Hyper-grace teachers on forgiveness and repentance.
Paul Ellis
“Forgiveness seems to be a blind spot for many people. We just can’t seem to get it into our heads that God has forgiven us completely and for all time.”
“Jesus said in Matt. 6:15, ‘if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins’. This is not good news. This is bad news that should make us shake in our boots for it links God’s forgiveness to our own. It is not grace, it is law. That is quid pro quo and tit for tat. It is something you must give to get.”
Quotes from, ’The Gospel in Ten Words’, page 28.
Ryan Rufus
“Many Christians when they sin feel unrighteous, dirty, unholy – they feel they have let God down and that God is displeased with them. They feel they need to do ‘something’. So guilt drives them to want to do something to get rid of the sin, or to get rid of the guilt of their sin. That guilt wants to lead them … to confess … to repent of these terrible sins and get cleansed … and promise to never do [them] again.”
“I want to tell you that there is no scripture in the new covenant for new covenant believers that tells you, you have to continually confess your sins and repent of your sins and ask forgiveness for all your sins. Why? Because one sacrifice for all time for all of your sins has already dealt with every single one of your sins! … We are not called to confess our sins – we are called to confess our righteousness in Christ.”
“As a new covenant born-again believer, to now go and ask forgiveness after you have sinned is a sin. It is the sin of unbelief. You don’t believe in the finished work of the cross. You are trying to do something and don’t realize it is already done!”
Ryan Rufus’s instruction on prayer
“We pray this way, ‘God, I’m sorry, I did not want to do that. That’s not part of my new creation nature. You know what, God, though? I am not going to get all morbid and introspective and sorrowful and guilty. You don’t want that. … You [God] want me to get in the Spirit and stay in the Spirit, and [to] thank You for the free gift of righteousness and total forgiveness. And I fix my eyes on Jesus who has forgiven me all of my sins. I thank You that I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.”
All above quotes are from, ‘Totally Forgiven! Totally United! Totally Filled!’ Links no longer available. Reference found in ‘Hyper-Grace’: Exposing the Dangers of the Modern Grace Message’ by Michael Brown. Emphasis mine.
“Repentance is not being sorry. Being sorry is what causes repentance. What causes sorrow is a revelation that what you are doing is wrong and grieves God. Saying sorry and asking for forgiveness is not repentance.” It happens when your mind comes into contact with God. His blog, link #3 below.
It becomes evident that for hyper-grace leaders that repentance is not about your sin, it’s about your trying to earn. You must change your mind about trying to earn. They see legalism everywhere.
See Ryan’s blog posts on repentance, #1, #2, #3. There is an element of truth in what he writes; so, he does correctly assess the problem. And, while he, and others, rightly combat legalism, their ultimate conclusions are not biblical. Thus, they remain not reformed.
Andre Rabe
“Confession of sin is not the act in which we tell God about our sin, but the act in which we tell sin about our God.” From, ‘Metanoia’, page 272-3 Kindle edition 2012, Amazon Digital Services.
Clark Whitten
“Christians are not required to confess their sins to God in order to be forgiven, we already are forgiven” … “I believe that New Testament repentance is not the Holy Spirit convicting [me] of sin, me feeling sorry, confessing the sin, asking for forgiveness, and committing to stop doing it.” ~ Pure Grace, Destiny Image Pub. 2012, page 20.
“As a Christian, I do not confess sin to God in order to be forgiven. I already am forgiven; and furthermore, I am cleansed of sin and have become the righteousness of God in Christ. That does not mean that I never interact with God about sin, but it does mean it is a fruitless religious exercise to ask for what has already been given.” Page 95.
Whitten does not tie repentance to sin. In Whitten’s explanation from pages 97-102, the essence of repentance is relational. Thus he writes, “Repentance is an interchange between a loving Father and a responsive child loving him back. It is your loving response”, page 101.
Whitten explains the relational love essence of repentance
“Sin is a violation of friendship – not a violation of the law“, page 21.
“Many think … sin .. does damage [to] my fellowship with God … the threat of God withholding fellowship … is another non-biblical concept. It is a lie. … We are seated together with Christ in heavenly places now – no withdrawing of fellowship as a means of punishment”, page 22.
So, to Whitten, neither sin or repentance has any bearing on your spontaneous love-relationship with God. God doesn’t need any ‘I’m sorrys’ because ‘you can’t make God love you less by sinning, or love you more by being sorry about that sin‘. Requiring repentance is mixing grace with law; it creates a “greasy grace“, page 21.
Reformed Protestant leaders
Andy
A. Lanning in the Mar. 15, 2022, vol. 2 #16 of his magazine.
“Here is my definition and doctrine of repentance: Repentance is the believer’s spontaneous love for God as that love comes into contact with and hates the believer’s own sin and corruption. My explanation of that definition is that, in its essence, repentance is love for God”, page 10.
“Such love is the fruit of faith, and it springs forth spontaneously from faith” … “repenting is simply his [the believer’s] love for God”, page 10.
“Repentance is sincere joy of heart”, page 11.
“Repenting [is a] work of gratitude” … [is] spontaneous fruit”, page 12.
“Repentance springs from faith as its fruit from the very instant that a man believes, that repentance has no bearing whatsoever on that man’s remission of sins or his justification”, page 27.
Rev. N. Langerak
From the same S&S Mar. 15, 2022 issue, page 43:
“We teach that there is forgiveness without repenting. We teach that repentance follows forgiveness”. “The sinner has forgiveness without repenting”.
“Before the ministry of reconciliation preached one syllable, God forgave his elect all their sins and did not impute those sins unto them without a single tear of repentance. They were forgiven“.
Compare AL and NL to the hyper-grace teachers for yourself.
Next time, some other quotes.
(Note: many hyper-gracers believe in more than one covenant.)
