GRACE, GREAT GRACE!

I have come to greatly respect the writing of Paul Burleson, who recently wrote about “The Race of Grace”.


His article set me thinking about the word “GRACE”: It's an attractive word. Don't you think?


Why else would some folk name their congregation Grace Bible Church, or something similar? Surely, those who name their children “Grace” wouldn't do so if they didn't consider the word attractive.


I suspect there is much more to it than the word being attractive, which it no doubt is. I suspect that followers of Christ who name their congregation “Grace.......Church” are wanting to promote an image, especially to unbelievers, that the grace revealed in the act of God giving Himself as the incarnate Son, to live, die, and rise again, inaugurating the New Covenant age in which we now live, will be found there in the congregation.


What if we were to take a broad sample of these Grace congregations? Will we find genuine Christ-like grace there?


I'm sure you know what I mean: The kind of graciousness which arises from being the recipients of God's great grace in Jesus Christ! Being treated as Christ has treated us, and treating others likewise.


After a lifetime involved in church life, most of that as a growing Christian (old now, but still growing), am I being ungracious to say, speaking generally, that the answer to the question,"Will we find genuine Christ-like grace there?", is a decided  “NO!”


I recently read a quote from Philip Yancey :
“Christians get very angry toward other Christians who sin differently than they do.” 

Now! Isn't that an amazingly true statement?

 I grew up in a traditional Protestant congregation, and was taught to be like the other folk who acted as they were expected; dutifully self-righteous and sanctimonious when it came to sins that we didn't commit,but others did, and there was always a good Scripture quote to justify our ungracious attitudes.

For others to sin in a way that was different to ours,was clear justification for us to be extremely critical towards those who did, and to avoid them, even though they were truly brethren in Christ (surely reader, you don't believe that genuine Christians do not sin?).

It causes me great sadness to reflect on my own attitudes in those days as I remember that “the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” which was very evident in those with whom I sat, and sang with on Sundays, was no different in me.

The attitudes which Paul identified in Romans 1:29-30 were (and are?) clearly evident, and the accusing finger of people who had the secret unwritten rules about  unmentionable sins was equally evident.

It wasn't the wrath of God that was feared, and still isn't. It was the fear that someone would find out about a particular failure (many congregations still haven't a clue as to what God's idea of grace is), and knew that any repercussions would show not even a scintilla of genuine grace, but condemnation.

I came across a quote from Brennan Manning,in which he hit the bull's-eye,
“To put it bluntly, the American church today accepts grace in theory but denies it in practice. We say we believe that the fundamental structure of reality is grace, not works–but our lives refute our faith. By and large, the gospel of grace is neither proclaimed, understood, nor lived. Too many Christians are living in a house of fear and not in the house of love.”

No matter how much we might protest, things are no different in Australia, and most countries where church traditions, rather than Scripture set the scene for faith and practice, even though we claim Scriptural instructions which we interpret to suit our purpose. 

Exercising grace is the hardest task in the world.

I must admit, I still struggle to be gracious in my thinking about some matters that have deeply affected my family, knowing full well the exceptional example of grace that has been revealed to us in Jesus Christ Jesus, as He poured out His grace/love for me, a stained sinner. And that grace was totally undeserved, because that is what grace is; undeserved love.

That's what moved John Newton to write his “Amazing Grace”.

I don't think I'm the only one who has a hard time offering grace to those who affect us in negative ways, but , let's be honest, we have a hard time being givers of grace to those who’s sin is different to ours, and therefore worse, and more offensive to us.


The fact that their sin is not like our own is the reason, we who claim to be Christian, have graded some sins as compared to other sins. Their sin is always worse than mine.

We need to wake up to the fact that God is offended by SIN, missing His mark of righteousness. He must be judicially satisfied over every sin,a fact which was achieved in the life and work of His precious Son,for those who believe and trust in Him.


It's a fact. Is it not? That in our eyes, the sin in our life is not as serious, or culpable as that of those we judge and point our fingers at. How can we offer grace to others whose sin is worse than ours?


Is it also not true that we preach grace to others (after all, we want them to be gracious towards us), but find it so difficult to offer grace to those who sin in a different way to us?


At almost 75 years of age, as I said earlier, I am still learning what the grace walk (or marathon, as my friend Paul says) is all about.


One thing I have noticed over this nearly three-quarters of a century, is that when we do not exercise the grace that has been showered upon us, we are teaching others, by example, that the work of Jesus Christ as He inaugurated this New Covenant age in which we live, was of no real value.


The reason? We choose to still live under an Old Covenant system which was ruled by law rather than grace, and reject the New Covenant Person and His completed work of great grace.


What a waste were those years; yes, some in pastoral ministry, when James 2:10 was invisible to we ungracious law keepers : “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it”.

Don't tell me you haven't done just that, and often!


What do we make of Jesus' words when He says, “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment -------and anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell” (Matthew 5:21-22).


And how we have interpreted Jesus words to the Pharisees who prided themselves in keeping the law, at least publicly: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:27-28).


But we don't do sin as serious as this! Do we?


Well! John says we do: If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.


We need to remember John's warning and start being realistic rather than living in some spiritual cloud cookoo land.

God sees SIN, not sins!


I have come to realise that a quote of George MacDonald is so apt to the practice of much church life today,
“I understand God’s patience with the wicked, but I do wonder how He can be so patient with the pious.”


Having spent many years with a certain evangelical denomination, I've come to realize the safety I feel knowing that I’ll be judged by Jesus Christ and not those whom I have heard judge some in this life:


They would say to a sinful greedy-guts, “Welcome well-fed healthy appetite Baptist.”

To one such sinner aspiring to great riches, “Congratulations Methodist for trying to get ahead in life. Let her in.”

To the avaricious, “Being a good Episcoplaian, he once paid for a new organ for the church.”


Having heard the justifications of these judges , I have also heard them look askance at at adulterers, murderers, drunkards and say, “What utterly rotten folk they are! Terrible sinners. They deserve nothing better than hell.”


You and I better acknowledge that, as natural born men and women, we DESERVE the same, but Judge Jesus will look at them, and observe that having become His brethren through adoption into God's family, He will mark their charge sheet, SAVED BY GRACE.


Why do we think the shed blood of Jesus Christ is limited in its efficacy to cleanse all sin?
Sin is sin. There is no gradations or distinction, and, Grace is Grace with no exceptions for those who have come to the Saviour.

Don't enter the carnal world of grading sin. 

Those who do will find that Jesus was most aggrieved by the self-righteous, pious, condemning, judgmental Pharisees, those self-appointed law-enforcement officers who oversee other people’s righteousness, or lack thereof.