The Alternative

Dr. Tony Evans: For deliverance from something, you don't need more law, you need more grace.

Guest (Male): Dr. Tony Evans says grace isn't the alternative to right living, it's the doorway to right living.

Dr. Tony Evans: It does what rule-keeping cannot do. It's stronger than your addiction. It's stronger than your rebellion. Grace overruled it.

Guest (Male): This is The Alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. Many people assume heaven is reserved for those who manage to be good enough to make the cut. But today, Dr. Evans turns that idea on its head as he reveals what truly opens the door to eternity. Let's join him in 2 Peter chapter three.

Dr. Tony Evans: So let's look at the ingredients of grace. First of all, you need to understand, we need to understand that grace is always free. Romans 3:24 says justified freely by His grace. Revelation 21:6 says it's without cost. Revelation 22:13 says it is without cost. There are no strings attached. So let's get this in your mind because I know it's not normal. Grace is free.

Not only is grace free, but grace is apart from works. Romans chapter 11, verse six puts it this way: But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works. Otherwise, grace is no longer grace. Works cancel grace. You can't work for grace. A lot of non-Christians try to work their way to heaven.

They'll tell you, I try to keep the Ten Commandments, I'm nice to my neighbors. They use their work as the basis to earn a spot in glory when the Bible says you're not saved by work. You can't earn grace. A lot of Christians are trying to earn grace. They're trying to work hard enough, go to church hard enough, and maybe God will bless me. If I do this more, maybe I'll get more from God. And they're trying to earn grace. Grace cannot be earned through effort.

Now this all of a sudden, some of you, this should be throwing you off. And if it's throwing you off, good, because you're in the process of shifting from a flip phone to an iPhone. And that flip sometimes will throw you off. So grace is apart from works. It cannot be earned. Like oil and water, they are mutually exclusive.

Okay, now here's the whopper. Grace is separate from law. The Old Testament was law. The New Testament is grace. And the two are separate and are not to be mixed. That is, the Old Testament law. Romans 6:14 says you are no longer under law, you are now under grace. Galatians 2:21, Paul said, I do not nullify and cancel out the grace of God by going back to law.

Galatians 1 verses 6 and 7, the Apostle Paul says, who has bewitched you? Who has tricked you Christians in Galatia, that you have left grace? They were being duped by being driven back to the old system. When you make a new contract in work or in business or whatever, you nullify the old contract. You may take some things from the old contract and put it in the new contract, but it is a new contract.

And you don't then go back to the old contract to operate in the new contract, even though the new contract may put some things in it from the old system. And so this is different. And it is unfortunate that more Christians aren't trained in grace. In fact, one of the reasons that Christians stay defeated for so long is they've never switched systems.

Because as you will discover in our series, the old system can't help you. In fact, if you have a wrong relationship to the old system, it'll mess you up more. You're going to find out that if you're operating under that old contract, that that old contract can literally mess you up more even though you want to be better. The old system will actually cancel out grace.

That's what Galatians 2:21 said: I nullify the grace of God. I cancel it out. He's talking about as a Christian. I can cancel grace's power and work in my life. Let me tell you something else about grace. It is comprehensive. It includes everything. Ephesians 1:3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places.

It's comprehensive. Second Corinthians chapter 9, verse 8, it says grace is sufficient for every good work. It's comprehensive. The Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 5:10 says that God is the God of all grace. In fact, grace is fully loaded. And it is so fully loaded that Ephesians 2 verse 7 says that in the ages to come, billions of years from now, you will be experiencing more grace.

Some of you track with the iPhone forever. People just tracking with it, tracking with it, tracking with it. You know why? Because they keep adding a little bit more. The only difference is it cost. God says His grace will be more and more and more and more and more and more forever, and it will all be free because it is comprehensive.

So I don't know about you, but if I can get all these iPhones for free, if you can get grace for free because it is comprehensive. Let me tell you another ingredient of grace, and we all need this one. It is powerful. Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5, verse 20. The law came in so that the transgression would increase.

In other words, the Ten Commandments came in to make you worse off because of it is called the Covenant of Condemnation in 2 Corinthians 3. All the law does is show you how sinful you are. Paul said, I was fine until I read the law. You ever been by a paint sign and it said, do not touch? All that sign did was draw out the rebellion that was there.

Says with the law, transgression increases. And that's why the law can't help you get better. The Old Covenant can't help you. It's important because it reveals some stuff, but it can't help you. But look at what it says. The law came in so that transgression would increase, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.

So why do you need grace? Because it does what rule-keeping under the law cannot do. It's stronger than your addiction. It's stronger than your sin. It's stronger than your rebellion. It's stronger than the thing that seems to be holding you hostage as a stronghold. He says where sin increased, got worse, I'm worse off, grace super-abounded and overruled it.

So for deliverance from something, you don't need more law, you need more grace. But if you don't understand this, then you're going to be looking for the 12 steps of this and the 50 steps of that, and you're going to be out of money trying to get better on a spiritual issue. And he says grace is free, and it is super-powerful over sin.

Guest (Male): But just because it's free doesn't mean it's cheap. Dr. Evans will return with a word for those who take grace for granted when he continues our message in just a moment. First though, I want to tell you about our featured resource for this series: Tony's devotional book, Anchored by Grace.

This encouraging resource is designed to help you stop striving in your own strength and start living from the stability of God's unchanging favor. It's filled with practical insights to help steady your faith when life feels uncertain, and it's the perfect way to dig deeper into what we've been learning on the program today. If you contact us right away, we'll send you a copy of Anchored by Grace as our gift in appreciation for your donation to this ministry.

Along with it, you'll get an added bonus: all 12 full-length audio messages in Tony's current series, The Magnificent Grace of God. tonyevans.org is the place to go to get the details and make the arrangements. Or call 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our friendly resource team members help you. They're standing by 24/7, so there's no need to wait. Again, that's 1-800-800-3222 or online at tonyevans.org. Dr. Evans will come back with more of our lesson after this.

Dr. Tony Evans: This October, journey through Israel with Tony Evans. We're going to gather together with many of our friends to survey the sites of the Holy Land. We're going to go to the Jordan River, the Sea of Galilee, the Garden Tomb, the Garden of Gethsemane. We're going to open God's word together and watch its truth leap off of the pages of Scripture as we walk where our Lord walked and see God give us new excitement about His greatness and about the truth of His word.

Guest (Male): It's an unforgettable experience that'll change the way you understand Scripture. Space is limited, so visit tonyevans.org today to get all the details and register before it's too late. That's tonyevans.org. Ten wonderful days in the Holy Land. Looking forward to meeting you as we tour Israel together. And now let's get back to Dr. Evans for more on the concept of grace.

Dr. Tony Evans: Now let me tell you the problem with grace. Because I'm sure that there are those who having struggles with what I'm saying. You see I'm using verses so you see what I'm saying is in the Bible, not making it up, but something sounds a little off. Because anything that's free can be easily abused. It doesn't carry the value often when it's free.

And so you get a birthday present that you send to somebody else. Or you mishandle it. Or you break it. But you're not worried that you broke it because, hey, you didn't have to pay for it. So hear me now. Grace is risky business. And this is where people struggle. I hear it all the time. Well wait a minute.

If God's favor to me is free and it's going to keep on coming, then why don't I just keep on sinning? Because after all His grace is free. Paul knew that. That's why he wrote in Romans chapter 6, verse 1: Shall we sin that grace may abound? Will grace free me up to do my own thing, to rebel against God? Because after all, I'm saved, I'm saved forever, you know, God's still a gracious God.

So because people don't understand grace, there is the possibility that they will misuse it. And Paul recognizes that people can think that way. That's why he had to clarify. So in our series we want to clarify grace because when you understand it, you are less likely to want to abuse it. It is because we either do not understand it or don't want to understand it that it's so easily abused and misused.

It's not because there's something wrong with grace; it's something wrong with us. St. John chapter 1, verses 16 and 17 of St. John 1. For of His fullness, talking about Jesus, of His fullness we have all received and grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

If you've ever seen Niagara Falls, or picture of Niagara Falls, it's this ever-flowing awesome sight of water that just keeps on coming. That's what he means in verse 16: grace on top of grace. It just keeps flowing. The grace flow is a continuous flow. Or if you are a beach person, it's like saying wave after wave after wave after wave of something.

The waves keep coming in. Like a surfer looking for the wave, it just, they just keep on coming. So he says God is revealed in Christ grace on top of grace. It just keeps on flowing. When the law came through Moses, it made Israel a unique civil society because of the laws God gave to Moses.

He says but grace and truth come through Jesus Christ. So watch this. Grace is not merely a theology; it is a person. I call this the conduit of grace. It says grace and truth. Grace is intimately tied to truth. In other words, to experience the waves, to experience Niagara Falls continually falling on you.

It continues to fall, but for you to get wet, for you to experience it, it is always going to be tied to truth. I have a car, you have a car. This is my fourth car of the same type. So when I get a new car or trade in a car, it's always the same one over the last four. I get basic benefits from my car.

I drive, you know, I get to where I want to go. I get basic, I get air conditioner, I got radio. I got basic things in my car. In none of these vehicles have I bothered to pick up the book about my car that's in my glove compartment. Because you know why? I'm satisfied with basic car.

I get in it, I get to where I want to go, I get back home, I'm good. So I'm satisfied with basic car until I have recently discovered that in that book is information about my car that I never ever knew existed. My car can do everything but fly. It's got all kind of little gadgets and things that do things differently, make things sound differently, can make it go up a little bit or down a little bit.

It got all these configurations that I never knew operated. In other words, I didn't have truth about my car. I just had basic ride. If I would have known then what I know now, I would get more benefit out of it. You can't experience more grace without learning more truth. The more truth you learn based on the word of God tied in the system of grace, the more of Jesus you experience.

Because grace is a person, not merely a philosophy. And so he says the law came from Moses, but grace and truth was realized through Jesus Christ. When you're in trouble, you don't need a law book, you need a lawyer. When you're sick, you don't need a medical manual, you need a doctor.

When you're in trouble with a criminal, you don't need a penal code, you need a police person. In other words, you need the visible, physical manifestation of what the book talks about. Because the physical person, the lawyer, the doctor, the police person is going to do with you what the book requires.

But the book can't fix your problem. Unless what you learn from the book is transmitted to you through the person, then you can know the manual and have the manual and not have the experience. Because Jesus must translate from the book to your experience.

Grace is introducing you and me and us to a whole different way of thinking, operating, and living. And if you will grow in this understanding and therefore in the knowledge, 2 Peter 3:18, of a person Jesus Christ, then you will experience God at a level beyond which you have ever experienced before.

Because now you won't have to talk about the peace of God, you will have had it. The joy of the Lord, you will have experienced it. The victory that's in Him, you'll know what that's about. Because grace is the system that God uses to deliver it. So I want to challenge you to get rid of this, that is, the old system because the new system engulfs it, and it gives you so much more.

A father had died, and he had a wealth of paintings, very expensive, that he was going to auction off. And so the auctioneer, in accordance with the will, set up an auction to auction off all of his very expensive paintings. People came from everywhere because these were expensive paintings. The auctioneer said, "The auction is now open. Bring out the first piece."

They brought out an old picture of a little boy. The boy happened to be the father's son, but it wasn't one of these fancy expensive paintings. The father had one son, and he put the painting out there. The auctioneer said, "Who would like to make their bid on painting number one?" Nobody bidded because it wasn't one of the fancy pieces.

An old gentleman in the back raised his hand, and he says, "If nobody will take it, I will." The old man in the back happened to be the servant of the father who died. He says, "I'll take that picture." He walked up, and the auctioneer gave him the picture. As he walked out, the auctioneer took the gavel and slammed it down and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, the auction is now over. It has been completed."

The roar from the crowd said, "What in the world are you talking about? You haven't even gotten to the good stuff yet. You just brought out this one painting. What are you talking about, it's over? We've just begun." The auctioneer took out a piece of paper, and it was a letter that the father had left. And it simply said this:

"When you auction off my painting, the painting of my son should be the first one. And whoever gets the painting of my son, you are to give everything else to. Because my love for my son will affect who gets everything else." Grace says God's got everything else, but it's the knowledge of Jesus Christ that gets you to everything else. Grow in grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Guest (Male): Dr. Tony Evans, talking about what it really means to know the Lord. Part of that two-volume teaching series I mentioned earlier, The Magnificent Grace of God, a comprehensive look at the free gift that rewrites our spiritual future as it changes us from the inside out. This set of 12 full-length messages contains material we won't have time to bring you on the air, and it's our gift to you in appreciation for your contribution to help keep Dr. Evans' teaching on this station.

Along with it, you'll get the follow-up book I told you about earlier, Tony's devotional, Anchored by Grace. You can get all the details and make the arrangements online at tonyevans.org. And while you're there, be sure to sign up for Tony's free weekly email devotional. Again, that's tonyevans.org or call us at 1-800-800-3222, where resource team members are available around the clock to help you. That's 1-800-800-3222.

And one quick note before we wrap up today: All of us here at The Urban Alternative are deeply grateful for your ongoing prayers and support. They've made a difference in more ways than you may realize. Thanks to faithful friends like you, Dr. Evans' ministry has recently reached a milestone of more than one million subscribers on YouTube.

And we are honored to partner with you in carrying the gospel around the world. Google Maps won't tell you this, but there's no way to navigate from here to heaven without going through Jesus Christ. Next time, Dr. Evans points out that grace is the road that gets us there. Be sure to join us.