Grace Thought for the Day

Quick “thought for the day” on God’s grace: We are not saved at conversion because (on a whim) God was feeling “big hearted” enough to remit the penalty of sin or to “waive” righteous judgment. Nor are we as believers now forgiven under an “assessment system” whereby each sin accrued is forgiven based on the genuineness of our repentance. Colossians 2:13,14 says, “And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you ALL your trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross”.

Human merit is excluded! Through the cross God is judicially free to pour out His love on whosoever will receive it. God’s unconditional, eternal acceptance! And He is now dispensing His love via this message of grace through those who are under its powerful influence.Thank-you Jesus!

Love Set Free by Grace

Grace is the expression of God’s infinite love towards us not by worth but by BIRTH. God’s grace is extended simply because “Beloved, NOW are we the sons (and daughters) of God”. (I John 3:3). These eternal riches of grace do not grow or develop from a small beginning and increase based on our level of “holiness”. Grace is in no way related to human merit. His love for us stands on the unchanging Person and finished work of the Son of God. God is judicially “set free”  to forever pour out His intense and boundless love upon us. Christ, the Lamb of God, having been made sin for us on the cross has by one sacrifice perfected us forever. (Hebrews 10:14). The Father, then, is now unshackled and unrestrained in expressing His infinite love to us; it is His love set absolutely free!

This is an awesome truth. We have entered into God’s uncompromised, unmerited loving favor. God does not have to be coaxed, manipulated or persuaded; His hand is now outstretched to bestow all that His grace can offer! It is therefore highly inconsistent to plead with Him to be gracious, or to coax Him to be good or behave in a way sufficient for His acceptance. Boundless, ongoing grace has already been released “For He has made Him who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him”.(II Corinthians 5:21).

Now there is a wonderful order to this outpouring of God’s grace; as we are established in the message of grace, we are set free to lavishly bestow that grace on others. As God’s limitless grace is beheld you cannot (I repeat) you cannot contain it it! Grace sets God’s love free! And because of a whole new inward transformation, you will find that you can no longer retain bitterness or count the sins of others against them. You realize God’s grace is wholly unrelated to human merit. Kindness, which leads to repentance (a change of mind) comes forth instead! You can love without restraint.

Therefore when we extend the grace of God to others, it is independent of whether or not they “deserve” it. Grace speaks of a gift, not a trade off of kindnesses. It is treating a person graciously without the slightest reference to their worthiness. Divine grace offers an unvarying blessing in quality to everyone alike. And this is part of its power to heal the brokenhearted and set the captives free. The blessing is measureless in its influence in that it represents no less than ALL that God, being actuated by His own infinite love, wants to do. This defies human ability which is why we “walk by faith, not by sight”. God desires to be free through us to continue satisfying His intense desire to extend His gospel of grace to the lost and lavish His love upon all His sons and daughters.

 

A Grace Response to Sin

I see it happen over and over again, somebody’s unrighteousness triggering a self-righteous response in others. What I mean is when someone sins or is irresponsible, it often causes a self-righteous or judgmental reaction. Because we might be irritated, we act off our emotions. Other times we bring “help”, prioritizing performance. This is just another reason to consider the necessity of being ESTABLISHED in God’s grace. No wonder Hebrews 13:9 says, “it is good for the heart to be established and ennobled and strengthened by means of grace”.

I think a self-righteous reaction to sin is caused (in part) by the objection that says, “Grace is helpful, but you must balance it”. I have to ask, balance grace with what? Law? Do we think God’s grace is somehow naive or blind, weak or ineffective and needs to be supplemented? Do we think grace “enables” sin because it doesn’t come down hard enough on it or make believers sufficiently accountable? I doubt any true believer would accuse God of being indifferent to sin or naive about its consequences considering how He dealt with it on the cross. But what we may forget is that grace is God’s continued, supernatural response to sin; God’s REMEDY for sin; and God’s ongoing means of victory over sin for the believer! (See Romans 5:21). The gospel is not about right living but about right believing which progressively leads to right living.

See, grace chooses to be undistracted by the fruit of sin. It is not blind or oblivious; it is not fooled. But like a heat seeking missile,God’s grace goes after the root cause of sin, which is a departure from relationship with the living God. Know this, it’s “God’s kindness (graciousness) that leads to repentance”. (Romans 2:24). Grace is God’s bridge to Himself.

After many years of drug abuse, I worked in and then directed a drug rehabilitation program in Miami, Florida. One of our mantras was “do not enable the drug abuser, use tough love”. The problem with that was when the mantra continued after abstinence was accomplished! Now drug free, the individual was still being treated with the same suspicion, the same tough love, and the same strict oversight as if nothing had changed; as if he or she were still using! This might be a bad analogy, but I see it with Christians who after coming to Christ are treated as if they were still unsaved; that is, still under the demands of the law, as if they still possessed the same unregenerated spirit. No wonder I Timothy 1:8,9 says, “But we know that the law is good if a man uses it lawfully, knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous one, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners”.

When we emphasize grace, we are not making light of sin; we are doing exactly the opposite. We are saying sin is devastating—serious—pervasive. Herein lies the reason we emphasize grace, because grace, not law, is the antidote to sin. (See II Corinthians 3:6).

The deception of self-effort is its low estimation of sin; it is kept low enough for one to believe they can get the “victory” by discipline and determination. No, we cannot overcome it. He had to overcome it for us. This is why Jesus says that as branches rightly related to the Vine “the same will bring forth much fruit; but without Me you can do nothing”.

As we live out of God’s unconditional (let me say that word again) unconditional love, forgiveness, and acceptance, sin is progressively stripped of its power! The Christian life begins not with a big do, but a big DONE.

Grace Culture

Good picture huh? That’s my son Nick and his wife in the middle enjoying our annual Christmas party with members of a few Somalian families God has given us the privilege to pour out His grace on. I believe the picture and the post continue to articulate what our take on 2009 will look like if a people exposed to the message of grace actually live from it! Here we go:

There is a lot of discussion about how we can help free Christians from captivity to a toxic, law-dominated theology. One solution may be to simply establish a grace culture in our own sphere of influence; an atmosphere of total acceptance. Romans 15:7 says, “Welcome and receive to your hearts one another, then, even as Christ has welcomed and received you, for the glory of God”. When we live in His acceptance, we can give out acceptance.

In much of the body of Christ there is uncertainty and insecurity that is symptomatic of an “orphan spirit”. Layers of law and a deeply entrenched sin-consciousness have cut many Christians off from living in the assurance of the Father’s love via the gift of righteousness and their position in Christ. In fact, one of Satan’s highest priorities is to divert as many believers as possible from recognizing the totality of God’s grace, to hide the truth that we are righteous in Christ and unconditionally accepted by the Father through grace alone. Why is this the enemy’s priority? Revelation of God’s unconditional acceptance puts us before the throne of grace and sin has no appeal in that atmosphere. This upsets Satan’s plans. Just as Jesus has uninterrupted fellowship with the Father, in Christ we too now have uninterrupted fellowship with the Father as we walk in freedom from condemnation.

We are at a turning point - a great shift from a trickle of grace to a torrent. The Lord is moving powerfully and what we are seeing has a sense of progression and permanence. There is reappearing in this time a recovery of and separation to the authentic Gospel of Grace. Through it, the Lord is producing a genuine New Testament atmosphere of affirmation, acceptance, kindness, and affection.  For in a world where sin abounds, grace will much more, even super-abundantly, abound permeating culture with the reality of His grace.  There is nothing in Scripture that alludes to “too much” grace or that grace will stop after a point; it is grace “from first to last”. The Ark of God’s grace does not need to be “steadied“. The love and total acceptance of the Father provided through the finished work of His Son is going to result in the departure of many Christians from a performance-driven, law-based “Christianity” into a new grace culture resulting in the formation of multitudes of grace-driven communities.