The term Hyper Grace has been thrown around but what does this really mean? I would like you to consider today teachers that are currently promoting what could be called hyper grace. For those that hold this position they may balk at this term, but suffice it to say the term does help to paint the picture well.
I have chosen to look in at three men that I have found that are preaching and teaching a similar style of error. They are Joseph Prince in part one and Andrew Farely along with Jeremy White in part two.
Many may be drawn to their grace like gospel talk at first glance but one always needs to consider the fuller body of a person’s theology or work. The reason is that these men teach things further down the road that contradict their “grace” message.
So first let’s consider some quotes from Joseph Prince. He is a preacher that can be found on TV. Here are some telling quotes from him.
“There is no other qualification for being forgiven of your sins. The old covenant was based on justification by works (obedience to the Ten Commandments).You had to perform to be forgiven. But the new covenant of grace is based entirely on justification by faith (believing in Jesus Christ).”
― Joseph Prince, Destined To Reign
(The first thing to notice with all three of these guys is that there is apparent error concerning exactly how people were saved under the Old Covenant. Prince says clearly here that he thinks that one had to perform in order to be forgiven. However, Abraham (Rom 4) was justified before God by faith alone. Then we see in James 2 that it was also mentioned that Abraham was justified before men by way of testimony relating to his works. But remember that his forgiveness was granted by faith.)
“Anyone who is living in sin is not under grace and has not experienced the gift of no condemnation. Grace always results in victory over sin!”
― Joseph Prince, Destined To Reign
(Prince makes a very lordship works oriented statement. It appears that he does actually still say that performance is required. He has just tacked it on the backside of salvation like most lordshippers. This statement is contrary to grace. God’s grace is unmerited.)
“I don’t believe for one moment that a believer who has truly encountered the complete forgiveness of Jesus and the perfection of His finished work would desire to live a life of sin. It is His grace and forgiveness that gives you the power to overcome sin. Apostle Paul said, “Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”4 When you are under God’s grace and His perfect forgiveness, you will experience victory over sin.”
― Joseph Prince, Destined To Reign
(This statement continues the previous error. Prince may be surprised to find that many of the believers -actually saved people- mentioned in the New Testament lived lives full of sin. We will expreience victory as believers not automatically but when we specifically walk in the Spirit applying the truth revealed to us by God’s Word. There is a big difference.)
“Because Jesus’ blood continually cleanses you, you cannot bounce in and out of the light of Christ, in and out of being seated in the heavenly places in Christ, in and out of being forgiven, justified, and made righteous, or in and out of fellowship with God. It is not a sometimes-yes-sometimes-no salvation, but a salvation that has secured a YES to all of God’s promises because of the blood of Jesus (see 2 Corinthians 1:19-20)!”
― Joseph Prince, Grace Revolution: Experience the Power to Live Above Defeat
(Similar to what we will see with the next two, Prince makes the mistake of equating ongoing fellowship with God with our positional place in Christ. While yes were are saved eternally as believers, we can still find ourselves needing to deal with sin in our lives that displeases our Lord. This is why I consider this view hyper grace. It extends the grace of salvation itself to practical daily living. So to understand, on one hand they say faith will perform, but on the other they say well it doesn’t matter if you mess up because you are always perfectly right with God no matter what. Though if one does too much sinning then supposedly you are not really saved… which negates grace just as much as any lordship “doctrine”. I will say more about fellowship in part two.)
The fact is that the Bible mentions repeatedly believers that the Lord had something against. The message in Revelation 2 to the believers at the church of Ephesus says in part: “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.”
These believers risked the loss of their church if they did not repent (change their mind) and do the first works that were pleasing to the Lord.
Staying in chapter 2 we see a warning from the Lord to the church at Pergamos:
“But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.
So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.”
Remember that these believers were eternally saved people. They were eternally as positionally righteous as Christ is righteous but in practice they were displeasing the Lord by doing things that the Lord hates. You could say the ones in danger of being fought against with the sword of His mouth were not in close fellowship with Him. They needed to repent of their errant ways and deeds.
Take a look at the rest of chapter 2 and Revelation chapter 3 and see the kind of things that believers were doing that displeased the Lord. Take note also that These churches are actual churches (bodies of believers locally assembled) from that time. Some try to say these are only types of churches throughout the ages but that view has to be read backwards into the text. So I don’t hold to it.
Let’s also consider Hebrews chapter 10. This is written to believers. We know from the text that they were positionally sanctified. The writer of Hebrews includes himself with them and says in verse 10: “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” The writer goes on to clarify their position in Christ and challenges them to draw near with a true heart, hold fast their profession, consider one another, and to provoke others unto good works not forsaking the assembling of themselves together. Then we see a warning to the same saved people in verse 26. The willful sin was to as believers spit in the face of God’s grace and go back to law keeping and sacrifices. God reminds us here the He will judge His people. For believers we are talking here about physical consequences in this life and / or loss of potential reward in the next.
2 Cor 7 is also a good reminder of believers being called out for sin. Paul had previously rebuked them and then in 2 Corinthians says to these believers beginning in verse 8: ”
“For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent: for I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season. Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.”
Paul made them sorry with a letter. A hyper grace advocate would not recommend doing any such thing to make believers sorry for their sin. They would say well it is all under the blood so don’t even bring it up. But we see here that this sorrow was a good kind of “godly” sorrow. This godly sorrow is something believers can have in the Spirit. This repentance was to salvation. It was not salvation from hell but salvation from earthly consequences and spiritual fallout as in tarnished testimony or loss of rewards. (See other scriptures for examples.) The point is that this repentance done by believers in response to rebuke provided them a great clearing of themselves before the Lord in their practical walk with Him. They had been cleared in the matter. This is where a verse like 1 John 1:9 would be a parallel. In order to see the continual progression of ongoing cleansing in our lives as believers we need to honestly deal with God when confronted with our sins and failures. If you as a believer can’t admit there is a problem them you are actively resisting the Spirit’s work of progressive sanctification in your life. You’ll still be saved but it is tough to bear much fruit that way or be full of joy in your Christian experience.
Hyper grace robs people of the very concept of believers getting right with God in their personal walk with Him. I am glad that the Corinthians listened to Paul and not the advice of the likes of Joseph Prince.
In part two we will consider quotes from Andrew Farley and Jeremy White. As always beware of falsehood. Test everything with scripture and don’t let hyper grace suck you in.
In Christ,
Jim Floyd
Stand For the Faith 
To those trying to say I have misconstrued Joseph’s Prince’s view, I can say that it is clear based on his statements. He makes it obvious in his book Destined to Reign that he thinks 1 John 1:9 is written to Gnostic unbelievers. However, it along with the whole book, is written to believers that their joy would be full. Prince, due to his combining of justification and sanctification effectively into one, misses the concept of confession in the Christian life. He thinks a believer has no reason to ever face earthly punishment etc. He says that God’s anger will never fall on you as a believer since He already forgave your sins. But that doesn’t line up with scripture as I have already mentioned.
There is no reason for me to change anything I have said unless there is a proof somewhere where Prince has publicly recanted those previously held views. If so, I could post an update. But absent that, my take on him stands.
I get that people want to tolerate or even follow his teaching. For me though there is enough there to alert people to watch out.
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Kerem, you might want to look into his teaching on James 2.
Hey Andrew Farley actually does say you can continue to live in sin and still be saved, he just says it will be uncomfortable for a believer and that there are negative earthly consequences to sin. I do agree with you that it’s faith alone but I haven’t seen anything in Andrew Farley’s sermons that contradict that.
Thanks appreciate it when i see Bob Wilkins materials not sure, because they departed from the grace gospel years ago, so maybe their old material might be sound, but don’t know when they crossed over.
Mary,
It simply because they simply do not understand. I stay away from them and anything from Shawn Lazar or Bob Wilkin. As I indicated in the post, Prince clearly from his own statements does not teach grace. Sadly GES misses the boat often from the crossless gospel, to outer darkness for unbelievers, to what ends up being ecumenism. My recommendation is to avoid them. They are not us so to speak.
https://faithalone.org/grace-in-focus-articles/is-joseph-prince-free-grace/ why does Grace evangelical say Prince is on the same page as us.
Angela, his statement right there is Lordship. If you are living in sin, ie not under his lordship, then you are not saved. God’s grace does not mean we will do right, it means we can choose to do right. To do that we must walk in the Spirit. It is not a foregone conclusion
““Anyone who is living in sin is not under grace and has not experienced the gift of no condemnation. Grace always results in victory over sin!”
― Joseph Prince, Destined To Reign
I see no Lordship salvation thinking in his teachings, Prince is instructing on the method for victorious living. He is stating that being under grace is where one is victorious this is completely contradictory to lordship teaching which tends to focus on obedience to Christ based on self-effort not grace.
People like Joseph Prince or Andrew Farley preach sermons that reel many in because it appears they have a clear understanding of God’s Grace. Unfortunately they seem stuck in the same rut that loadshippers are. They either add before the gospel, or they put a load on the back. And it tends to get people saying a TRUE believer WILL do this or WILL NOT do that, or WILL DESIRE this, etc. Our free will doesn’t end at the receipt of eternal life, and our flesh can stay carnal, or we can choose to walk in the Spirit. Many need help with that. Thanks for your blog Jim 🙂
Gotcha. That does makes sense. People have a habit of having one experience with the lord and deciding that if anyone else hasn’t had that experience (in this case the transformative power of Gods grace) then they might not be saved. I agree, that is wrong. The flesh is the flesh and can do nothing other than that which is contrary to God. If after being born again through Christ with a perfect spirit, one decides to continue to walk in his flesh, that is his choice, but has no barometer on whether or not he is saved. The fact is that before he was born again he did not have a choice, but now he has a the choice to serve or not to serve. Thanks Jim!
Hi Coty, thanks for the comment. As you know, the point about Prince and Farley and other “hyper-grace” advocates is not that there is a concept that grace abounds (to which I agree) but that in essence they deny it. For them while they make it sound like they are about grace in saying you don’t have to practice I John 1:9 as a believer (a falsehood), they contradict the concept that grace abounds by saying that perpetual sinning means you are unsaved. See the quotes I have mentioned in the post by Prince:
““Anyone who is living in sin is not under grace and has not experienced the gift of no condemnation. Grace always results in victory over sin!”
― Joseph Prince, Destined To Reign
(Prince makes a very lordship works oriented statement. It appears that he does actually still say that performance is required. He has just tacked it on the backside of salvation like most lordshippers. This statement is contrary to grace. God’s grace is unmerited.)
“I don’t believe for one moment that a believer who has truly encountered the complete forgiveness of Jesus and the perfection of His finished work would desire to live a life of sin. It is His grace and forgiveness that gives you the power to overcome sin. Apostle Paul said, “Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”4 When you are under God’s grace and His perfect forgiveness, you will experience victory over sin.”
― Joseph Prince, Destined To Reign
Btw, it is hard for God to use people that teach a false grace because they work against the Holy Spirit’s work.
Hi Jim,
Thanks for the website and the clear presentation of the Gospel.
I want to say something about “hyper-grace.”
The term is actually found in the Bible. In Romans 5:20, when Paul is talking about the law being given so that the transgression would abound, but where the transgression abounded Grace abounded all the more, the word in the Greek that is translated abound is huperperisseuo. It means to exceedingly abound, or to super-abound. Grace super abounds above our sin. In a sense it is hyper. I’m sure you’ll agree with this as I have read through your site several times. And I understand that you are probably using the term hypergrace to label certain teachers that you believe are in error, such as the label lordship salvationists, who are truly in error. But I believe a lot of what Prince, and other “hyper grace” teachers harp on is the fact that Christ did not come to make the flesh better. He came to crucify it (Gal 2:20). People fall into error believing that what was began by the spirit can be continued in the flesh. We have been made the righteousness of God through Christ. Trying accomplish through the flesh what can only be accomplished through our spirit tha is one with Christ is impossible. It’s not our job to bear fruit, it is Christ’s (the vine) which he does through us (the branches). There are many pictures of this in the OT. One is the Passover story. The blood was applied to the door gods wrath would pass over them (Just as Christ’s blood is applied to all who believe on him) but God also told the Israelites to cook the lamb and eat all of it for the journey ahead which is also a picture of Christ’s sufficiency not only for salvation but also for the journey of the Christian walk.
All that being said, I think some of the hyper grace teachers use some scriptures out of context as we all have at sometime. But if you are being pointed away from yourself and to Christ, then the Holy Spirit has done his work.
Hi JohnWI,
You can send your question to standforthefaith@charter.net
Jim
I wanted to ask you some questions about the Grace conference and I didn’t want to do it in this format because I wanted to ask about a speaker.
Jason, do you have an email I can contact you at?
Please also consider Dr Arnold’s message from the grace conference this year. It helps explain a lot. Is this or is this not what Idleman advocates? I think you’ll find a difference.
Jason,
That is a good list. And it takes many people in. Sometimes i think it can be helpful to illustrate grace in a mathematical sense. What I mean is that it really is binary as far as it goes relating to salvation. In binary there are ones and zeros. 0+0 is 0. 0+1 is 1. 1+1 in binary is 10 but the first digit is still a zero. Eternal life has to equal 1. The righteousness of one.
So the way I see it is this: 0+0 would be like not doing good works for salvation but also not trusting the Savior or trusting a wrong savior. It equates to no salvation. Doing good works for salvation plus what Christ as done is 1+1. Our works actually added to what Christ has done is not trusting Christ alone. It equates to no salvation. Now trusting no works/merit of my own but trusting Christ alone for salvation (based on who He is and what he has done) is to receive eternal life.
Practical examples:
0+0 would be like crossless gospel or JDS. They are not necessarily trying to be saved by works but have either a non-descript vague savior or an invalidated savior.
1+1 would be like the Catholic or lordshipper that add in anything other than what Christ has done for eternal life before or after conversion as requirement for salvation. Many of these people understand the object of faith and may even realize the importance of the blood and the cross and that Jesus did not die spiritually but add in things for the reception of eternal life.
Joseph Prince fails this test. Just take the quote above: “Anyone who is living in sin is not under grace and has not experienced the gift of no condemnation. Grace always results in victory over sin!”
― Joseph Prince, Destined To Reign”
Only Christ’s righteousness can be added to our bankrupt account and equal eternal life.
In the above example some of them may have trusted Christ alone for salvation at one point but their current message is either 0+0 or 1+1. That is a shame and men will be accountable at the Bema seat for that, not punitively, but in loss of reward that they otherwise could have had.
Jim
Calvinism is hypergrace. A grace that is so hyper that it:
elects unconditionally
pregenerates
compels faith
limits the atonement
overthrows free will
gives license to resist God
results in automatic perseverance
puts confidence in God’s special favor
makes God a liar
falsely claims that free will puts you under the law
And it adds works. You would think that holiness by osmosis logically follows. It used to take me in by its overthinking. It is no grace at all.
Jason,
I won’t discuss that individual person here on this site, but yes I do believe I have seen this effect in action with people. I called it the pendulum effect or ditch hoping effect. It is like leaving one ditch along the narrow path for another. Or always circling or passing over the truth without settling on it.
Regardless, continue to stick to the truth in love and let the person deal with the Holy Spirit
Jim, I agree about everything. They are both false teachers. The result: from the fire back into frying pan. Unstable minds like (named removed by admin) come to mind.
Jason,
Yeah, there isn’t much truth out there these days especially on YouTube. If videos were my thing, I wouldn’t personally use YouTube for them. Though some solid teachers choose to.
Anyway, this guy sounds like a false teacher and false teachers tend to deceive those taking teaching from them. It is why it is some important to teach new believers how to study and compare scriptures for themselves.
Yes, some people run from blatant lordshippers into the hands of fake grace teachers who make them feel better. The devil loves to use the handle of feelings to control people. Thankfully God’s Word cuts through all that.
As for conditional rapture, there is only one condition, either you have trusted Christ as Savior or not.
I was disappointed that a Youtuber by the name of Jim Beckwith uses your blog to argue for a loadship position. On his channel, End Time Prophecy News, he lifts the title of this very article, displays this article, and quotes it. He glosses right over your criticism of loadship and misses it. Near the end, he says you are wrong. He presents a conditional rapture wherever he mentions it. He calls grace “easy-believism” and mocks it. This makes me so sad. It causes the sheep to go right back to Joseph Prince because he comforts them.
John, first of all merry Christmas to you. Secondly, please note that the believers rebuked in the NT did many kinds of sins. It was not just that they denied grace. Also note that there is a really big difference between denying Christ grace by way of the cross and denying the grace to live your Christian Life practically before the Lord.
You please the Lord by practically walking in the Spirit. There is always room to grow in this to more maturity. I as well live guilt free, but if the feelings of guilt do show up through Holy Spirit conviction by way of the read or spoken Word, then I deal with it right then and stay free of guilt as I know forgiveness is in the Savior. If I were to dwell on the sin or the shame or focus on a fleshly way to try to do better, then I would be allowing the devil control and advantage. You don’t need hyper grace to help fight the devil, just biblical grace as defined by Jesus Christ. Hyper grace does not necessarily advocate a licence to sin, but does fail to realize how to deal with sin when it happens.
I was at a crossroad between hypergrace and teachings such as yours, asking the holy spirit to guide me once and for all, he gave me Acts 14. Judge for yourself which side it takes. You ask the believer to not live a life of sin, to be pleasing unto the Lord, to go back to the “first works” which pleased him. Well, how do we not live a life of sin? What is the first works? It is pride to believe in your flesh that you can achieve even the lowest level of righteousness yourself. You assume hypergrace to open the licensesness to sin but scripture and personal experiences have truly proven the opposite, so many strongholds have been broken in my life because I was in absolute surrender to the redeeming power of the cross. The first works you mentioned that are pleasing unto the lord is precisely the absolute faith in the redeeming power of the cross, and the works/manifestations that were achieved by faith. You continually mention that redeemed Christians still lived life full of sins and were rebuked. The very sin they were full off, was the rejection of Grace.
Today, I live absolutely guilt-free before my father, because I know my sins past, present and future have already been paid. He is never angry with me, only wanting to guide, bless and teach me. I know that this is all possible because of the redeeming power of Christ and the power of the holy spirit he sent for me. I know that all the weakness of my flesh he has borne. Never have I felt more comforted, close and right with my Father, surely this is what he wants, that I be right with him through no part of mine, but through the absolute perfection of Jesus my redeemer.
Hi Ubermenfitness,
I John 3:9 is referring to the new man (believers have both new and old present). As such, the new man cannot sin. The flesh man or “old nature” can. And does.
Praise the Lord for His power to overcome sin in our lives.
No, I do not have to ask Prince what he means. He makes it clear enough in what I have heard and read from him.
Jim F
Hi, I’m 35 yo and I am a new believer but I am pretty sure that what Prince said is really not what thought it is.
For me, what I get from his quote above is this:
1 John 3:9 New International Version
No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. And I definitely SURE it wasn’t my willpower that enabled me doing more right things now.
Because I just knew Christ, and I can say confidently that it is true He can end my addictions to sins, He never stop reminding me whenever I stray.
So my unworthy suggestion is, you should ask Prince what he really means by all what he said. Because personally I see that he is talking about apple and you are talking about orange. Please excuse my 2 cents. Jesus blesses you all.
Hi David, I like your enthusiasm but your statements don’t seem to make sense. The reason for that I think is because you appear to be confusing positional truth with present practice.
The new man is created perfectly without sin in Christ. It is undefiled and incorruptible. There is no improving it. How a believer does need to learn to walk in Spirit putting on (in present practice) that new man. We are to this rather than walking in the flesh and being obedient to sin. Which by the way believers can technically do. That is why the Bible tells us not to do things or to walk that way.
Is it true that some people place burden of the law or good works on people for either sanctification (practical) or eternal life itself? Yes. Just check the teaching of any lordshipper like John MacArthur for that kind of thing.
No grace is not hyper or anything like that. It is what it is in that it is God’s amazing unmerited favor. However, hyper grace destroys and tramples on that unmerited favor by insisting upon MacArthur’s view of one nature and MacArthur’s view that I John 1:9 is a salvation verse. Likewise if abiding equals salvation and fellowship equals salvation, then all of the tests in I John (just like the Calvinist lordshippers argue) are test to see if a person is saved. This is based on performance, not the Savior.
Remember you don’t get any more forgiven in terms of eternal. The forgiveness there has to do with being honest with what God reveals as sin and moving on letting Him cleanse it. The believers there were confused by Gnostics and had accepted that they couldn’t sin any longer but in reality they were resisting the ongoing work of the Lord practically in their lives.
Remember that the OT believers were saved the same way New Testament believers are saved. That is through faith alone.
Jim F
If you are “doing things still to get more right, more closer to God, more perfected, more a New Creature in Christ….. cleansing your New Heart and on and on, you have been deceived by those placing burdens upon believers that are no longer there. Is Grace in the Bible hyper in a sense? Yes , read the 1 st 3 chapters of Ephesians, we exist NOW, in Jesus Christ in a Superlative, Amazing, Great Grace Estate EXISTENCE!!! But detractors say… Yeah has God really said this, and lay the Law back on Believers backs for them to do more “good works” or 1 John 1:9 ing” to get more forgiveness….
Dwell in the New Covenant Epistles that were written to the True called out by Grace. Filled with the Holy Spirit Believers, and REJOICE EVERMORE AND FLOW THIS OVERFLOW OF THE GRACE HEART OF GOD TO OTHERS!!!!
No problem, I knew about him but figured it was time to find out more. I am sure that I only scratched the surface but even that is enough to know to avoid him.
so glad you have done a post on Joseph Prince as i was never clear on what he believed.
Right Curtis, some can be hard to spot. The problem is that people often do not look far enough into the totality of what a person is saying. If one looks long enough they can see how these quys end up nullifying grace.
there’s a whole nest full of Teachers teaching like Joseph Prince..
it is easier to spot them by learning the simplicity of Christ The Truth of The Gospel seeking for wisdom and understanding to be established in it.
hyper dispensationalism back door works because of salvation can be hard to spot.
But they can’t help themselves but to use their trigger words and loaded language that expose’s them.
Joseph Prince is backdoor LS. No grace. Just LS.
What a clear awesome teaching , God bless you dear saint
By the way, I do not agree with Arminians such as Michael Brown who attempt to argue this from a legalistic ‘lose your salvation’ viewpoint.
Great insight Jim into the hyper grace movement that moves us away from loving Christ by keeping His commandments.
Reblogged this on Redeemingmoments and commented:
Joseph Prince may make you feel good, but prove all things (1 Thess 5:21; Acts 17:11). Is what he says really so?