Mark 8: 34-38
Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
On the night before Jesus was betrayed, Peter told Jesus so confidently that he would lay down his life for Jesus. But right after the arrest of Jesus, Peter denied Jesus 3 times. Luke 22:54-62.
1. The first time, he denied knowing Jesus.
2. The second time, he denied being one of His disciples.
3. The third time being cornered, he cursed, swear and dismissed summarily the allegations by saying, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about !”
1. In all these years that I have been warning about the extreme danger of the cheap grace theology, I tried to show the believers of this false theology that they actually deny knowing Jesus by denying His words such as His caution against the lure of wealth and living in dissipation in life, and that life does not consist in the abundance of possessions and we may even be persecuted and hated for His name sake. By denying or dismissing His words is akin to being ashamed of His words.
2. And that they also deny being the disciples of Jesus if they do not take His demands of discipleship of giving up the hold of family, self and possessions seriously to heart. Luke 14:25-35.
3. To complete the denials, if I press too hard about the above two denials in my argument, these believers will simply dismiss me off by saying, “You have got it wrong” without telling me where I have got it wrong.
If these professing believers want to make the best of this life on earth just like the unsaved, they will lose it. They may gain the whole world but they will forfeit their souls. The tenet of this whole false theology is effectively being ashamed of identifying with a Suffering Saviour and Lord, refusing to be content with just food and clothing, and ashamed of His words of caution against the lure of the world.
To the chagrin of some, my regular writing to contend for the faith against the cheap grace theology is done in the hope that I can win some brothers back by the grace of God. James 5:19-20. At the very least, I hope to do my little part in fighting off the spiritual deception through exposing the flaws in this false theology. In fact, I will be so uncharitable and it will weigh on my conscience if I am indifferent to the terrible destiny of those who are misled by this false theology.