One Church, Two Gospels?
Which gospel are you hearing?
In the church today there are two gospels competing for the hearts and minds of hearers:
1. Mixed-grace gospel: You are saved by grace but sanctified by works
2. Hyper-grace gospel: You are saved by grace and sanctified by grace
What is a mixed-grace gospel?
It’s the message that you are saved by grace but kept through works. It’s the belief that says one of God’s blessings (salvation) comes by grace but all the others (holiness, forgiveness, fellowship, etc.) are earned through your labor.
This mixed-gospel is a partial gospel because it’s partly good news. Jesus saved you (that’s the good part), but the rest is up to you (that’s the not so good part).
What is the hyper-grace gospel?
It’s Jesus plus nothing. It’s Christ alone. It’s the announcement that Jesus is the author and perfecter of your faith and that He will keep you and present you as faultless to Himself (Heb. 12:2, Jude 1:24).
To quote Watchman Nee, it’s the declaration that “from start to finish, He is the One who does it all.” In the words of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, it’s the message that causes you to trust in
… grace at the beginning, and grace at the end. So that when you and I come to lie upon our death beds, the one thing that should comfort and help and strengthen us there is the thing that helped us in the beginning. Not what we have been, not what we have done, but the grace of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. The Christian life starts with grace, it must continue with grace, it ends with grace. Grace wondrous grace.
The hyper-grace gospel says all the blessings of God come to us freely as gifts. Forgiveness is a gift. Salvation is a gift. Acceptance is a gift. Righteousness is a gift. Holiness is a gift.
All the gifts of God are found in Jesus Christ. Indeed, Jesus is the Gift (John 3:16).
This is why the hyper-grace gospel will always point you to Jesus. Whatever your need, He is your rich supply. In the words of an ancient saint, “He who has the Lord has everything.”
Elsewhere I explain how to recognize a mixed-grace gospel and how to recognize the hyper-grace gospel. But for a fuller comparison check out the table below. (Clicking on the image will take you to a larger file that you can reproduce and share.)
As you can see, the two gospels are very different. A mixed-grace gospel puts the focus on you and your works, while the hyper-grace gospel puts the focus on Jesus and his grace.
A mixed-grace gospel leaves you breathless with anxiety; the hyper-grace gospel leaves you rested and grateful.
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More articles about hypergrace.
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Good message about true Christian living. Click on chart.
I think its interesting how I have to be reminded, and reminding myself how its all in his hands, a mixed gospel constantly leaves you holding the bag,like ” there your saved” “good luck.” and for God sake don’t screw up.
Hahaha… Amen, Bro 🙂
Thank you so much Bro Paul. So much of mixture nowadays. Many verses have been used to whip our conscience for many years. Now we hear the goodnews that consoles us. What do you do if you attend a church where mixture is preached? How do someone continualy keep himself on this path of grace without deviating? What about some scriptures we don’t understand now that sound legalist? Thanks
Olapido- you asked “How do you keep yourself on this path of grace?”
You don’t and you can’t – but Jesus can and does! We receive grace to keep in grace.
For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. (John 1:16 NASB)
Thank you Paul – excellent chart/table.
You forgot the 3rd, the greesy grace gosple. IMO more dangerous than the works based one you mention. It can fool you into thinking you are saved and decive those that are unsaved into thinking they are…
The use of the term “hyper-grace” is quite confusing and misleads many away from understanding the gospel of grace. It is because of the use of “hyper” or “ultra” by the opponents of what is referred to as the “Grace Movement” or Pauline Dispensationalism.
It is a negative term that implies those following Paul as Christ’s choice to reveal the doctrine of “the Cross” to both Jew and Gentile, are apostate and should be rather following the `12 apostles of Israel. I recommend dropping the term and rather using something else e.g., Body of Christ grace doctrine, or perhaps Pauline Right Division of the Word .
Certainly the term hyper-grace has been abused by some, but it’s origin is 100% Biblical:
Sooo good! True that many are so scared of the “Hyper-Grace” God controlled appellation. Due to all the bad publicity, first reaction to the term hyper-grace somehow sounded a little bold and provocative – though I like provocation – but that definitely gives the subject justice, great Paul, thanks.
Why not use “superabundant” then? Paul didn’t make a point of adding anything to the single word “grace.”
Because then you are subtracting from Paul’s words. Look at the graphic above and you will see that Paul literally said God’s grace is hyper-superabundant.
Hyper grace is not a man made phrase but a biblical phrase chosen and inspired by God Himself:
For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:17 NASB)
“Abundance of grace ” in the Greek is transliterated from the Greek literally as “hyper grace”
” how much more will those who have received hyper grace … Reign in life through the one man Christ Jesus.”
If people can’t handle Gods choice of the word hyper grace then who are we to change the inspired Acripture simply because men are offended by that phrase ?
Awesome!
It is all grace and it is all Jesus,apart from him we can do nothing,,,We do get rewards for deeds done through Chist when done with Gods heart only,,If we could produce one thing apart fron Christ it would be flesh and could be boasted about,,God will not share His Glory,,,You can criticize Watchman Nee,and he does have a few doctrinal issues ,but what preacher doesn’t ,,do you know a perfect preacher ,,it probably isn’t one of us writing on this site,,before listening to any preacher or reading any book other than the bible,one has to know what they believe as doctrine before taking in more,and take all of mans writings and preaching with a grain of salt,,,I’ve researched and read a lot,,and The normal Christian Life helped me understand freedom in Christ better than anything other than the bible itself,which is where the only true revelation is,,,If someone is for Jesus they are not against him,,,Nee had to do with starting over 400 house chuches,,,Bless his heart,,Thank you,and God bless us all !!!
You misread me if you think I’m criticizing Watchman Nee. I’m a huge fan.
Love this! Do you mind me sharing that chart of the differences?
Thank you for sharing the good news!
Feel free to share it, Michael.
Hi Paul,
This is my first time on here, and I would like to know whether I could also share the chart? Would like to share it on my Facebook page, where my whole family are in my friend list. I would really like them all to also see the difference between the two gospels. They all seem to believe weird stuff like “you have to call the messiah by His real Name, Yeshua, or else He will not hear you because “Jesus” is not His Name” or “the Sabbath never moved from Saturday to Sunday before the Roman Catholics changed the calendar to suit their own agenda, so you have to keep the Saturday as the Sabbath”. For the record, they are not Seventh Day Adventists. These strange beliefs only crept in recently after someone shared some DVD’s with a family member.
Feel free to share the chart or any of the images in the gallery.
Thank You Paul.
I am being more completely and thoroughly converted to hyper grace daily. The biblical evidence is overwhelming. Grace rules in Gods people . Grace causes them to reign over sin and death even in the face of their sin and death. “For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:17 NASB)
Formerly I believed this verse was saying that grace only reigned when it enabled me to live above sin and death. But I now that I carefully exegete the rest of Romans 5 I sense The Lord say , “My beloved son -My grace is even better than that. My grace does not require you to live above sin to be efficacious. It reigns and causes you to reign in life even in the face of the sin and death in your life.
where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, (Romans 5:20 NASB) ”
Now THAT is hyper grace!
Barry once you begin to see how loved you are, scripture begins to read differently.
I have been teaching the grace of God for over 35 years now trying to plum the depths of its fathomless expanse. The study, preaching and teaching of book of Romans has been the mainstay of Gods ministry calling in my life. I have taken innumerable college and seminary courses on the Book of Romans and have taught through it as an expositor for more than twenty years -drinking deeply of the depths of Gods unfathomable grace revealed in this one epistle alone. Yet remarkably in the last six months I realize I haven’t even scratched the surface. I share that to say this – Our confidence in Gods grace – even among us in the “hyper grace ” camp is far too small, far too limiting and far too exclusive. While I am grateful for all our beloved brother Paul Ellis is unfolding of grace- I sense he is yet only ankle deep in uncovering the boundless power and efficacy of the infinite ocean of God’s grace which is ours in Christ Jesus out Lord. Zechariah 4:6-7 promises us that everyone of Gods people will be shouting “grace! grace!” In this last hour of church history.
Well, my take on that is NO PREACHER’S WORD is to be taken absolutely. We need to ensure that the revelation from the scripture is absolute. Was checking if i can see an archive on conscience, couldnt find any. And what is your advice to someone who have an ovesensitive scrupulous conscience?
I know your feelings, I’ve had that issue.
I only had this sense of “oversensitive scrupulous conscience”, this feeling of insecurity and sin consciousness, fear of failure as long as I was ignorant of the Father’s love for me, if I get you right or is it just about a fear to misinterpret the word?
Well in both cases, what did wonders in my life and my best advice, which I agree is very basic and general, is: KNOW THE FATHER.
He’s the source of ALL THINGS, all goodness, all wisdom, all knowledge, all love and HE is absolutely passionate about you taking time with him and seeking His face, simply trusting and talking about anything you want Him to know and help you with. There are no things too small and insignificant in your life that He is not concerned about, He became a man so He’s not surprised about any of our issues. He just longs so much for that quality of relationship. And you will be amazed at the transformations in and around you by His power of Life, Light and Love.
Just tell Him you want to know Him FOR WHO HE IS and not what He can do for you!
Blessings brother
Claude is right,he is well capable of making it happen,sometimes all you can do is know that he loves us,and will make it happen, I have been in a situation for a while now, and through all my confusion, he has not left me nor forsaken me, his persistence and presence have always been there..
I can’t begin to explain to you how much I needed this……oh wait, I guess I just did 🙂 Thanks Paul, I’m coming around to understanding God’s amazing grace through your teachings and some other teachings God has led me to. Recently attended a women’s Bible study where we read The Grace Awakening by Charles “Chuck” Swindoll. It was really really good. But I knew when I first came across your blog that it was something to hold onto and not let out of my sight. I thoroughly enjoy receiving your emails (again….there for a while I stopped reading them….dipping in every now and then, thinking that you were way off with “this hyper-grace message”….but now I see that you are not). Go ahead and laugh with me about that….hahaha……I know you are 😀 God bless you for all the time you put into writing things for all of us to read. They are a great help!!!
I think there must be at least two threads with the same title “Two Gospels.” They have different posts in them but the same subject. I am confused here.
my take on the mixed grace gospel is that it is fed unfortunately by a commonly taught error…that we are not under law but under grace(true),but now that we have the Holy Spirit,He empowers us to keep the law that we were unable to before(untrue).This may sound pious but it is wrong teaching that burdens the one who would believe it.The Holy Spirit did not come to assist us in keeping the law(mosaic),He came that we might live by Him!Of course the teachers of this error pick and choose which parts of the law to keep,contradicting scripture…choosing the parts that best suits their agenda,or so they think.i will probably stir up a hornets nest with this but one of my deepest regrets is the commonly taught distorted definition and teaching of “tithing”.No unbeliever should ever be given the idea that if they were to accept Christ,they would then be expected to “join a church” and give 10 percent of their income to it….yet that very unscriptural idea is presented them directly or indirectly on a regular basis in our churches.Not only does it deter unbelievers it hurts believers ending in either false guilt or self righteousness.
Good stuff! Keep proclaiming the Grace Alone message!
As I am starting to share my new found enlightenment of the beauty and power of God’s undiluted grace with my fellow believers, I’m meeting a lot of resistance. Many warn me of false teachings, of “cheap” grace (I really hate that expression), of ignoring directions found in the epistles, that without confession of sins our experience of God is compromised. Most of these folks are better versed than I in defending their positions, but I am not deterred. I lost my husband to suicide and I believe he would have fared better not growing up under a mixed gospel, not striving to achieve the 12 steps by his own strength, not believing that he had to appear like a good Christian. Perhaps, had he known that Jesus truly had set him free he would not have died by what I call the ultimate act of self righteousness. Getting grace, I believe, is a matter of life and death, literally.
So I’m looking for wisdom on how to express grace without pushing away my church friends family.
Sadly, Geraldine, it goes with the territory. Some are hostile to grace. It starts out as gentle warnings but if you don’t toe the line and get back under control, the warnings turn into persecution. If I’ve seen it once, I’ve seen it a hundred times. Those who have invested themselves in a system that rewards good behavior, do not take kindly to those who say “All is grace.” Jesus told the disciples that if they had no peace in a certain place, the best thing may be to walk away.
Thanks for the feedback, Paul. I will persevere peacefully and should it crossover to persecution, move on, albeit, sadly. I took your challenge and posted the link about “does God give and take away?” So far only 2 likes. There’s hope.
I love it, love it love it!!! Since I left the Catholic Church and have turned to the Grace Gospil, I am exasperated with all of the healing and blessings my family and I have received. I feel so close my my Lord and and Savior, I just can’t explain it! It has been an “awakening” for me. I feel so compelled to spread the “good news.”
Grace is not a commodity. It’s like Peace. The Prince of Peace and like Gospel and Truth and Love etc etc. It is Christ Jesus In Person Himself. So it’s not just law versus a more hip doctrine.
You can’t mix anything with Jesus Grace Christ. Hear Him only!
Good article. I spent many years in the mixed grace way of thought. Now I’m all for the hyper-grace gospel. It is all Jesus and his grace.
Awesome article and accurate comparisons!!!