The apostles weren't left clueless about grace; they knew what it was hence all the verses they write about it [
»]. Once they received the Holy Spirit, they understood a lot more because they shared the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:11-16). Remember, Paul wrote Romans 8:38-39 (as well as Corinthians that I just cited), and he also wrote the Book of Galatians where he says:
Quote:
Galatians 5:19-24 (NIV)
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that
those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
So when read in context of
everything Paul said, nothing
external can separate you from God; you won't be separated from God unless you choose to be separated from God by the types of things you cherish (do you cherish what he calls sin? the desires of the flesh more than what he instructed? or do you cherish Him? what he calls righteousness despite what you feel like doing?
Your separation from him won't be determined by whether or not you're successful in avoiding sin 100% of the time; it's about what you cherish). That point was made pretty clear by the end of the video: Jesus asks, "do you love me?" Once you become his born-again disciple, it doesn't matter if you stumble (i.e. while Jesus is off about to get crucified, Peter in cowardice denied his relation to Christ three times before the rooster crowed [Lk 22:34]; after the crucifixion and resurrection, Peter stumbled again by disbelieving Jesus' instructions while fishing [Jn 21:4-6] just because it was contrary to human logic/ worldly know-how). But he didn't stay in his unbelief and cowardice.
Some people dangerously think of Romans 8:38-39 as, "I don't have to repent of my sinful lifestyle because he loves me anyway". Essentially they're saying, "I love my sin more than God; I don't want to live like you tell me to". No doubt about it, they're worshiping themselves. Solely looking at Peter's example, Peter
did repent (so where are they getting this idea that they don't need to?) Peter repented of his cowardice to openly proclaim himself as Jesus' follower (1 Pt 1:1; 2 Peter 1:1, plus throughout his epistles he always refers to Christ as "our savior", he includes himself) and he repented of his disbelief towards Jesus' simple, contrary-to-human-logic instructions to the point of giving up his life to feed the sheep with those instructions, as prophesied by Jesus himself (Jn 21:19). Even Paul, the apostle who wrote Romans, repented of his former lifestyle too (1 Corinthians 15:9-11); every single disciple does. By Pauls' admittance, the Grace of God changed him, it wasn't an "excuse" to continue being the same person you've always been.
Same with the example of the highschooler: he felt remorse for what he had done, acknowledged that it was wrong, he wasn't cherishing sin. The ones who continue cherishing sin, who won't acknowledge that what they do is wrong, are in trouble, because they're not born-again. You must be born-again to see the kingdom of God (Jn 3:3). Born-again people are regenerated on the inside; everything God calls abomination, they see as abomination; everything he says is righteous, they agree is righteous. They've renewed their mind (Rom 12:1-2).
Another aspect of Grace, and undoubtedly one of the most important aspects, that people aren't really grasping: the apostles received the Holy Spirit back in John 20:22, way before Pentecosts (but after his death and resurrection). They didn't deserve it, ergo the Holy Spirit is a gift, an act of grace, not only for them, but for everyone under the new covenant who repents of sin and wants to be born-again. When you lookup all the verses that refer to grace and the Holy Spirit, it's pretty clear: the Holy spirit makes you bold (you won't deny Christ and any of his teachings any longer), you'll have self-control, you won't let fear stop you from doing what is right, you can endure persecution. Before that, in the gospels, his disciples would scatter (Mark 14:27-28; John 16:32), by the time they're filled with the Holy spirit, they're standing their ground, willingly allowing leaders to whip them, and singing and rejoicing in jail with open wounds (Acts 16:22-25, it's not until v.33 that their wounds get tended to out of jail); they rejoice that they've been beaten for the sake of the gospel (Acts 5:41). That's not something you can do if you don't have the Holy Spirit, again nothing they earned, that's all grace, an undeserved gift.
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