your own")!

3. Compulsion to Boldly Convict

Focus on the sins of others can erupt into (self-) righteous condemnation of sinners. As believers, our most powerful weapon in winning the lost for Christ is our testimony — not the sanitized, practiced speech that we give explaining how we came to accept Salvation; instead, the witness of our life and the way we live it daily; the things we do and say; the service we offer and how. When this compulsion to boldly convict others becomes our testimony, we repel the very world that we are commissioned to reach, teach, win, and disciple. Jesus "came not to judge the world, but to save it." Let's not get in His way!

4. Yearning, Desire to Return to Times Past

Somehow we convince ourselves that there was time past when things weren't as they are now. A time when the world was not out of hand as it is today. A quick search of human history shows, however, there was no such time. Even in Eden, man was only a sin away from eternal death. Even in the 50 days between Christ's resurrection and His ascension (while heaven was literally on earth) the world was hellbent on denying and destroying Him. Let our only time focus be a looking forward to His return!

5. Corrupt Teaming

Finally, just as the Sanhedrin did in their quest to eliminate Christ and restore order ("back to the good 'ol days"), we often seek partnership from the same world we deride. We find ourselves teamed up with and supporting people and institutions today that pretend to be for God, knowing when and how to skillfully assert His name. But, "be ye not unevenly yoked," does not mean we are to avoid working cooperatively with people that disagree with us; it means we are not to work cooperatively for the cause of or under the guise of working for Christ with people who disagree with Him!

Like Paul, we are blessed that God's mercy sustains us even as we rebelliously operate outside His grace. Let's be careful not to mistake His mercy for His endorsement of our refusal to extend grace to a dying world around us.

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