The Scariest Topic of All...

Grace...we don't understand it - we like to think we do, but we don't. Our law-driven flesh wants to fight against it. Even the definition given it is weak, "unmerited favor". What does that mean anyway? Well, maybe we can hash it out a little today. The whole issue of "how forgiven are we?" is a hot topic in a lot of circles today. Some say only those sins committed up to the point of salvation - from then on you have to be on top of things constantly. Some say exactly the opposite - you never have to do anything again for the rest of your life. Most are somewhere in the middle I think, struggling over the issue, worrying sometimes that they've gone too far.

I guess if any struggle has been the hardest for me over my life, it has been this one. Over the years, as I have allowed the Holy Spirit to wash my mind and my heart over and over again with the Word of God, I have changed my thought processes from self-focused beliefs about God to God-focused beliefs. I've come to realize that I give myself far more power over things than I really have. I realize that I had made it totally about me and left Christ somewhere on the outskirts. When God said in the book of Romans over and over again that we are justified by faith and that nothing can separate us from His love, He didn't add anything on to that - He didn't say, "except yourself" like we like to add. We give ourselves entirely too much power - we overestimate our abilities. I believe we are sealed to the day of our redemption and if that seal is somehow broken, then it can never be re-sealed. That's a tough saying, but I also believe that those people are few and far between. The world is full of sects and people that like to believe Heaven will be populated by "our four and no more". Heaven will not be sparsley populated! That's not God's character - He is not out to trick everyone out of eternal life. Why, oh why then would He have made Jesus go through what He had to go through? That would be even more cruel! God's character and heart are that NONE should perish but that ALL would have eternal life. He's not trying to make this hard, folks!

But how scary is this concept? Very scary, if your trust is in the wrong place. There are those that say, "well, you just can't tell new believers they're secure...they'll just sin!" or "this is just a liscense for us to live any way we want!" Wow, again you think very highly of yourself. You've just made it all about you again and not about Him. When we truly begin to understand grace, we realize that the "should of the law becomes the could of grace. Where there was rigid rule, there is now a releasing gift that empowers us to 'sin' if we want to, but also to be true - we can choose the best if we so desire, we can pay a price that seems enormous, and yet one day will be something so much more." (Peter Grieg, The Vision and The Vow) Does that make the law bad? No, it was needed to point the way to Jesus. It showed the people they couldn't do it by works or on their own. They needed a Savior to do it for them! But still today we preach salvation by works - well, if you can just read your Bible enough, pray enough, don't cuss, smoke or chew or run with those who do...Hogwash! It is by grace you are saved through faith (or relationship) and not by works so no one thinks they are doing it themselves by their own righteous acts! Our righteousness is as filthy rags to Him - what seems holy and righteous to us, like all those "good" deeds, are still and forever going to be filthy before Him. We need the righteouness of Christ to save us! We trick ourselves into thinking we can attain that righteousness or that He somehow gives it to us and then takes it back when we're bad, only to put us in the predicament of having to attain it again. Again, hogwash!

The ultimate problem most people have with grace is that they don't trust themselves - but are they supposed to? Ah...The truth of it is that we don't trust Him at all. Liscense to sin or freedom to choose? God never wanted our obedience out of fear or obligation. He gave us our free will to choose Him and serve Him and obey Him out of a passionate love for Him. Maybe the problem is that we don't really love Him. Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved Him. I know for me, after the third time, I looked down really deep and found out that I did love Him - with all my heart, soul, mind, strength, will...just like Peter.