Why do we so often discuss the grace of God before we discuss the fear of God? For that matter, why do we discuss the grace of God over the righteousness He demands? I have heard the phrase, "God will meet you where you're at," way too many times for my liking. I don't dispute the truth of the statement but when you hear it too many times, it breeds complacency. It seems as though we spend so much time dwelling on God's grace and its infinite sufficiency that we miss the next step. After we are saved by grace (Eph 2:8) then what? Where does righteousness fall into the equation or the fear of God?
Definition of Righteousness:
The Hebrew word for righteousness is tseh'-dek, Gesenius's Strong's Concordance:6664—righteous, integrity, equity, justice, straightness. The root of tseh'-dek is tsaw-dak', Gesenius's Strong:6663—upright, just, straight, innocent, true, sincere. It is best understood as the product of upright, moral action in accordance with some form of divine plan.
Lets start the converation with CS Lewis (a book I'm sure you are all avidly reading this Holiday Season). To paraphrase two points made in Mere Christianity, Book III, Chapter V - Sexual Morality, he says: 1) the more you feed a desire, the stronger the desire becomes (whether it is a good desire or a bad desire); and 2) the only fatal thing is to sit down content with anything less than perfection. He hits the nail right on the head with these two points.
Let me connect these points with my initial questioning. By over-emphasizing grace, we take away the desire to feed the right desires. Consequently, we create a mindset that chooses to find solace in grace "after the fact," over finding solace in obedience by choosing that which is righteous "before the fact." And the more we find ourselves making the wrong decisions, the harder it is to stop. This is a huge problem. We should be busy living how we were meant to live and in doing so, staving off the need to stretch God's grace to its infinite limits.
Moreover, we inhibit the desire to pursue righteousness by instilling an overly grace-oriented mindset. This is Lewis's second point. The Christian walk is a long cultivating process, whereby perfection will never be had but the pursuit thereof should be. We should never be content with where we are at. Instead, we should constantly seek to improve, to grow closer to the Lord, to not just be hearers of the word but also doers (James 1:22-25). I think this fervent pursuit of God and His righteousness is part parcel of the statement, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might." (Deuteronomy 6:5 & Matthew 22:37) which is called the foundation of all law and prophets by Jesus.
Alright gentleman, let the games begin!
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Relevant Scripture
Let me throw some verses into the mix to end the post but let me also encourage you to seek out understanding of these verses.
-In Romans, Paul says, "But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin... and having been freed from sin, you became slaves to righteousness." (Romans 6:17-18)
-Solomon ends the book of Ecclesiastes by saying, "fear God and keep His commandments, b/c this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil."
-Solomon begins the book of Proverbs with, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge/wisdom; fools despise wisdom and instruction." (Proverbs 1:7)
-Jesus says, "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." (Matthew 6:33)
-Moses proclaims, "Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and to keep the Lord's commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good?" (Deuteronomy 10:12)
-In the book of James, Jesus' brother James says, "But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who look intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does." (James 1:22-25)
-Lastly, Paul says, "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things." (Phil 4:8)
8 comments:
We are full of ourselves. We either take grace to the extreme of license, or works to the extreme of legalism. The abundant life we seek lies somewhere between these extreme poles of legalism and license.
It is hard to empty ourselves, especially when our strength and self-confidence is high. How did John the Baptist say it: 'Jesus must become greater and I must become less'? How can we empty ourselves to become more like Jesus?
I like Martha, but Mary won the prize. The Christian life is a mysterious and perhaps individually unique mix of being and doing. No way to get around the paradox. Grace is our only hope, and yet there are many commands to obey. We are called to put off the old self and put on the new self. Jesus said no obedience means no love. No fruit of righteousness on the outside means no spiritual life on the inside. Yet neither obedience nor fruit earns the prize. The prize is a gift. God loves us. Perhaps the better I understand God's love for me, the better I will be able to reflect that love. In the mean time, I try too hard or too little.
The prize is a gift and neither obedience nor fruit earn the prize. However, once you take off the old self and put on the new self you must attempt to obey. Is it possible for one to be "trying" to obey 100% of the time but coming up short? This is the ideal place for Grace to enter (when you come up short not using it as a crutch/excuse). But I regress to, is it possible for someone to try to obey 100% of the time?
Lets put it into a real world context I can understand, and maybe others too?? Try breathing out all the air you have in your lungs. Then when you think you have reached that point breathe out again...then again...then again... There is always something more to give, always. So when you did it that last time and inhaled did you really try the whole time, 100%, your hardest?
Or, when athletes say they did or didn't give it 100%. Can they really give it 100%? You can always look back at a situation and say "I could've dove for that" or "I could've thrown it harder". (Vince Carter admitted to not giving 100% at each and every game when he played for Toronto because its just not possible. Yup, I got basketball into our religious blog.)
There is always something more you could have done to obey, there is always more you could have done to help somebody, there is always more time you could have given. Are those the times you need Grace to kick in or is that just another time people are using Grace as a crutch?
The most important thing (I believe) is if you or I have stopped trying to achieve 100% obedience, using grace as a crutch or not, we have big problems. Apathy is then the real (d)evil.
Lack of BIBLE references noted, no need to point out.
i think you hit the nail on the head. there is always something more to do. the problem is when we allow grace to take the place of effort. i understand the need for grace b/c we can never achieve perfection. what i don't understand is when people allow grace to make up for fervency & zealousness.
there are too many Christians walking around with, "Buddy Jesus," as their savior (a la the movie Dogma). this guy, that every time they screw up due to lack of any real effort, they can say - "hey buddy, forgive me for that sin. i know i didn't really try hard to not sin, but you know... remember, you promised grace and love no matter what. thanks dude." I don’t doubt that God will provide grace/forgiveness for all those who seek forgiveness. My biggest problem is the lack of real effort by most Christians. the lack of a burning desire to be living how we should. the lack of a sense of true urgency. The lack of obedience.
think about it. when was the last time you realized the true fear of God and sought His righteousness? Remember when you grasped it? The fear of God creates a desire to live righteously, to try harder, to love more… it doesn’t allow for lack of effort but does allow for grace to bridge the gap between perfection and effort.
So what are the real situations that make people come to live like they should be? Thriving to be better, thriving to obey, and thriving to live like christ is usually spurned from a huge event (most of the time catastrophic in nature) in life for the initial non believer. Usually. However, for a true believer, living like one should be can usually be brought about by being "recharged" by being plugged into the christian community, getting into the word, or getting back to prayer. And that is the beauty of Christ.
Once you have gone every other place you can, once you have tried every thrill you can seek you can come back to Christ and literally feel the energy and feel rejuvenated. I think that is part of the Grace picture as well. Christ realizes the hardships we go through (because he kicked it here for 30 years) and knows that when we come back to the real deal, he will be there waiting.
That still leaves us at a point of going and seeking the other thrills and relying on Grace to be there when we get back. There is definitely a difference between consciously going out and making those decisions and "drifting away". People that say there aren't any difference because Grace is Grace aren't fooling the only one thing that counts. JC my friends, JC.
Grace is our only redeeming hope to live in eternity with our heavenly father. It is the only way to fully enter into a complete and whole relationship with God. But because we have embraced God's gift of grace does that mean that we are able to sin with no abandon. Certainly not.
God does call us to mimic and strive for 100% effort, but due to our innate sinful nature we forever fall short of true wholeness in God. This is where the necessity of Grace becomes evident. It is not our works that spurns grace, but it is grace that sets the bar beyond our reach.
So then even if we are trying 100% of the time, is this sufficient to grant us entrance into God's kingdom? By no means. Grace should not be used as a crutch or as a rational for our short-comings, but instead it acts as an undeserved gift from God to make us whole again.
It is clear to me the role giving all your effort plays, but ultimately it is the grace of God that brings us salvation. For this reason, we must first embrace this gift and then use its power and completeness to strive towards a life that can be view from the outside as being "different."
Future Grace
Pondering the Power We Need for Obedience
Gratitude is a joyful emotion for worship but a dangerous motive for obedience. We are commanded in no uncertain terms to be thankful. “And let the peace of Christ rule in your hears… And be thankful” (Colossians 3:15 RSV). “In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). How can we not be thankful when we owe everything to God?
But when it comes to obedience, gratitude is a dangerous motive. It tends to get expressed in debtors’ terms – or what I sometimes call the debtor’s ethic. For example, “Look how much God has done for you. Shouldn’t you, out of gratitude, do much for him?” Or, “You owe God everything that you are and have. What have you done for him in return?”
I have at least three problems with this kind of motivation. First, it is impossible to pay God back for all the grace he has given us. We can’t even begin to pay him back, because Romans 11:35-36 says, “Who has given a gift to him [God] that he might be repaid? [Answer: nobody.] For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory for ever.” We can’t pay him back because he already owns all we have to give him.
Second, even if we succeeded in paying him back for all his grace to us, we could only succeed in turning grace into a business transaction. If we can pay him back, it was not grace. “To the one who works, his wag e is not reckoned as grace, but as what is due” (Romans 4:4, author’s translation). If you try to do wage negotiations with God, you nullify grace. If friends try to show you a special favor of love by having you over for dinner, and you end the evening by saying that you will pay them back by having them over next week, you nullify their grace and turn it into a trade. God does not like to have his grace nullified. He likes to have it glorified (Ephesians 1:6, 12, 14).
Third, focusing on gratitude as an empowerment for obedience tends to overlook the crucial importance of future grace. Gratitude looks back to grace received in the past and feels thankful. Faith looks forward to grace promised in the future and feels hopeful. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for” (Hebrews 11:1 RSV).
This faith in future grace is the power for obedience that preserves the gracious quality of human obedience. Obedience does not consist in paying God back and thus turning grace into a trade. Obedience comes from trusting in God for more grace -- future grace – and thus magnifying the infinite resource s of God’s love and power. “I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10, RSV). The grace that enabled Paul to work hard in a life of obedience was the daily arrival of fresh supplies of grace. This is what faith trusts in – the continuing arrivals of grace. Faith looks to promises like, I will be with you were you go (Joshua 1:9), and in that confidence faith ventures, in obedience, to take the land.
The biblical role of past grace – especially the cross – is to guarantee the certainty of future grace: “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all [past grace], will he not freely give us all things with him [future grace]?” (Romans 8:32, RSV). Trusting in future grace is the enable strength of our obedience. The more we trust in future grace, the more we give God the opportunity in our lives to show the glory of his inexhaustible grace. So take a promise of future grace and do some radical act of obedience on it. God will be mightily honored.
Gift and Grit
(In That Order)
Thoughts on Human Effort and Divine Enabling
Question: If God is the one who gives our varied measures of faith, should we pursue greater faith?
Answer: Yes! With all our might! Through prayer, word, fellowship, and obedience.
Faith is a gift of God. Romans 12:3 says, “Think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith which God has assigned to him” (RSV). God measures to each believe a measure of faith. Ephesians 2:8 says, “By grace you have been saved through faith; and this is now your own doing, it is the gift of God” (RSV). The word “this” refers to the whole act of God, including the accomplishment of salvation on the cross and the application of salvation through faith. Philippians 1:29 says, “To you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake.” Believing and suffering are both gifts from God. Similarly repentance (the flip side of faith) is called a gift of God (2 Timothy 2:25; Acts 11:18). The revelation of Christ to the heart that makes faith possible is also a gift (Matthew 16:17; 2 Corinthians 4:4, 6).
This does not mean faith is static or that we should not pursue it more and more. In 2 Thessalonians 1:3, Paul says, “Your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for on another.” In 2 Corinthians 10:15, “Paul says that he hopes their faith will “increase.”
Therefore it is clear that faith should grow and not remain static. The fact that God gave you yesterday’s level of faith does not mean that his will for you today is the same measure of faith. His purpose for you today may be far greater faith. His command is to “trust in him at all times” (Psalm 62:8, RSV) and to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18, RSV).
God commands what he wills and grants in measure what he commands, but we should always pursue what he commands. He says, “Work out your salvation… for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13). God does not say, “Since I work, you shouldn’t.” He says, “Because I do, you can.” God’s gift does not replace our effort; it enables and carries it.
We say with Paul, “[God’s] grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary I worked…” (1 Corinthians 15:10, RSV). The gift of grace produced the grit of hard work. It is not the other way around. He goes on, “I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which is with me.” Even Paul’s working is a gift of grace. Yes, it feels like our effort. It is an effort! But that is not all it is. That is not what it is at root. If it is virtuous, it is God’s “working in us to will and to do hi good pleasure.” God “fulfill[s] every good resolve and work of faith by his power” (2 Thessalonians 1:11, RSV). He equips us “with everything good that [we] may do his will, working in [us] that which is pleasing in his sight” (Hebrews 13:21, RSV).
Therefore let us press on to the greatest faith possible with all the means of grace God has given. Let us be like Paul and strive “with all the energy which he mightily inspires within [us]” (Colossians 1:29, RSV). And when we have labored, let us not think more highly of ourselves than is necessary, but say with Paul, “I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has wrought through me… by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:18-19, RSV). There is a place for the grit in the Christian life (“I worked hard”), but it is preceded by and enabled by gift (“It was the grace of God”). Therefore all grit is living by faith in future grace.
Everybody wrote good stuff, but I didn't see any reference to this definitive passage of scripture on this topic... Romans 6:1-18... sorry if anyone ref'd it & I missed it.
Romans 6:
[1] What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? [2] By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? [3] Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? [4] We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. [5] If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. [6] For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin-- [7] because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. [8] Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. [9] For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. [10] The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. [11] In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. [12] Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. [13] Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. [14] For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. [15] What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! [16] Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey--whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? [17] But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. [18] You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
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