{"id":2223,"date":"2012-02-19T22:28:19","date_gmt":"2012-02-20T02:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shieldsgroup.com\/?p=2223"},"modified":"2012-02-23T22:49:06","modified_gmt":"2012-02-24T02:49:06","slug":"the-abuse-of-grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/19\/the-abuse-of-grace\/","title":{"rendered":"The Abuse of Grace"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t know if you\u2019re familiar with the Bugatti Veyron<\/strong>, but it\u2019s a magical machine. It has 1,000 horsepower.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

That\u2019s right \u2014 1,000. It has a special key you must insert and turn, while at rest, to allow it to use all those horses. When you do, it will travel over 250 mph. That\u2019s powerful. The special key is a safety feature, because Bugatti knows that a lot of power can be very dangerous.<\/p>\n

Have you ever noticed that almost always, when something is very powerful, it is very dangerous<\/strong>? Take a waterfall for example. As beautiful as Niagara Falls is, it would be a dangerous place were it not for the railing. Or farm equipment. Perhaps one of the most dangerous places to work is a farm because of the power of the machinery. Or tools. There was not much danger in an old hand-saw. But there is great danger in power tools.
\nThe more power, the more danger.<\/p>\n

This is true of grace. Grace is a powerful thing. The Bible tells us that grace is more powerful than law.<\/p>\n

Romans 8:3a (NIV) For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering\u2026.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Law of Moses is powerless compared to grace.<\/strong> Grace is the only thing powerful enough to procure your salvation, to keep you from judgment, and to find you forgiveness. Without grace, you would be forced to face God\u2019s wrath.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Yes. Grace is powerful. And with that power, comes great danger \u2014 the danger of abusing grace.<\/strong> This podcast addresses this danger and encourages us to avoid it at all costs.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/mp3s\/2012\/grace\/20120218Grace03_TheAbuseOfGrace.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t know if you\u2019re familiar with the Bugatti Veyron, but it\u2019s a magical machine. It has 1,000 horsepower. That\u2019s right \u2014 1,000. It has a special key you must insert and turn, while at rest, to allow it to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,2,9,1],"tags":[604],"class_list":["post-2223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-godly-living","category-grace","category-sermon-podcasts","category-spiritual-life","tag-grace"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9XvmV-zR","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2223\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}