We have noticed a strange anomaly on The Word is Grace's podcast. Every title that contains the word “grace” or “Luke Skywalker” just seems to explode with downloads. The Luke Skywalker thing I can understand... but grace? What is the big deal about grace?
I have an idea. I think that something has gone seriously wrong with the idea of "grace" in the "church" today. We all know we need it, and we all know that God gives it… but do we really know what it is? Are we possibly seeking answers about grace because we have misused it, and the results of that misuse are overwhelmingly apparent and inescapable? Have the very things that we sought grace for come back to make our lives miserable? I would like to say that if you are misusing it… they will.
God will not be mocked, the scriptures say.
Grace is a strange concept to us; people throw everything from lies to adultery under its covering, and yet most have no concept of what it is. I am afraid that most people think that it is as if God were brushing the bad deed under the rug – no questions asked, no consequences paid. After all, He paid for all of that on the cross, didn’t He?
A friend of mine wrote a song that gives an excellent definition of grace: “It means unmerited favor… It’s getting what I don’t deserve because the father gave the Son.”
Unfortunately, the word grace has taken a dive, and now seems to mean, “what ever I do that is wrong is forgotten about… because Jesus died for it. It’s all under the blood, so don’t beat yourself up about it! Be who you are - He made you that way.” This is sort of true; He did die for our sins. He paid the ultimate price, so we would not have to. But is that what He intended for us to use His Grace for? So we could continue in sin because that is "who we are?" Here's a news flash: we are all "born that way." Every one of us is born into a life of sin. We are born that way - sinners. Isn't that why He gave us the gift of grace in the first place, for a way out?
Read this carefully: He intends for us to STOP doing the things that require grace because He died for those sins. Grace was never intended to be an excuse to do the very things that Jesus died for. We have cheapened grace in the church today – watered it down so much that now it is the word used to justify sinful behavior. Ouch! What was that awful sting!? How can a person in 2009 write the words “sinful behavior” with any seriousness? Do I really mean that? Who am I to say that any person has sinful behavior?
That is exactly my point.
That notion of “who does he think he is, or nobody can judge me” Has been fed to us on a silver platter for that last few decades, and we have become so “liberated” that any mention of sin or sinful behavior causes uproar. We have allowed so many horrific things to happen in the church that there is today no identifiable difference between the world and the body of Christ. No outrage, and certainly no relevant opposition. The very grace that was meant to save us has been twisted and contorted to such a degree that it is killing us.
I am not referring to God’s Grace, but rather the meaning we have attached to the word “grace.”
We have got it in our heads that God’s grace is so all-encompassing that it will cover every vice, addiction, perversion and malice that we can come up with. I would like to quote an old pastor friend of mine who once told me that there is a Greek word for that: Hogwash.
Not that His Grace won't cover those things, but that by His Grace, we can overcome those things - not waller in them.
Gods grace is as deep as it is wide; as never-ending as His love, and yet it is as shallow as our own intentions. Are you a Christian who is a thief? Paul said “stop steeling.”
Are you a believer who is a liar? Stop lying. Do you have an anger problem? Get help. Stop it.
God’s grace is big enough for all of our sins, BUT at some point, we as believers must stand up and realize that we are “no longer slaves to sin.” We must not lie down, and be the indigent, pathetic humans that we are, simply because we were born that way. That is unacceptable. We are called to be over comers. Greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world!
...And this can only be realized by His Grace.
The problem today is that we have chosen to be just like the world, rather than obey the One who is greater than the world. We have chosen to lie down and succumb to every craving because we think that God sweeps it under the rug, because that is who we are. We have turned His grace into a prescription for sin. Got a craving for porn? Call it art and indulge yourself – it is covered by the blood. Got a hankering for pot? Hey, God made it, so it must be OK – it’s covered. Marriage not working? That’s alright, God understands – you have needs, and she ain’t meeting them. Leaving your wife for the dude down the street? Surely God knows that we are living in different times, right? Those laws are for biblical times!
I have news for you: we are living in biblical times.
The great falling away is happening all around us, and it is a direct result of men and women stepping on the grace of God; trampling the very gift He gave us to fulfill their own lusts.
“Grace” that allows sin to dwell openly in the body of Christ is nothing short of an abomination. It is wrong.
God’s Grace of course is a good thing - real grace, that is.
His grace allows us to stand back up and shake off the guilt of a mistake. His Grace allows us to keep coming back to the Throne and ask for forgiveness – even though we don’t deserve it – and walk away knowing that His Grace is greater than the sin that drove us there in the first place.
God’s grace is so beyond measure that even though a brother sins against you 7 x 70 times, you can still draw upon it for the strength to forgive. His grace is so amazing that it is the gift that He gives to the humble, and the gift that enabled the humility of the humble in the first place. His Grace is sufficient for each of us, and it is free. Such a valuable thing, His Grace is… yet it is free! –...To us, that is.
To God however, it cost the life of His only Son.
That makes it the most valuable treasure on earth. How could we ever use it for anything but the catalyst for a closer walk with Him? How could we take that grace, and say that it is alright to kill babies, and have gay preachers? Did Christ die for nothing? Did He become sin so we could sin more?
Abraham Lincoln had a favorite saying, “If we call a dog’s tail a leg, how many legs does it have?” The answer came as a shock to most who heard it; “It matters not what we call the tail – it is still a tail.”
The same goes for sin today. It doesn’t matter what we call pornography, be it art or self expression… it is still pornography. Homosexuality is wrong, whether it is called genetic, or “just how I am.”
Theft is theft even when it is referred to as “massaging the numbers.”
Sinful behavior is still sinful behavior… even if it is accepted by the majority.
1 comment:
Great post man, you're right on the money brother.
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