Unfortunately the way we speak of the christian life in our modern churches is really hindering people from seeing the truth of God’s word. A lot of our language can be misleading. For example, we say, “there’s nothing you can do to make God love you more, and there’s nothing you can do to make Him love you any less.” This is true, but people can easily interpret this to mean that no matter what we do it doesn’t matter because God loves us, as if our behavior doesn’t make any difference. But it does! God puts people in hell every single day that He loves; He cannot welcome them into His kingdom because they are one with the very thing He hates: sin. This phrase may sound inspiring and heart warming, but we cannot use it to ignore the plain teaching of the scriptures that say that if we continue in sin we are children of the devil and do not know Him.

Another thing we say along these lines is, “God is not looking at your performance, He’s looking at Christ’s performance.” Again you get the impression that it doesn’t matter how we live. If God isn’t looking at our performance then what need is there to worry about radical death-to-self and holy living? These phrases hold a certain amount of truth to them, but can be easily abused as excuses for rebellion in the name of, “God loves me no matter what,” or, “I don’t need to perform for Christ.” Can you see the slippery-slope in this kind of language? The truth is that without holiness no man will see God. (see Hebrews 12:14) Holiness is not just a positional reality, but an experiential one. We have to walk it out in our daily lives.

Another thing we do along these lines is cherry-pick select verses out of context. I’ll go over a few of the most popular.

“There’s no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1)

This is brought up constantly in our churches and is regularly used as a defense against any sort of message about the holiness of God, the fear of the Lord, judgement, repentance, or any other uncomfortable subject. It’s like a shield that is put up against anyone who may point out blatant compromise. The most common use is to remove any guilt one feels from living in sin. But read the verse right after it! “Because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:2) So who does this “no condemnation” belong to? Those who have been freed from the law of sin, those who have been crucified by the power of the Holy Spirit and raised to new life, those who are living an obedient life before God. We cannot claim “no condemnation” if we are living in the flesh indulging our evil desires. It’s impossible. It’s kind of scary that we quote one verse out of context and use it to calm the anxious and guilty conscience of those living in outright sin. We tell them, “Oh don’t worry brother there’s no need to feel bad about your sin just remember there’s no condemnation to those who are in Christ,” when instead we should be telling a person that is in deliberate willful sin about the dangers of the judgement of God that is poured out on those who practice ungodliness. We should speak the truth in love, which is that they should repent and turn away from the sin that breaks God’s heart.

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)

If you’ve been a christian for ten minutes you’ve probably already heard this one. The idea is that nothing can separate us from God, so why worry? The scary thing is that through this scripture people are being lulled into an apathetic “no need to perform” slumber, rather than being kindled to good works. But notice there are a couple things left out. Sin and you. Paul writes that nothing “externally” like trials, tribulations, angels, demons, people or things can separate you from God, but he says nothing of sin. Why? Because sin DOES separate us from God, it breaks our connection with Him and sends us down the broad road to destruction. This is what James was dealing with in Jerusalem when he spoke to compromised believers saying that they were cheating on Jesus with the world.

“You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.” (James 4:4 NLT)

Embracing the lusts of this world automatically makes you an enemy of God. James isn’t speaking to unbelievers, (in order to commit adultery you must actually be married,) he is speaking to those who were already in a covenant relationship with Christ. Now if we make ourselves an enemy of God and remain in that state, will not our relationship with God be cut off and severed, thus separating us from God eternally? Therefore the idea that nothing can separate us from God including sin, is completely false. Sin separates.

“Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.” (Isaiah 59:1-2)

I’ll cover one more.

“The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more.” (Romans 5:20)

The way this passage is portrayed by different preachers is that even if we live in compromise it doesn’t matter because grace will increase and cover our sins. This is like umbrella grace. It covers but doesn’t empower. It forgives, but doesn’t liberate. But as I have already explained, grace is the power of God, the divine influence that enables us to say NO to ungodliness and sinful behavior. Can you see how we have warped the authentic message of the gospel by cherry-picking a few ear-tickling scriptures? We have ripped these one-liners out of context and are leading people astray into their eternal destruction by doing so. This is not a game, we cannot treat this lightly.

Basically what people are doing through these verses is repackaging “once saved always saved” in a different wrapper. Each of these scriptures and catch phrases (the way they’re presented,) when boiled-down to their logical conclusions really teach or imply that you can’t lose your salvation. “Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ,”“There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ,”“You can’t do anything to make God love you any more or less,””Where sin increased grace increased all the more,” is just another way to say, “Don’t worry about it, you can never lose salvation.” I hope that you can see that the little phrases we throw around in churches can radically affect one’s view of the gospel in a negative way. Perhaps you don’t use these scriptures or phrases to make you comfortable in sin, but if you say these things to others without a proper explanation, then people can interpret them wrongly, and it will harm them.

If you preach part of the gospel, then that piece you preach will become poison to the hearers. The gospel is only the, “power of God unto salvation,” (Romans 1:16) when it’s preached in its fullness. It’s kind of like table salt. Sodium by itself is a explosive metal, it will literally pop, crack, and spark when placed in water, and chlorine is a poisonous gas that can easily kill you. These elements apart from one another can do no good for the human body, but when combined you get Sodium Chloride, which is salt, a beneficial nutrient to the body. It’s the same with the gospel, if we only speak about God’s love and kindness and neglect the other aspects of God’s nature and charge to live a holy life, then even though God’s love is a “true doctrine” it will poison the hearers, because only in hearing the “full message” will they experience the power of God unto salvation.