I overheard a talk going on among four teenage girls about boys, marriage, etc., at a table near mine in a restaurant. As they were drinking beer and smoking cigarettes, one of them said that she wouldn't like to get married to someone before living with him for some time to get to know him. The others just accepted that without even a comment! We know this is not uncommon these days, but it made me think about it, about the parents of these girls who had given them this kind of 'freedom' without much instruction, and about the way many people make decisions without giving them much thought.
Young people don't have much experience in life, but still many behave as if they know everything and can handle it all! Anyone who tries to warn them gets the reply, "Nothing will happen!" But it is not just young people who have this problem. We older ones can also do things without thinking of the possible consequences and imagine that everything will be ok, nobody will know, God will overlook it all in mercy, etc. This was one of the lies the Devil told Eve (Ge.3:4), and this is one of his most successful ways to mislead us even now.
God's word warns us categorically, "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap" (Ga.6:7,8). In other words, everything we do will have consequences. We have the ability to choose what we would do, but we don't have the ability to define the consequences. When we do wrong we have the possibility of confessing it to God (1Jn.1:9). He will take away the punishment we deserve. But even then we cannot avoid the eternal loss we would suffer (loss of what we could have gained spiritually), a greater difficulty in overcoming that sin later, shame, impact on our children, etc. Knowing this, we should be those who would prepare in advance through prayer, watchfulness, etc., to avoid going wrong. But it may be that we learn about the seriousness of some wrong thing only after we have fallen or seen someone else fall and seen the consequences. At least this should bring in us a godly sorrow, deep repentance and a determination not to fall into it again (2Co.7:10,11).
Instead, what we can foolishly do is to blame God for the consequences! We accuse Him of a lack of love, hardness of heart, unjust judgment, etc.! In this way we make sure that we become more established in our sinful behaviour without learning anything from our failure!
'Hyper grace' teachings serve to take away the healthy fear that we should have about falling in sin, by making us think that grace covers anything we do without any consequences. By exaggerating the mercy of God and hiding His severity towards sin (Ro.11:22), that heresy actually serves to support the work of the Devil. Reading the Bible, believing its warnings and teachings, and noting the examples of different people there, good and bad, can give us a very good understanding of the consequences of our actions, in this life and in eternity.