-Grace. This is the core of the Message, the Truth we must communicate to others. Grace, God’s amazing wonderful underserved favor, infinitely rich and free but not cheap, not without cost. We talk about grace in a way that manifests grace - it is to be both the content and the context of our communication.
-Salt. Seasoned with salt. As in making something not only palatable but tasty. Salt enhances and brings out the flavor. And in our communication with those outside, if we leave out any mention of grace, we make the Message tasteless, more likely to be spat out than swallowed. The plain truth is that there IS no Message without grace. We are not conveying a bunch of rules that people have broken, for which they must be punished, and which they must now obey if they hope to have any chance of being accepted by God. The Message is that God punished His Son in our place, a punishment we did indeed deserve but instead now are offered a secure relationship and right standing with God, a permanent place in His family! This we do not and will not ever deserve - it is offered as a free gift. That is grace. That is our Message, and it must permeate our conversation with those who are on the outside of Christ.
-Paul adds that this knowledge is something we actually learned in the past, prior to sharing it in some kairos moment with one who is not following Christ. If you have not understood and received grace, you will not be able to unpack it for someone else. Grace is an other-worldly concept - the world is just not wired to work or relate this way. But it is imperative that anyone on the outside hears about grace - this is the core of the Good News.
-And again, it is necessary. We need to answer. We must give an answer for the hope that is in us. The question is how. How to do that. We need to know how. It becomes quite simple, I believe. Our hope of eternal life is based solely on God’s grace. It does not derive from attendance or tithing or membership or service or rituals. These tokens of devotion can be helpful and good, but they earn us not even a pinch of favor with the Almighty. All we are and might hope to be in God’s eyes is found in His unmerited favor so generously poured out at the cross of Jesus Christ. We approach only up the blood-washed slopes of Calvary. By God’s grace we are what we are, and we must steep our hearts and minds in a deepening understanding and awareness of how bankrupt and broken we are on our own and how desperately in need of grace we are, not only at the moment of repentance but in each and every moment ever after. We must cultivate this knowledge and live into it every day. For by grace we are saved, and it is not from ourselves, it is a gift of God (Romans 3.24, 5.2, 5.17; Ephesians 1.6-7, 2.8-9). We are not under law but under grace, the grace of God (Romans 6.14, Galatians 5.4). It is the Word of grace, this Word Which became flesh and showed us the glory of God, full of grace, of Whose fulness we have indeed received, and grace upon grace (John 1.14-16). What we tell those outside, that on which we must focus, is this message of grace. That is what the world needs to hear, and frankly is longing to hear. Unfortunately the message they tend to get from us is be good, go to church, do more, try harder, watch what you say, obey the rules and don’t have too much fun, don’t drink smoke or chew and don’t go with girls who do. Stop doing the things you most like to do and start doing the things you least like to do. It’s all about works. When in fact it should be all about grace. God’s free gift, and altho it’s not cheap, it is really free, and who wouldn’t want that? In all our dealings with those outside, we gotta be clear about grace.
No comments:
Post a Comment