GRACE - IT'S NOT THAT DIFFICULT

Grace. It's a concept that seems to be easily (sometimes deliberately?) misunderstood. It gave rise to some seriously false teaching in the early church, and 2000 years later it still presents some challenges.

The Jews in the early years of the church were used to a system of rigid laws and ceremonies. For many centuries they had learned the importance of following the rules. The Pharisees were so dedicated to rules that they even made up extra ones on their own. Given that culture it's not surprising that the idea of being accepted by God through grace, instead of by strictly adhering to the law, was hard for some people to accept. 

The problem is very evident in the discussions among early church leaders as to whether Gentile believers should be required to be circumcised. Some couldn't quite get their heads around the idea that God's grace could extend to people who hadn't followed this essential rule. It's quite understandable really. People who had been indoctrinated with the law throughout their lives were challenged by the idea of grace.

There was also the opposite problem. Some people welcomed the teaching of grace as if it were a day pass to Disney. For them grace was the golden ticket that gave them permission to do whatever they wanted. Anything goes, because God's grace will take care of it. 

We find Paul and other early church leaders repeatedly working to bring a balanced and correct understanding to the concept of grace. We come into relationship with God and receive His forgiveness through His gift of mercy, not by working really hard to be good enough, but as recipients of God's grace our overwhelming desire ought to be to please Him.

Grace is a free gift that costs us everything.

In my teaching and writing over the past year or so I have found myself emphasizing over and over again the amazing love of God. The more I understand scripture the more I am impressed with how much God loves us. I am astounded by the lengths He was willing to go because of that love. But there is another side of the story. Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love God with all of our heart and soul and strength.

The debates of the early church are alive and well today. While the Jews of the early church were struggling with what to do about the rules, in our culture we are struggling with the fact that there are none. The common question among Christians is what rules do I have to follow? What can I get away with and still be a Christian? 

Jesus avoided the arguments about rules and regulations. He talked about the heart, and when asked about rules said the most important thing is to love God with our whole heart. Clearly He was suggesting that if we love God wholeheartedly, all these other questions will take care of themselves. The question shifts from "what do I have to do" to "how can I please God even more"?

It's not really a hard concept to understand. It's not deep theology. When you love someone you want to please them. You don't want to do anything that will hurt them or make them sad.The greater the love the greater the desire to make sure you never disappoint that person.

Grace and love. If we really got it we would save ourselves a lot of grief arguing and fretting over what we can do or what we can't. The "legalists" wouldn't have to be bound up in onerous rules. The "grace means anything goes" people wouldn't be doing mental gymnastics to justify the things they're determined to hold on to. Instead we would be caught up in a desire to please the one we love, and the Holy Spirit would guide us into a life and lifestyle that would make that a reality more and more every day.

It's really simple. God loves us so much He gave His best. What He wants is for us to love Him back that much, so we will give our best. No wonder Jesus talked about the heart so much. That's where it all comes from. 

If you have found yourself recently arguing with God or with yourself or with someone else over whether it's okay for you to do something or hang on to something, you might want to check your heart. If you love Him with all your heart, the Holy Spirit will guide you and your desire to please Him will overwhelm all other motives. Colossians 3:15 says "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts". If you love God with all your heart, and the desire of your heart is to please Him, when you are doing that you will be at peace. When you are not, when you are displeasing the one you love, you will be robbed of peace. 

Jesus lived in a culture preoccupied with rules, but when asked about the greatest commandment, He didn't get drawn into a discussion about rules. He said to love God with your whole heart. Our culture is preoccupied with eliminating all the rules, and Jesus still gives the same answer.

Love God with all your heart, and the rest will follow.

Easter - the greatest love story.

During this Easter season there will be a wide variety of sermons preached in churches all over the world. Each one will emphasize a particular aspect of the Easter story, and no doubt a number of excellent insights will be expressed.

For me one truth stands out above the rest. It comes from one of the most poignant episodes in the Easter story. I believe it may just be the supreme message we can take away from all of the Easter events.

In Luke 2: 39 - 44 we find Jesus on the Mount of Olives. He has gone there to pray, following what we commonly refer to as the last supper. He leaves His disciples and goes on alone a bit further to pray by Himself. In verse 44 we find these powerfully moving words.

And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

It is clear in this passage that Jesus, in anticipation of all that was going to happen in the next few hours, was terrified. Unlike a mere human He had the distinct disadvantage of knowing exactly what was coming. He knew the betrayal and humiliation He was about to experience. He knew the horrific physical torture He was about to endure. He who had never sinned knew He would soon be overwhelmed by taking on Himself the sin of the world. And perhaps worst of all, He knew taking on that sin, mine and yours, would cause Him to experience something He had never experienced ever in eternity past. He would be separated from God the Father. 

The weight of this knowledge proved to be almost more than He could bear. In anguish He sweat drops like blood. In a moment of desperation He asked the Father if there might be some other way, some other path that would not lead to the cross. An angel came to minister comfort and support. 

I absolutely believe that Jesus could have called a halt to everything at that point. On the brink of fulfilling the plan of salvation that had been in preparation ever since man's first sin, He could have said "no, I can't go through with it". He could have called a host of angels to His side, deciding it just wasn't worth it. But He didn't. He had another emotion that was even more overwhelming than the depths of fear and anguish He was experiencing there in the garden. Love.

It wasn't duty or responsibility that made Jesus persevere right to the cross. It wasn't the Father who compelled Him to go through with it. It was His love for you and for me.

The plan of salvation was born out of an indescribable love God has for His creation. It was a decision to pay the greatest price ever paid, to redeem mankind from the destructive power of sin. In the garden that night Jesus found Himself on the brink of fulfilling that plan. In that crucial hour His humanity caused Him to be filled with terror and anguish, and even fleetingly made Him wonder if there might be some other plan. But love was greater than fear.

This is astounding. The hymn writer put it this way. "Amazing love, how can it be, that thou my God should die for me." I can't think of a better or more powerful way to express it. God Himself, my creator, loved me so much that He willingly and purposefully died for me. 

How can we make sense of a love like that? How can we begin to understand the depth of love that caused Jesus to willingly go through the torture and the separation from God caused by our sin, when He could have stopped it all with just a word. I can't grasp it and I can't describe it. I can only choose to accept it.

The tragedy is that even in the face of such unimaginable love and sacrifice, so many refuse to respond. And far too often, even among us who believe and accept the gift of salvation made possible by that sacrifice, our response is guarded and stingy. We should be saying, "God loved me enough to give everything for me. How can I not give everything back?" Instead we are prone to withhold our best and pursue our own priorities. God gave His best and we are prone to give so little.

The message of Easter has many nuances and no doubt preachers will explore every last one of them during this season. For me, one word stands out like a huge flashing neon sign on the top of the highest hill. "LOVE". Easter is about Jesus expressing the greatest love known to mankind. How will I respond?

Pick me! Please?

I want to share with you one of the most important lessons I have ever learned in the course of my Christian life. I was a young man with a wife, three kids, and a mortgage when God called me to leave a pretty successful secular career and go into ministry on a full time basis. He hadn’t revealed at that point what that ministry was going to be, and it was a pretty daunting challenge.

Just a few years before, my brother had gone through a similar process. He left a secular career and enrolled in Bible College on route to becoming a pastor. I helped him move his family from a nice home into a tiny basement apartment where they had to string a line across the corner of the bedroom to hang their clothes. I distinctly remember heading home at the end of that day thinking, “good for him – there’s no way I’m doing that”.  

So here I was, feeling God leading me toward who knows what, and I said something like this. “God, I will do whatever you want as long as I don’t have to go to Bible College and put my family through that.” I will do anything but…  Having put this condition on my obedience I went for months praying desperately but getting no clarification from God on just what I was supposed to do.  I was in turmoil and getting nowhere.

In the midst of this inner struggle we had moved to a new city, a new job, and a new church. One Sunday morning I sat in a Sunday School class. The teacher was Glenn Pitts. I didn’t know him at that time, though eventually he would play an important role in my life. He was teaching from Isaiah chapter 6. It’s the story of Isaiah’s vision, where he was standing in God’s throne room. In verse 8 God said “Whom shall I send?” Isaiah immediately shot up his hand and said “Send me!”

Now I’ve heard lots of sermons taken from this vision, and even from that verse, but Glen made a point I had never noticed or heard mentioned before. Notice that God hadn’t said yet what the job was and Isaiah didn’t ask. Isaiah was so captivated by God’s presence, and so overwhelmed with the desire to please Him, that without even thinking he said “whatever you want, I will do it. “

That hit me like a ton of bricks. It was one of several occasions in my life where I knew God placed me somewhere and guided the speaker’s words because He had a message for me. You see, while I was pleading with God to reveal His plan to me I still had a condition on my willingness. Anything you want, as long as it isn’t Bible College. And here was Isaiah, so excited about the idea of serving God that he was willing to do anything. He was willing to enthusiastically volunteer even though he didn’t even know what the job was.

I went home that day and prayed, “Okay God, even if it’s Bible College”. From that moment God began to clear things up. Before long I knew where He was leading. It didn’t involve Bible College, but it did take me and my family down a path of great sacrifice and great miracles and great joy.

I learned an important lesson that day and in the weeks that followed about the attitude God is looking for. He is looking for willing hearts, servants who are prepared to be obedient and trust Him without condition. 

I said this was a lesson learned, but if I’m honest it’s still difficult sometimes to put it into practice. I still have times when I really want to put conditions or boundaries on what I am willing to give or do for God. I still want to hold back and say, “Lord you can have this part of my life, but I think I’ll just keep this part for myself.”

We can do that if we choose. In fact we can go through our whole Christian lives giving God only a part and stubbornly keeping control of the rest. We might even feel like we have won in the struggle, being Christians but successfully holding on to that part of our lives we don’t want to give up. The reality is we lose. We lose the opportunity to see what God can do when we give him total control. We lose out on the blessings God has for those who are fully obedient. We lose in our Christian growth, because we are stunted when we refuse to let God be Lord of our lives.

Giving God full reign over our lives is a hard decision for some. It’s definitely a step not every Christian is willing to make. God’s call doesn’t usually involve a career change. It may mean serving God in a new way, or simply giving up control over some activity or priority we are determined to hold on to. Whatever it is, following God’s way sometimes seems like too great a cost. The reality is that the abundant life Jesus wants for us (rich and satisfying in the NLT) comes when we are willing to let Him have all of our lives, when we place ourselves in His hands to do as He will.

Does your trust and obedience come with conditions? Are you resisting God’s leading or holding on to parts of your life because you’re not sure God can be trusted with them? Then you’re missing out. It’s as simple as that.  The good life really begins when, like Isaiah, we are so overwhelmed with God’s presence we can’t help but enthusiastically blurt out “Lord, I’m yours. I’m all in.”