which is why I kept not seeing this (hate to use the word) 'hyper' thing
I have changed my mind ..repented to agree with the Bible...quite a few times from what I was taught in the church I spent 15 years in...from the age of 5 to the age of 20
they were 100% OSAS...to the point where it did it did not matter what you did...there was one very sad case...where a man went on the skids...don't know why; I was too young...left his wife and son and was a drunk living on the streets. I know he died eventually and I don't know anything else other than that 'he went home to be with the Lord'
so, I never had law introduced to grace until years later and began to believe there was more to grace than grace
but when we put it all together, is when it starts to make sense
As to the 'hyper' label, while it was intended by Dr. Brown to be a pejorative term (mission accomplished), when one goes to Romans 5:21 and looks at the Greek for super-abounding grace, the 'hyper' label is not at all far-fetched!
Regarding those who believe that it doesn't matter what you do and you're still saved, well, yes, the argument can be made for that, but it ignores the transformative power of grace - as we mature in Christ we don't WANT to sin. But during that process, I do like how Rob Rufus puts it:
. . . when you shine a light [Grace] into an attic and see all the dust and dirt there [sin], it’s not Grace that *caused* the sin, or looks past it as though it doesn’t exist, but Grace exposes it – but it exposes it in a redemptive context of love and forgiveness, not in a context of fear of punishment like law does, where if you don’t keep ‘short accounts with God’ and then get straightened out and fly right, there are eternal consequences.
As for the man you referenced above, we cannot judge whether or not he was truly in Christ, though the fruit would suggest not. Yet we know that in Christ, 'all things are permissible, but not all things are beneficial' (1 Cor. 6), and that the body at Corinth was exhorted to 'hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord' (1 Cor. 5), this man referred to by Paul as having committed sins that pagans would not even tolerate!
I think that the lesson here is that WE are not qualified to determine who is saved and who is not based on their behavior. That said, we don't have to allow folks who are walking in sin to be in our local bodies, either. Those types of situations are always so very difficult, but all we can really do is keep pointing folks to Christ, because it is He Who does the work in any of us, amen? What we can do is support and love well those left in the wake of such sinning. But it is God Who will do the final sorting of sheep and goats, and He can/must be trusted to do so.
-JGIG
