If GRACE operated according to biblical precepts, they would not be as quick and confident to meddle with the peace and administrative functions of the church, or make inquiries that can become the occasion for the vulnerable and unlearned to violate the Ninth Commandment.

I found the GRACE report to be an abomination. It dredged up many past hurts and sins that were in the end dealt with biblically and in accordance with the gospel, even with censures issued by session and presbytery when appropriate.

Perhaps the most egregious part of the GRACE report is how GRACE suggests that the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper may be withheld from the penitent as a form of ongoing consequences for past sins. That is most telling of this sham ministry. Indeed, there can be severe consequences for sins after repentance and reconciliation, but those consequences are to come in the form of things like restitution, incarceration, and withholding restoration to specific service-privileges and responsibilities that may have been enjoyed prior to falling into sin. Notwithstanding, the sacraments are never to be used as a tool for dishing out further consequences to those the elders believe have repented. Of course, GRACE would understand this basic gospel tenet if they weren’t a Christian organization in name only. Furthermore, GRACE suggests that restoration to the Supper should not be too soon lest others who share in the communion meal aren’t given adequate time to heal. That’s a fencing of the table foreign to Scripture. Yet even allowing for it – it would seem that GRACE would not have wanted a particular repented sinner-saint they cited in the report, at the time he was restored to table fellowship, to have received Christ in the sacrament at any church of which he would have been a stranger. (It’s noteworthy that from a biblical perspective one is to be denied the Supper for his own spiritual protection, not the perceived emotional good of others.)

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