That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind but now I see.
'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.
A couple of months ago, Christian author Philip Yancey spoke at my church on the topic of his book, Vanishing Grace: What Ever Happened to the Good News? He said that public opinion of Christians has fallen dramatically since the 1990's. Many unsaved people don't see grace in Christ's followers. Why is that? Why have Christians become so judgmental and legalistic that millions of people miss out on hearing the sweet sound of grace?
The Parable of the River
In the Grip of Grace, author Max Lucado tells a parable based on the first chapter of Romans. Five sons lived in a castle with their father. The father warned his sons to stay away from the river lest they be swept away by the raging current. The eldest son was obedient. The four youngest ignored the father's command. They fell into the river and were swept away to a distant land.
The four brothers tried to get back home but it was impossible. They sat around the fire every day remembering their father and oldest brother. Eventually, one brother decided to make himself at home in the strange land, living among the savages and adopting their ways. A second brother spent his time on a hillside watching over this brother, finding fault with his behavior and keeping track of his wrongs. After all, someone needed to tell Father what he was up to. Eventually, a third brother got busy stacking stones, trying to build a path back to their father. It was clearly an impossible task, yet he kept at it. The last brother did not give up hope of being rescued. He waited patiently by the fire.
One day the brother who waited heard the voice of the eldest brother. The older brother said "Father has sent me to bring you home." The younger brother explained why the others weren't waiting with him. So the eldest sought out the other brothers to tell them he was there to take them back home. He could not convince the other three to come with him, even though they missed their father.
I loved this simple parable because it illustrates four different responses to grace. The first is Hedonism, believing that the pursuit of pleasure is the sole purpose of life. Hedonists are too busy indulging themselves and satisfying the desires of today to pay attention to God. The second response to grace is Legalism. Legalists are so busy working to save themselves that they miss out on God's grace and do not understand that they will never earn it. The third response to grace is Judgmentalism. Judgers keep busy too, comparing themselves to others in an attempt to distract the Father from their sins. The fourth response to grace is acceptance - trusting God to save you.
In reality, I think many of us resemble more than one of the brothers in the river parable. I struggle not to be judgmental or too proud of my own righteousness. I struggle not to compare myself to others. Do I follow the rules to earn God's favor or to please him? I often work really hard trying to fix my sins rather than falling onto God's grace and seeking his guidance.
The four brothers tried to get back home but it was impossible. They sat around the fire every day remembering their father and oldest brother. Eventually, one brother decided to make himself at home in the strange land, living among the savages and adopting their ways. A second brother spent his time on a hillside watching over this brother, finding fault with his behavior and keeping track of his wrongs. After all, someone needed to tell Father what he was up to. Eventually, a third brother got busy stacking stones, trying to build a path back to their father. It was clearly an impossible task, yet he kept at it. The last brother did not give up hope of being rescued. He waited patiently by the fire.
One day the brother who waited heard the voice of the eldest brother. The older brother said "Father has sent me to bring you home." The younger brother explained why the others weren't waiting with him. So the eldest sought out the other brothers to tell them he was there to take them back home. He could not convince the other three to come with him, even though they missed their father.
I loved this simple parable because it illustrates four different responses to grace. The first is Hedonism, believing that the pursuit of pleasure is the sole purpose of life. Hedonists are too busy indulging themselves and satisfying the desires of today to pay attention to God. The second response to grace is Legalism. Legalists are so busy working to save themselves that they miss out on God's grace and do not understand that they will never earn it. The third response to grace is Judgmentalism. Judgers keep busy too, comparing themselves to others in an attempt to distract the Father from their sins. The fourth response to grace is acceptance - trusting God to save you.
In reality, I think many of us resemble more than one of the brothers in the river parable. I struggle not to be judgmental or too proud of my own righteousness. I struggle not to compare myself to others. Do I follow the rules to earn God's favor or to please him? I often work really hard trying to fix my sins rather than falling onto God's grace and seeking his guidance.
Amazing Grace Saved a Wretch Like Me
We all sin and fall short of who God wants us to be. We lie, cheat, steal or covet what someone else has. We're selfish, greedy and proud. We are impatient, unkind and easily angered. But God loves us so much in spite of our sin, that he humbled himself and became one of us to save us from the consequences of our sin. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). Through Jesus, and the amazing gift called grace, God offers the world salvation.
Grace comes with a catch - it must be accepted to be received. God's grace is available to all but accepted by few. Accepting grace requires recognition of your sinfulness and need for redemption. It requires repentance - a turning away from the life you knew before Christ.
Philip Yancey told the story of a friend who believed that since God forgives sin, it is okay to go on sinning. I think that's a common misconception. The apostle Paul asked, "Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?" His emphatic response - "By no means!" If we truly and humbly accept God's grace, we are to consider ourselves "dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus." A person who has been redeemed by grace offers himself as an instrument of righteousness because he is now under God's grace. He is no longer a slave to sin but bound to Christ.
Religion Without Grace Is Not a Pretty Sight
In What's So Amazing About Grace, Philip Yancey said that politics tempts the church to trade grace for power. I agree that something ugly often happens when religion is mixed with politics. Politicians often lack basic human compassion and mercy. They just don't understand what grace is.
Politics, which always runs by the rules of ungrace, allures us to trade away grace for power, a temptation the church as often been unable to resist. - Philip Yancey
When the Supreme Court ruled in favor of same sex marriage, I recall reading that it was a sad day for Christianity. Not true. The good news will always be the good news - Jesus still loves sinners and he still saves souls. But it is not good when people who claim to love God turn people away from Jesus Christ by condemning them. The county clerk in Kentucky who was jailed for refusing to issue marriage licenses is a perfect example. What a shame that people miss out on seeing God's grace when we as sinners point fingers at other sinners.
Yancey said that when the Church demonstrates "a spirit of moral superiority," it shuts out grace. When Christians become legalistic, they concern themselves with trivial matters and ignore more important issues like justice and mercy. Being judgmental also leads to hypocrisy, which is nothing more than an attempt to hide internal sins by focusing on the external image. Unfortunately, it also hides our own need for God's grace.
In his book, Yancey said, "Church should be a haven for people who feel terrible about themselves." It should be a haven from our culture - a light in the darkness. Our culture focuses on outward appearances and tangible measures of success. Our culture tells us to look out for number one. Our culture tells us to do unto others before they do unto you. Our culture is graceless; Christians should not be. We need grace-healed eyes - grace-filled eyes - to see other people as God sees them.
Yancey said that when the Church demonstrates "a spirit of moral superiority," it shuts out grace. When Christians become legalistic, they concern themselves with trivial matters and ignore more important issues like justice and mercy. Being judgmental also leads to hypocrisy, which is nothing more than an attempt to hide internal sins by focusing on the external image. Unfortunately, it also hides our own need for God's grace.
In his book, Yancey said, "Church should be a haven for people who feel terrible about themselves." It should be a haven from our culture - a light in the darkness. Our culture focuses on outward appearances and tangible measures of success. Our culture tells us to look out for number one. Our culture tells us to do unto others before they do unto you. Our culture is graceless; Christians should not be. We need grace-healed eyes - grace-filled eyes - to see other people as God sees them.
Seeing the World Through Grace-Filled Eyes
How can we learn to see people as God sees them? After all, some people are much more lovable than others. We're not all pleasant and easy to get along with. Some people are downright annoying!
1. Understand your own continuing need for grace.
Awareness of your sinfulness opens the door to receiving grace from God but it also opens the door to dispensing grace to others. In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote about a maturing kind of faith that comes after you have been a Christian awhile. You've practiced being a Christian and failed. Then you see that even if you were perfect, you would "only be giving back to God what was already God's own." You can never repay God and you cannot grow as a Christian if you don't see your own state of "bankruptcy" and continuing need for God's grace. No matter how hard you try to behave like you ought to behave, you find that you cannot do it alone. You're always running a deficit. But the good thing about being "in the grip of grace" is that you are free to be honest with God about your sinfulness and you open yourself up to being transformed.
The golden rule sounds simple but it is not. In reading Jesus' commandment to love your neighbor as yourself, I have thought I could spend a lifetime learning how. It is not that I have such a great love of myself, but some people just aren't likable!
C.S. Lewis took this issue apart in a way that brought clarity to me. How is it that I love myself when sometimes I don't even like myself? Mostly, I think of myself as a nice person, but sometimes I am downright nasty! When I am at my worst, I loathe myself for the things I do. So to love my neighbor as I love myself does not mean that I have to be especially fond of him or that I have to think he is a nice person. I have looked at myself with shame and loathing yet still find a way to love myself. So I am allowed to loathe the things my neighbor does as well.
Loving another person, when there is nothing lovable about him, means separating out the bad behavior from the human being and hoping that somehow he can be changed to be more lovable. It is hoping, that like me, he can be redeemed. It is giving him another chance. And another and another, just like I give myself another chance when I behave badly.
Admittedly, it is much easier to love the people that you naturally like. C.S. Lewis said "Do not waste time bothering whether you 'love' your neighbor; act as if you did." Then you will discover a great secret - you will eventually learn to love him.
So how do you "act as if" you love someone? In the book of Colossians, Paul wrote about how we are to live as followers of Christ:
1. Understand your own continuing need for grace.
Awareness of your sinfulness opens the door to receiving grace from God but it also opens the door to dispensing grace to others. In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote about a maturing kind of faith that comes after you have been a Christian awhile. You've practiced being a Christian and failed. Then you see that even if you were perfect, you would "only be giving back to God what was already God's own." You can never repay God and you cannot grow as a Christian if you don't see your own state of "bankruptcy" and continuing need for God's grace. No matter how hard you try to behave like you ought to behave, you find that you cannot do it alone. You're always running a deficit. But the good thing about being "in the grip of grace" is that you are free to be honest with God about your sinfulness and you open yourself up to being transformed.
See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. - Psalm 139:242. Love others as you love yourself.
The golden rule sounds simple but it is not. In reading Jesus' commandment to love your neighbor as yourself, I have thought I could spend a lifetime learning how. It is not that I have such a great love of myself, but some people just aren't likable!
C.S. Lewis took this issue apart in a way that brought clarity to me. How is it that I love myself when sometimes I don't even like myself? Mostly, I think of myself as a nice person, but sometimes I am downright nasty! When I am at my worst, I loathe myself for the things I do. So to love my neighbor as I love myself does not mean that I have to be especially fond of him or that I have to think he is a nice person. I have looked at myself with shame and loathing yet still find a way to love myself. So I am allowed to loathe the things my neighbor does as well.
Loving another person, when there is nothing lovable about him, means separating out the bad behavior from the human being and hoping that somehow he can be changed to be more lovable. It is hoping, that like me, he can be redeemed. It is giving him another chance. And another and another, just like I give myself another chance when I behave badly.
Admittedly, it is much easier to love the people that you naturally like. C.S. Lewis said "Do not waste time bothering whether you 'love' your neighbor; act as if you did." Then you will discover a great secret - you will eventually learn to love him.
So how do you "act as if" you love someone? In the book of Colossians, Paul wrote about how we are to live as followers of Christ:
Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues, put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
3. Forgive as you have been forgiven.
When Jesus said that loving your neighbor was the second greatest commandment (after loving God with all your heart and soul), he explained that all the other commandments flow from these two commands. So forgiveness flows from love but it is worth exploring separately because un-forgiveness is a huge barrier to grace.
Philip Yancey points out that Jesus linked our forgiveness to our forgiving others. This comes straight out of the Lord's Prayer. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Jesus makes our forgiveness conditional on our first forgiving others.
But let's admit it. We do not forgive easily because forgiveness is not fair. We want justice. We nurse our grievances. We punish others for hurting us. We look for evidence that the wrongdoer is as bad as we think they are. Sometimes we even want God to avenge those who do wrong against us. On the other hand, when we do something wrong to another person, we don't want to admit it. We rationalize our own behavior to avoid forgiveness. We think we ought to be excused.
When we don't forgive, resentment builds and takes up too much of our thoughts. If you don't forgive, you are bound in a toxic way to the person you don't forgive. Someone said that resentment is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. Ann Landers said, "Hanging onto resentment is letting someone you despise live rent-free in your head." Forgiveness is the only way to free yourself from the imprisonment of constantly rehashing grievances.
Forgiveness is not forgetting the wrong or excusing it. It is giving up the desire for justice and leaving the issue of fairness to God. It is trusting that God is a better judge than I am.
The Challenge: See to it that no one misses out on God's Grace
Philip Yancey challenged the audience to "see to it that no one misses out on God's grace" (Hebrews 12:15). As I listened to him talk about Christians who dispense God's grace - in humanitarian ways and in everyday interactions with others - I felt ashamed of myself. In a moment of selfish annoyance, I had sent a snarky email to a coworker that week. As I said, sometimes I am a wretch.
But I humbly accept this challenge knowing that God, in his infinite wisdom, chose to dispense the amazing gift of grace through flawed believers like me. These times are challenging. We are confronted with graceless behavior everyday. I do not want to be conformed to this graceless world but to be transformed by Jesus Christ. I don't want anyone to miss out on God's love and forgiveness because of me.
As you have individually been given a gift of grace, dispense it to each other like good stewards of the complex grace of God. (1st Peter 4:10, Richmond Lattimore translation)
