Culture of Grace?

A culture is a consensus of popular opinions, lifestyles, and thought, along with trends in art, music, food, fashion, politics, and various and sundry other categories, that impact the daily lives of people within a community. It is based primarily on preferences rather than absolutes. So, to talk about a “church culture,” one would have to whittle down the common definition to apply it to any church. That definition might look something like “the personality, attitudes, esprit de corps, atmosphere, and dominant convictions and everyday practices of its members.”

A “culture of grace” is espoused by some as that which every New Testament church should strive to emulate. Grace is, of course, unmerited favor bestowed by God upon recipients. There is “common” grace meted out to all of mankind, such as rain that falls on the just and on the unjust; and there is “special” grace, that which is given to those who are believers through faith and recipients of God’s gifts and enabling power through the Holy Spirit. Salvation begins as one accepts God’s plan of salvation by believing and receiving His Son as Savior, for “by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” (Eph. 2:8) After salvation, we are exhorted to “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.” (2 Pet. 3:18) So, to say that any church ought to bask and exult in the grace of God is to express a truism.

But, love should not take a second place to grace when speaking of a church’s culture. In all of John’s epistles, the word grace appears only once. Love is his major theme—God’s love and our love for Him and for His. Peter mentions grace only a few times, as does James. And the magnificent book of Hebrews, written to folks who had been tutored in the law but found through faith the goodness of grace, mentions it just a few times as well. This is not to diminish the value and blessedness of grace. But, to elevate it above God’s love, holiness, or His mercy as the first and foremost trait that should define every New Testament Church cannot be supported scripturally. Every church seeking God’s commendation should be known as Biblicists, followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, loving, caring, gracious, and merciful.

I think the expression “grace culture” has been coined and used by those who are “sovereign grace” adherents. Their main chord, as Calvinists who also major on the doctrine of election, is that salvation is all of the grace of God. Everyone who believes the Bible agrees with that; and all Bible believers would agree that we are “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.” (I Pet.1:2). But we, believers, also proclaim without hesitation that “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved.” (Rom. 10:13) And, we agree that God “will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (I Tim. 2:4) Again, Paul says that Christ is the “Savior of all men, specially of those that believe.” (I Tim.4:10)

But Calvinists and proponents of Reformed Theology isolate grace and elevate it above all in promoting a “culture of grace” because it fits the theology that they have superimposed upon the Bible. Every Bible-believer cherishes what God’s Word says about His marvelous grace, but not to the neglect of what His Word teaches concerning the fact that He is “long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)

Calvinists will retort: “All men are sinners, dead in trespasses and sins. All are deserving of and condemned to eternal damnation. But God, solely by grace, chooses to save the elect, though we are all worms deserving of Hell. What grace!” They will ask: “Why should God save anyone?” (Though I have never heard them follow their logic and question: “Why does not God save everyone?”) But these teachers do not, in the same breath, also remind us that Christ died for all men, and that “Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.”

So, a culture of grace? Yes—and a culture of love, of mercy, of justice, of long-suffering, of kindness, and of holiness as well. A culture of grace to the exclusion of these other virtues of our great God cannot be Biblically defended.

Any sincere follower of Christ who embraces the label “Calvinist,” or Reformed theologian, or anyone who embraces the doctrine of grace, would also not flinch at being called a Biblicist.  But all who sincerely call themselves Biblicists would not want to be known as Calvinists. I am a Biblicist in that I believe whatever the Bible says is so. But I do not hold to the so-called doctrine of grace as taught by Calvinists or those immersed in Reformed Theology. I appreciate the truths that dawned upon the Catholic priest Martin Luther as he was reading the book of Romans. I acknowledge that he was “defrocked” as a priest, that his teaching formed the basis of Lutheranism, and that he helped inspire the reformers and reform movements of the Protestant Reformation. Before protesting the evils of the Church of Rome in the Middle Ages, they had been steeped in Augustinian theology, the bedrock of what would be later known as Calvinism and/or Reformed theology, from whence the “culture of grace” was birthed.

Independent Baptists love that grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. We were never part of the Reformation movement, nor have we ever been adherents to Augustinian or Reformation theology. We see no need, therefore, to cultivate a “culture of grace.” We want to be known as those who love to proclaim the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ—a good-news message that is full of both grace and truth.

“For I have not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of God.” (Acts 20:27)