What is hyper-grace?

from the old testament

• God forgave Israel when they turned from sin (Exodus 34:6–7; 2 Chronicles 7:14), showing that His mercy is real but tied to a call to live rightly.
• God promised Israel blessings for faithfulness and judgment for disobedience (Deuteronomy 28), indicating that grace does not eliminate responsibility.
• Even as He forgave sins, God called His people to be set apart (Leviticus 11:44–45; 19:2). Grace and mercy do not remove the expectation of obedience.
• God repeatedly shows that He chooses, saves, and protects, yet He expects His people to trust Him and follow His commands (Genesis 15:6; Joshua 24:15).

from the new testament

• Romans 6 explains that when we are saved we are no longer slaves to sin but slaves to righteousness. Why would we, being freed from sin, want to continue on in sin? God's grace is meant to free us, not to enable us to indulge in sin. Sin brings only death (Romans 6:23; James 1:13–18). Living God's way brings about life (John 15:1–11).
• When Jesus spoke with John about the seven churches in the book of Revelation, He called five of the seven churches to repentance (Revelation 2:5, 14–16, 20; 3:3, 15–16). He said to the church in Ephesus, "Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent" (Revelation 2:5). God’s grace does not permit us to continue in sin.
• Second Corinthians 5:10 says, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil." The way we live our lives matters to God.
• While believers are saved by grace through faith and forgiven of all their sin—past, present, or future—God still calls us to be holy, for He says, “Be holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:15–16). This means that even though our salvation is secure in Christ, we are called to lead lives that reflect God’s character and righteousness.
• Followers of Jesus are called to confess their sins (James 5:16; 1 John 1:9). Paul counseled the Galatians, "Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted" (Galatians 6:1). God's standards do not disappear simply because we are forgiven of the eternal consequences of sin.
• Adherents of hyper-grace say the Holy Spirit does not convict Christians of sin, but the Bible teaches the opposite. Paul tells the Galatians, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). Paul also describes believers as those “who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:4).
• Confessing sin is not about earning salvation; it’s about eliminating from our lives what separates us from our holy God (Colossians 1:21). First John 3:6 says, “No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.”
• God's ways are not intended to restrict, nor are believers trying to earn God's love or forgiveness through obedience. Rather, obedience follows love (John 15:1–11). Because we have been saved, we are enabled to live righteously (Romans 8:29–30; Philippians 2:12–13).

implications for today

While teaching God's great mercy and grace for His followers is good and needed, we need to study and understand God's holiness and justice as well. We need to know the "whole counsel of God" (Acts 20:27). We are instructed to "pursue righteousness" (1 Timothy 6:11; 2 Timothy 2:22; 3:16). In other words, we have not arrived and must grow spiritually, which includes confession of sin. How can we experience the spiritual discipline that Hebrews 12:11 talks about that leads to a "fruit of righteousness" if that is not in response to our understood errors and immaturities?

Hyper-grace rubs up against the teaching that there is no need for a moral law due to Jesus' sacrificial death and fulfillment of the Old Testament Law. This is called antinomianism and is directly refuted by Paul in Romans 6:1–2: "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?"

When we are saved, we are not only forgiven of our sins, we are transformed (2 Corinthians 5:17). The Holy Spirit works in us to begin to desire the things of God. Understanding who God is—His utter holiness and His abundant grace—we want to put to death the sin that is in us. We do not want to be like those "who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ" (Jude 1:4). Rather, we want to live a new life in the Lord, putting off the "old self" and putting on the "new self," as Paul explains in Ephesians 4:17–32.

John describes Jesus as being full of both "grace and truth" (John 1:14) leading the reader to understand that both are present – the need for truth coupled with grace. God's grace is, without question, more abundant than we can fathom. Salvation is a gift of grace. God justifies us and ushers us into a process of sanctification through which we become more like Him. Part of God's grace is life transformation and learning to live in righteousness. So we do our best to honor Him and live His ways.