It isn’t grace to say by one’s actions that sin isn’t deadly or that sin is easily dealt with. What makes grace amazing is that God through Jesus shows favor and steadfast love to sinners who have willingly drunk the poison, who have loved their bondage and who wanted no part of the light. And yet, God in Christ reaches down and rescues us. But at what cost! The death of the one and only Son! How deadly my sin and sinning is! And even after our Spirit-wrought union with Christ, how deadly sin still is! How often I reach for the chalice to drink the poison that Jesus already drunk for me! To act as though sin is a light matter, easily dealt with by a public apology or by a few months out of the ministry, is to do great damage to the Gospel of grace we claim to love.
It isn’t grace to say by one’s actions that repentance is easy or doesn’t involve consequences. Repentance is a Gospel grace; it often involves a process of restoration that can take months. We demonstrate the fruits of repentance by a “long obedience in the same direction” as we rebuild trust. And especially for leaders in Christ’s church who have committed public sins, that process more times than not involves stepping out of (paid or unpaid, ordained or non-ordained) ministry, stepping off the stage, being quiet and submitting to the church’s elders as a church member. If we can’t set aside the ministry as part of our repentance, then we don’t really understand either grace or repentance. Doing ministry is not the same thing as loving Jesus (see Luke 10:38-42).
It isn’t grace not to exercise meaningful church discipline or to find loopholes around that church discipline. Too many of our churches don’t exercise meaningful church discipline because, frankly, it is hard and messy; people don’t want to cooperate; it “doesn’t seem to accomplish anything”; and above all, it doesn’t seem gracious to involve ourselves in other people’s messes. But not exercising meaningful church discipline is not gracious to the individual—because then they think sin doesn’t have real consequences—nor is it gracious to the church—because then the church’s members think that their sin is nobody’s business and really is OK in the end. Likewise, finding loopholes around church discipline—whether by leaving one church or another or by some other way—demonstrates a heart that fails to grasp that God disciplines sons and daughters. In other words, grace and steadfast love grounds discipline; hatred avoids discipline.
Those of us who love grace-motivated sanctification need to make these distinctions winsomely and courteously, especially in these days when so much happens to drag the Gospel into disrepute. We have to do this because we know that this grace is amazing, that it cost so much, and that it alone can fuel our holiness and our joy.
