Catholic Catholicism Cheap Grace vs.

Costly Grace

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Cheap Grace Vs. Costly Grace

Introduction Revival of church life always brings in a richer love for and understanding of the scriptures. Moreover, there also arises a more determined quest for him who is the sole object of our faith, Jesus Christ himself. What does the words of Jesus mean for us today? What was he saying to us and how can he help us to be good Christians in this modern wicked world of humanism, atheism, modernism and postmodernism. The real trouble is that the pure word of truth, the pure gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ has been overlaid with so much human baggage, man made traditions and teachings, false hopes and consolations and watering down of the gospel that it is extremely difficult to make a real genuine decision for Christ. Preaching today contains too much of the opinions and conviction of the person or just plain human wisdom, psychology, and a social gospel with no power to change peoples lives and bring them to the new birth experience. We need to know how Jesus calls us to be his disciples, without laying heaver and weightier burdens upon the shoulders of the people of God like the Pharisees of old. Acts 15:10, 28 Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things. If we answer the call to discipleship, where will it lead us? What kind of decisions and changes in our lifestyle will it demand? We need to know that only Jesus Christ, who bids us to follow him, knows where he is leading us. Jesus said, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me (John 10:27). We have to be able to say No to sin while saying Yes to the sinner, love the sinner, but hate the sin. We must withstand those who are enemies of the gospel, while holding out to them the Word of the gospel, which bids them Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.(Matthew 11:28). The yoke is a wooden crossbar with two U-shaped pieces that encircle the necks of a pair of oxen or other draft animals so that they will pull in tandem. Now when there were two unequally yoked oxen, meaning two oxen yoked together where one was stronger than the other, the normal yoke designed to equally distribute the load created an inequity and a terrible burden upon the weaker animal. For such a pair they had a special weighted yoke that was designed to properly distribute the load between the two oxen such that the stronger one pulled the heavier load so that the weaker was not overburdened. When we come to Jesus and take his yoke, he always carries the heavier burden so that the portion we carrier is not too hard for us. He is our great burden bearer and we are told to cast our cares, the ones that we cant handle, upon Him. 1Peter 5:7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. Cheap Grace vs. Costly Grace (Pt.1) Romans 3:24, 5:1-2, 6:14-15, 11:5-6 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus Therefore being justified by faith,

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we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work. 1Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. 2Corinthians 6:1, 12:9 We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Galatians 1:6-8 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. Ephesians 1:7, 2:5-8, 4:7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. 2Timothy 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Titus 2:11-14 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. 1Peter 5:10 But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. Jude 1:3-4 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. The greatest enemy of the church today is Cheap Grace. Cheap grace is a grace that is offered to the sinner without cost, except of course their money. They throw out the truth that requires men to become grieved and sorry for their sin and repentant for their sins. All they have to do is say a cute little sinners prayer and all is well and they are eternally saved, fully and completely sanctified and eternally blessed and in some case automatically filled with the fullness of the

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Holy Spirit and they possess all that they will ever receive. Its all instant and without effort or cost. Cheap grace is grace as a doctrine, a principle and a system. It is forgiveness of sins that is proclaimed as a general truth and the love of God being taught as the Christian concept of God. An intellectual assent to the idea that God loves the sinner and has died for their sins is sufficient to secure the hearer remission of sins. Here the sinner comes and finds a cheap covering for their sins with no contention required, much less any real desire to be delivered from sin. Cheap grace is a denial of the living Word of God and a denial of the Incarnation of the Word of God. Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. Grace alone is sufficient and accomplishes everything for the sinner while leaving him the same as he was before. It is imperative for the believer to let grace be grace indeed; otherwise he will destroy the worlds faith in the free gift of grace. Let the Christian rest content with his worldliness and renunciation of any higher standard than that of the world. Let him be fully comforted and rest assured in his possession of this grace, for grace alone does everything for him that is needed and he need add nothing to it. Cheap grace amounts to nothing more than the justification of sin without the justification of the repentant sinner who departs from his past sin and from whom sin departs. Cheap grace is not the forgiveness of sin, which sets us free from the toils of sin. Cheap grace is a grace that we bestow upon ourselves. Cheap grace says you can come to God with your hands outstretched, looking for a handout, come to him for what you can get out of him, come to Jesus and he will bless your socks off and make you wealthy. Cheap grace is the source of the prosperity doctrine and movement and the unconditional eternal security doctrine. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession of faith, absolution of sin without personal confession. Cheap grace is a grace without discipleship, a grace without having to go to the cross or take up a cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate within changing the person and their lifestyle. Costly grace is the gospel, which must be sought again and again, the gift, which must be asked for daily, the door at which man must knock. True grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it will cost a man his life, and it is grace because it gives man the only true life there is. It is a divine exchange of our life for his life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all it is costly because it cost God the life of His son, Jesus Christ and that which has cost his life cannot be cheap for his followers. 1Corinthains 6:20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. Costly grace is not to be thrown to the dogs for it is the living Word of God. It confronts us with a call to follow Jesus and comes as a word of forgiveness to the one of broken spirit and contrite heart. Psalm 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

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Grace is costly because it compels the one who will follow Christ as a Christian to submit to the yoke of his Lordship. Matthew 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Luke 9:23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. Hebrews 5:9 And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. On two separate occasions, the first and last words spoken to Peter by Jesus, were a call to follow him. Mark 1:17 And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. John 21:22 Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me. This grace which came to Peter and the others as a call to discipleship was most certainly not self-bestowed. It was the grace of Christ himself, come to and prevailing upon the disciples to leave all and follow him. Peter was invited not only to discipleship but to the supreme sacrifice of following Jesus in martyrdom for the Lord he had once denied. In Peters life we see that grace and discipleship are inseparable. He had received a grace that cost. Unfortunately, as time passed the church became more secularized and this realization of the costliness of grace gradually faded. As the world was christianized grace became its common property. Though grace was cheap to the masses in the Church of Rome, it was wise enough to at least keep a semblance of costly grace alive in its monastic movement. On the outer fringe of the church was a place where to a few the reality of costly grace was kept alive as they lived by the concept that grace means following Christ and involved discipleship and obedience and separation from the world. The monastic movement became a living protest against the total secularization of the Church of Rome and the cheapening of grace. Yet even they lost the reality that we are to be separate from the world while still being in the world and not physically separated from it, but only not partakers of its sin. John 17:6,15-16 I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. The church in its wisdom decided to tolerate this protest against its secularization, but prevented it from becoming an influence upon the masses by relativizing it and using it to justify its own secularization. Therefore the monastic life represented an individual achievement that the masses could not be expected to emulate. Thus by limiting the application of the commandments of Jesus to this special group, the church of Rome brought about a double standard of extremes, a minimum and maximum standard of Christian obedience. When the church was accused of being to secularized it would just point to monasticism as the opportunity of living a higher life within the fold of the church and thus justify the more relaxed and loose standard for the rest of the church. This was one of the wicked achievements of the Church of Rome, which took discipleship out of the mainstream church and relegated it to something that was not what God intended. It was intended that Christians live the live of a disciple in front of the world and not behind monastic walls hidden from the world. The result was ultimately disastrous to discipleship as monasticism departed from genuine

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Christianity. The fatal error of monasticism was not so much in its rigorous living and denouncing of the world and vows of poverty as in the fact that it set itself up as the individual achievement of a select few and so became salvation by works and personal achievement. When even the heart of the monastic life was in havoc, God raised up Martin Luther to restore the gospel to pure costly grace without either of the fallacies that had been brought about by the Curch of Rome, cheap grace and monasticism which by now in its attempt to flee the world had just become a subtle form of love for the world. Luther had left all to follow Christ on the path of absolute obedience and had become a monk. He had learned obedience to Christ and the church in the demands of complete surrender of ones life to live a secluded life in a cloistered monastery. But then God opened his eyes to see the truth in Scripture that following Christ is not the achievement of merit of a select few and for them alone, but the driving command to all Christians without distinction and it was by grace alone. With the rug pulled out from under his feet by the stark reality of truth revealed to him by the Holy Spirit, Martin Luther laid hold of true grace. That grace was a costly grace that shattered his whole existence in the Church of Rome. Now once again, he must leave all and follow Christ, as he had once left all except his pious self when he entered the monastery. To obey the call of God, he had to leave the monastery and go back into the world, not because the world was good or holy in itself, but because even the monastery was only a part of the world and its systems. Martin Luthers renunciation that made him a monk was nothing but childs play in comparison to that which he had to make when he returned to the world. It was to be the worst blow the world had suffered since the days of the early church. Now he made a frontal assault against the world and the worldliness of the church. Now it was revealed that the only way to follow Jesus was by living in the world and not under the exceptional conditions of monasticism. Now the duty to follow and obey the commandments of Christ was laid upon every Christian living in the world and it was to bring about obedience to those commands in their daily vocation of life. Thus once again the conflict between the life of the true Christian and that of the world was put in face-to-face conflict. For Luther the Christians worldly calling was sanctified only in so far as that calling registered a radical protest against the world. Only in as much as the Christians secular calling is exercised in the following of Christ does it receive from the gospel sanction and justification. We are only in the world that we might be a light unto the world and salt to the world. That is a far cry from a church today; as then, that was in bed with the world. For Luther it was not the justification of sin but the justification of the sinner that drove him from the monastery back into the world. The grace Luther had received was to him like water on parched ground, it was comfort in his tribulations and forgiveness of all his sins. It was costly in that it meant he must take discipleship more seriously than when he was in the monastery. It was grace because it cost so much, and it cost so much because it was grace. This was the secret of the gospel of the reformation, the justification of the sinner through grace alone. Though it did not release one from the responsibility of good works, it told them that now your

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works were not works of self-righteousness for salvation but works of repentance and obedience through love. The victory of the Reformation was not Luthers perception of pure and costly grace as much as it was the victory over the religious instinct of man to find grace where it could be obtained at the cheapest cost. Have we not come full circle today back to the cheap grace that Luther fought against? Luther taught that man couldnt stand before God because in reality he is always seeking his own self-interests, just covered under a cloak of religiosity. To him, grace did not dispense or free him from discipleship but made him a more earnest disciple. For Luther grace meant that it cost him his own life, which had to be daily, subjected to the absolute obedience of Christ. Luther taught grace alone could save and his followers took up his doctrine and repeated it word for word but they left out its invariable consequence or effect, the obligation of discipleship. The justification of the sinner in the world degenerated into the justification of sin and the world and costly grace was again turned into cheap grace without discipleship. That is the condition the church is in today for the most part. For Luther the recognition of grace was the final breach with his besetting sins, but it was never the justification of that sin which it can never be. In laying hold of Gods forgiveness through grace, he made a renunciation of the self-willed life to the life of discipleship. Is this not in accordance with the words of the Apostles? 2Corinthians 5:15 And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. 1Peter 4:2 That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. To Luther grace was the answer to a sum, but one arrived at by God and not by man. But then the answer was turned into data for a different calculation and sum. If grace is Gods answer and sum of living the Christian life then we cannot live the Christian life without following Christ and receiving that grace as needed daily. But if grace is only the data for my Christian life, then I can set out to live that life in the world with all my sins justified beforehand, which is what we have in the doctrine of unconditional eternal security or once-saved always-saved today. I can now go and sin as much as I want and rely on the grace of God to forgive me, because the world is justified in principle by such grace. It allows the sinner to continue living his life as before coming to God with the assurance that the grace of God covers all his sin. It is under this kind of grace that the world has been Christianized and made Christian, but at the cost of secularizing Christianity. Thus the Christian life is nothing more than living in the world, as the world, being no different from the world, and in fact being prohibited from being different from the world all for the sake of grace. The only duty of the Christian is to leave the world for an hour or so on Sunday morning to attend church and thus be assured that all our sins are forgiven. It is the act of going to church and giving God our time and lip service with the mental ascent of believing that he died to forgive all our sins and thus there is no need to try and follow Christ as a disciple for grace is cheap and cheap grace is the absolute foe of true discipleship which must hate such worldliness and be a total repudiation of all that is worldly and ungodly. Titus 2:11-12 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.

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Simply put, grace as the data for our calculations means grace at the cheapest price, but grace as the answer to the sum means costly grace. In both cases the adherents thereof have an identical formula of justification by faith alone. Yet the misuse and perversion of the formula leads to the complete destruction of its very essence. At the end of his life spent in pursuit of knowledge, Faust confessed: I now do see that we can nothing know. As the answer to a sum it is perfectly true, but as the initial data it is a piece of self-deception. Acquired knowledge cannot be divorced from the existence in which it is acquired. So the only man who has the right to say that he is justified by grace alone is the man who has left all to follow Christ. This man knows that the call to discipleship is a gift of grace and that the call is inseparable from the grace. But those who try to use this grace as a dispensation that frees them from following Christ in obedience as a disciple are simply deceiving themselves. The proclamation of cheap grace is either that you are a sinner anyway, and there is nothing you can do about it, whether you are a man of the world or a religious man, good or bad you can never escape this world of sin and so just put on a bold face and rely on the grace of God, or that because you believe in the grace of God then you are free from sin no matter how you live because his grace covered all you sins; past, present and future the moment you made a profession of faith in his grace to cover your sin. Is there a more diabolical abuse of the grace of God than to sin and rely on Gods grace to cover it? Romans 5:20b-6:2 But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? If we are to understand Luthers equation that grace is the sum of the Christian life then everything depends upon applying the distinction between the data and the answer to the sum, otherwise the formula is a premise for cheap grace. Luthers formula for Grace must be taken not as a premise for a doctrine of grace but as the answer to the sum, the last word on the subject. To change the formula is to make grace justify sin rather than the sinner. Instead we must acknowledge that we are sinners and that we have sinned and then confess our sins that we might be cleansed and forgiven of our sins. 1John 1:9-10 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. To change the formula for grace is to either say that you are a sinner and so you might as well be a sinner and not even try to be what you are not a saint, or to say that you are already a saint and sanctified even though you continue in your sin. Grace, interpreted as a principle, is cheap grace that is but a law that cannot help nor bring freedom to the one who is a slave of sin. Grace as a living word, as that which comforts us in time of tribulation, and gives strength to the disciple that he might stand against temptations by faith in God and overcome the powers of darkness, as the power of God that brings him enablement and endument that we can overcome against great odds in this world and hold fast our faith when all around us are faithless and even attack with cruel hatred is a costly grace and the only pure grace which really forgives sins and brings freedom and victory in this world to the sinner.

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Most in church today have gathered like a bunch of vultures around the carcass of cheap grace and drunk of the poison, which has killed the life of following Christ in true discipleship. Oh the church believes in grace, in fact, it has so honored the doctrine of grace by exalting it to the position of God himself. Any changing of the formula that says grace is the sum and answer to living this life is to pervert the truth and end in self-deception. There is no true justification for the sinner unless this doctrine is held correctly and seen as much more than a doctrine of the church, but for what it is, the power, strength, presence and anointing of God that comes to the sinner that he can live as the saint that he has been called to be and walk in the victory that is in Christ alone by faith through grace. The church today for the most part has left the following of Christ or discipleship to legalists, all for the sake of grace. They have justified the sinner in the world and condemned as heretics those who try to follow Christ in true discipleship. The result is that our nation is considered and spoken of as Christian at the expense of the truth of the gospel and true discipleship. There is no other term for it better than cheap, greasy grace that lets men just slide by in their sin. The church has with this doctrine of grace given away the word of God and sacraments of the church wholesale. It has baptized, confirmed and absolved a nation of sin without their so much as asking for it and without condition. This humanitarian sentiment caused by this doctrine of cheap grace caused the church to give that which is holy to the unbelieving and scornful spiritual dogs of the nation. It has poured fourth unending streams of cheap costless grace while the call of true grace to follow Jesus in the narrow way and obey his commands is hardly ever heard. What happened to the truths of the early church that caused them to watch over the faith of the believers and work to keep them true to the faith once delivered to the saints and truth that brought believing saving faith? Jude 1:3b It was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. Ephesians 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise. What happened to all those warnings of Luther against preaching the gospel in such a manner as to make men rest securely in their ungodly living that would keep worldliness out of the church? Was there ever a more disastrous instance of the Christianizing of the world that that of the Church of Rome beginning with Constantine or is today that day? And what are the 3000 Saxons put to death by Charlemagne compared with the millions of spiritual corpses in our country today? Cheap grace has utterly destroyed the Evangelical Church. Instead of opening up the way to Christ this cheap grace in the land has closed the way to Christ. Instead of calling us to more arduously follow after Christ, as the grace of God did when it came to Luther, this cheap grace has hardened us in our disobedience to the commands of Christ. Some when they first heard the gospel of Christ and the gracious call to follow Him had actually taken the first steps along the path of discipleship and the disciplines of obedience only to find themselves confronted by the word of cheap grace that stopped their progress and spiritual growth in grace. 2Peter 3:17-18 Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your

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own stedfastness. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. This word of cheap grace can only hinder the path of spiritual grown in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ for it seduces believers to the mediocrity of the world by quenching the fires and joys of discipleship and telling the energetic young believers that they were following a way of their own choosing and spending their strength and energy disciplining themselves in vain, which was not only useless but spiritually dangerous in fact where they were trying with all their soul and strength to follow the gentle leading of the Spirit within their hearts - Cheap grace quenched the voice of the Spirit within and poured water on the fire of the Spirit by telling them that their salvation had already been fully accomplished by the grace of God so there was no need to strive to make sure our calling and election (2Peter 1:10). The smoking flax was mercilessly extinguished by a cheap grace that could then only leave the believer and seekers of Christ bewildered and tempt them to fall away from the way to which they had been called by the grace of Christ. Having laid hold of cheap grace, or having been forced into accepting this cheap grace, they were barred for ever from the knowledge of costly grace. Though deceived and spiritually weakened, believers have felt that they were then strong that they were in possession of this cheap grace, whereas in truth they had lost the power of the Spirit to live the life of discipleship and obedience. The word of cheap grace has been the ruin of more Christians than any commandment of works or other doctrine. Now we need to try to find a message for those who have been troubled by this predicament and for whom the word of grace has been emptied of all its meaning. This message of costly grace and true discipleship must be spoken for the sake of truth and for those among us who confess that through cheap grace they have been lost from following after Christ and lost the understanding of costly grace. We must undertake this path because we have to admit that we no longer stand in the path of true discipleship. We must attempt to recover the true understanding of the mutual relationship between true grace and discipleship. The most important and pressing problem of the day is how can we live the Christian life in the midst of this modern world of heathenism, self-pleasures, worldly indulgences and love of self. Happy or blessed are those who are simple followers of Jesus Christ who have been apprehended by this grace, as was the Apostle Paul, and who are able to sing the praises of the all-sufficient grace of Christ with humbleness of heart. Blessed are they who, knowing that grace, can live in the world without being a part of it, who by the following of Jesus Christ are assured of their heavenly citizenship and that they are truly free to live their lives in this world by the power of the Spirit of God. Blessed are they who know that that discipleship simply means the life, which springs forth from grace, and that grace is synonymous with discipleship. Blessed are those believers who have come to this grace, for to them that grace has become a fount of mercy and help in time of need. Philippians 3:12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. 2Corinthians 12:9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Romans 6:22-23 But now being made free from sin, and become

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servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Hebrews 4:15-16 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

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