Grace

Many of us who grow up in the faith have a major struggle – accepting God’s grace. I was in a discussion today, in which I had to explain this mental dissonance. As a believer in the Bible I know that God’s grace is sufficient to justify and sanctify me (Acts 20:32; Romans 3:24; 2 Corinthians 12:9). However, the inability to accept this comes when the sins I have committed are classified as “small”. My sins have not been considered major errors to those around me and therefore the grace that is presented to justify me doesn’t seem relevant. My mind is filled with all this Biblical knowledge and I carry the burden of living up to this responsibility (Luke 12:48) without a tangible understanding of God’s grace to help me do so.

This is the conundrum that leads to legalism, a plague upon those of us raised on Biblical truth. It was the downfall of the Jewish nation (Matthew 23:24). This belief that my sins are not great enough to be covered by Christ’s justification, or that I am somehow unworthy because more is expected of me, skips a major step in the path to Glorification. It also adds the pressure of believing that I am expected to obey God’s commands in my own strength. As this is an impossibility a cycle of futility and frustration ensues. This has led to the disillusionment of many of my predecessors and contemporaries. I have heard the complaints but it never really sunk in until I had to vocalize it and I was told that I sound like pastors' children. There is a pressure for which the cure was not adequately emphasized.

This has also lead to another plague in the church “cheap grace”. This teaching promotes the idea that justification will cover all sins and we never have to change. This fallacy is leading many to destruction. Scripture clearly states that the law holds (Matthew 5:18). And that by grace through faith we can “establish the law” (Romans 3:31; 6:15; 7:7; Galatians 3:21).

Another symptom of not accepting Christ’s grace is pride. Pride, in the perception that we did not commit any sins great enough to require Christ’s justification. Pride in the knowledge we have acquired. Pride in the idea that my sins are not as bad as yours (2 Corinthians 10:12). The humility of accepting Christ’s justification is a requirement for His service. Only when we realize that ALL our sins, however small it may seem to us, placed Him on the cross, and that anything “righteous” that we do in our own strength is worthless (Isaiah 64:6) can we arrive at the level of humility necessary to serve.

This is why God sent Moses to be a shepherd for 40 years. Moses grew up knowing what his purpose was, and was ready to start a revolution in his own strength. So God sent him to Midian to learn from where the strength for his purpose would come (Exodus 2, 3). This is the pride that Jesus fought every day of His mission here on earth. Like Moses, Jesus knew who He was and what His purpose was. When Satan came to tempt Him in the wilderness Jesus gave him the answers we need to have – “It is written…”. When His disciples tried to make Him their earthly king He removed himself from the premises (John 6:15) and went to pray. He prayed constantly day and night because He knew that in His human form that was His only source of strength. The grace that forgives us is the grace that sustains us. Jesus never sinned but He knew that the only way to maintain sinlessness was grace from the Father.

As we are expected to share faith in Christ’s grace with others we need to experience it in full for ourselves. We all have sinned. We all are justified by Christ’s grace. We will all experience sanctification through this same grace. To be successful in our task ahead we need to humble ourselves and accept God’s grace to sustain us. Then and only then will we be able to share it with others, because we have lived it.

Humbly

The Body

Many people over the years have questioned the justice of Israel loosing Ai when Achan stole the “Babylonish garment, the gold and the silver (Joshua 7). After all are we not all individually responsible for our own actions? (Deuteronomy 24:16, Revelation 22:12) Why would the sin of one man affect a whole nation of people? Well there are a number of Bible events that bare out the reason for this. The essence of it is that ‘we ARE our brother’s keeper’. The converse of Achan’s story can be seen in Genesis 18, when God informed Abraham that He would destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham pleaded for them. And God said He would not destroy these cities if He could find as low as ten righteous individuals. Unfortunately for them there weren’t even five righteous in those two cities.

God is interested in the corporate as well as the individual and the individual’s actions towards the corporate is vital to the salvation of the individual (Hebrews 10:25). Daniel, of whom no sin was recorded in the Bible, prayed to God for the forgiveness of his own sins and the sins of all of Judah (Daniel 9:9-19). When Jesus returns He is coming back for a body of believers a church without “spot or wrinkle” (Ephesians 5:27). How is this meant to be achieved, verse 25 and 26 tells us that He gave Himself for the church that it might be sanctified.

So since Christ did what was necessary to produce a pure church what part do I have in this? God has given us a mandate to spread the Gospel, the good news of His sacrifice in our behalf (Matthew 28:19, 20). However, if the church is corrupted this mandate cannot be accomplished (James 1:8, Matthew 6:23, 1 Corinthians 5:6, Galatians 5:9). Before Pentecost Jesus instructed the disciples to tarry in Jerusalem until they received the Holy Spirit (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4). In that time, they confessed and cleared up all sins among them brining themselves into “one accord” (Acts 1:14; 2:1). Only then could the Spirit of God be poured out, empowering them to fulfill Jesus’ commission to spread the Gospel to the whole world (Acts 1:8).

We as a body would like to accomplish this final work to bring sin to an end. This was the initial purpose of this movement – to gather the group prophesied to preach the three angel’s messages and complete Christ’s mission for us (Revelation 14:1-12). In neglecting this primary task of preparing ourselves (tarry till endued), and going off on our own to do as “the other nations”, and corrupting ourselves with selfishness and temporary living like Esau (Genesis 25:29-34), we are now wholly unprepared for the task at hand. As followers of Christ we need to share in His desires, we need to possess and practice His yearning for each other’s salvation.

As always, there is hope. When we trust and obey God there is always hope. He has promised to take full control of His final work. Painful, nerve-racking things will occur (Ezekiel 9) but Christ has promised that His church will be safe. His obedient followers will be protected and vindicated (Revelation 7). I urge us all to take heed, give an account for ourselves and each other in brotherly, Christian love. Be humble, take good Biblical, Christian, counsel from wherever it may be found (Isaiah 8:20). God has a way of sending us messages in unexpected ways.

Hopefully