Tag: grace

This time of year I always feel guilty.  When it comes to the end of May and the weather turns nice, there’s a feeling I get.  A rising panic has dawned on me ever since I was a teenager.  You know the feeling - you step out into the sunshine feeling free and all of a sudden it hits you: I SHOULD BE REVISING!

Are you the same?

I haven’t sat any exams for years.  But the weather turns nice and instantly I feel burdened by the weight of exam season.

It's a horrible feeling.  And it's exactly like living under law.  Let me list some similarities between being in "Revision Mode" and living "under the law."

In revision mode...

1. You never know if you've done enough.  Until you see the exam you can't know what you should have been revising.  Therefore, no matter how much revision you do, you could always be doing more.
2. If you blow off your revision and enjoy the sunshine you never really enjoy it.  The knowledge of your coming exams overshadows any fun you might have.
3. If you stay in and study you spend the whole time feeling like you're missing out.  Everyone else is having the summer of their lives, and you're stuck in the library.
4. Negotiating the exam becomes the whole point of study.  Not learning.  Not love of the subject.  Everything is reduced to these arbitrary hoops through which you must jump.
5. Techniques become almost as important as understanding.  In exams, the ability to conceal ignorance is every bit as useful as actually knowing stuff.   Being good at exams can be worth more than being good at your subject.
6. The end results for which you aim are all about personal advancement - getting the job or university place that's best for you.

Living under the law is exactly the same.

1. The relentless drum beat that drives you is guilt.  'Do more, do more, do more' says the law.  And more is never enough.
2. You can ignore the law's demands and 'cut loose' in sin, but unless you've been set free by Christ you won't enjoy it.  There'll always be the lurking feeling that you should be shackled in religion.
3. On the other hand, you can clutch those shackles to yourself in self-righteous pride, but only you know how jealous you are of the cool kids cutting loose.  Resentment is rising in you, even (and especially!) as you resolve to be good.
4. Loving your neighbour in self-forgetful joy is not your heart-beat.  Instead you need to be told what to do.  In measurable, manageable, bite-sized chunks.
5. Concealing your badness is just as important as showing your goodness.  Keeping up appearances is everything.
6. The end goal is not Christ's love shared, but your status secured.  Your goodness is all about you.  Which means it's not actually good after all.

In Galatians 3 Paul likens the Law to "a strict governess in charge of us." (Gal 3:24, JB Phillips).  But now we've graduated. Christ has passed our exams for us and earned us the A* (Gal 4:4).  The Law has done its job for us and now goes into honourable retirement (Gal 3:25).  We can still learn much from its wisdom, we can still consult the old lesson plans.  But we're not in revision mode.  It can't give us a detention.  And its grades no longer apply.

School's out for summer!  We're free.

Like the graduate who picks up a book for love of learning, now we can actually pursue the life of Christ without fear, pride, pressure or guilt.   Now that there's nothing we have to do we're finally in a position to actually do good!  Now that all judgement has been cleared away, altruism is possible!  For the first time in our lives genuine love can begin.

The Christian lives under the banner of John 19:30: "It is finished!"  So no more "revision mode" spirituality.  You've passed the test - with flying colours.  Let the summer begin.

Recently I read an internet discussion on how much "grace" we should preach.  You know, as opposed to preaching the life of the kingdom, the demands of discipleship, missional living, that kind of thing.  One side said they'd like to see more grace, another side said they'd like to see less.

Perhaps you're thinking "I know which side Glen would take."  Don't be so sure.  I think they are falling off either side of the wrong horse.

Let's call one side "the more grace people."  These were keen to argue that none can perform the works of the kingdom without the empowerment of "grace."  The "less grace people" kept saying "Yeah, but, c'mon.  Commands are there.  Loads of them.  Stop sidelining half the Bible!"

And back and forth it went.  The more I read, the more I wondered whether I'd stumbled across some intramural Roman Catholic dispute.  Whatever differences they thought they had, both sides seemed to assume that grace was a substance.  Both spoke of the empowerment and encouragement of 'grace', but the real concern of both parties seemed to be our life of discipleship.  Thus, it was really a discussion about motivational techniques.  Some thought that carrots are better, others reached for the stick.

On this view, "grace" is like the cheese sandwiches which David brought to his brothers at the front line (1 Samuel 17:17-19).  Here grace is an encouragement and empowerment from the christ to go out and fight the good fight.  The christ gives you strength, victory is down to you.

And if that's grace, then naturally, some people think David should make some really tasty sandwiches, top quality pickle, mature cheddar, olive focaccia bread and plenty of it.  Other's say, "Don't stuff the troops, keep 'em lean and mean, teach 'em how to fight!"

Now if that was the dispute then, really, I have no desire to weigh in on the optimum  cheese-sandwich / military-briefing balance.

What I want to declare to both sides is the true meaning of grace.  Grace is not David's sandwiches, grace is David's victory.  Grace is David volunteering to fight for his doubting and disdainful brothers.  Grace is David delivering the killer-blow for troops who would otherwise be slaughtered.  Grace is David himself, the anointed champion, doing everything to win the day.  To put it another way - "grace alone" is just another way of saying "Christ alone".

Once you see that, you, your Champion and the whole battle has been shifted.

Suddenly we've been plucked from the front-lines, our lives in the balance, and now we find ourselves caught up in a victory we could never have won.  Now we're shouting with joy and advancing on the Philistines to plunder them.

And yes, at this point, both sandwiches and briefings come in handy.  But they must be rightly related to David's victory.  Without it, David's sandwiches may as well be poison.

And if anyone thinks they can ignore the victory of our Champion and move straight to the 'battles we must fight' they've completely misunderstood the gospel.  Yet I find that both the sandwich people and the pep-talk-people do this.  Both the "more grace people" and the "less grace people" carry on as though David's victory can simply be assumed and the Christian life boiled down to our attempts at plundering.

The real distinction is not between gracious or legal motivations towards our work.  The real distinction is between Christ's work and our work.   Which battle do we think we're in?  Are we facing down Goliath or are we victors already?  That really is all the difference in the world.

You might say: But Glen, we all know that we're victors through Christ, let's get on and tell people how to plunder.  I say: Really?  We know we're victors through Christ?!  Not even "the more grace people" seem to know it!

Our home group Bible study were finishing off Hebrews last night.  We did a bit of an overview and I asked  what we'd all take away from the book.

One person said that the warning passages leapt out at them.  Things like:

We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.  (Hebrews 2:1)

Another person said they were struck by the once-for-all finished-ness of Christ's work.  Jesus - our Brother - has become our High Priest and accomplished it all on our behalf.  Amazing grace!

So there I was, leading the study, sat between these two reactions to the Letter.  How would I acknowledge both these realities?

Here's one option:  "Indeed, you both make excellent points.  We need to balance the warning passages against the grace passages.  The grace stuff is nice, but the warnings prevent us going too crazy with the grace thing."

Have you heard that kind of teaching?  It comes from people who have a high view of the Bible.  They want to honour both strands of teaching and for that we can commend them.  But...

Isn't there another way of taking both elements seriously?

Imagine if the warnings are grave admonishments not to forget the grace of Christ?  Imagine if the thing we're tempted to drift towards is legalistic, ritualistic, earnest spiritual points-scoring?  Imagine if Christ's finished work is the truth we're always forgetting?

Well then... be warned - Christ alone has achieved salvation, by grace alone, received by faith alone.  Be warned!  If that's true then there is no spiritual life to be found in any other message, any other system, any other life.   Return at once to this hope:

Let us flee to take hold of the hope offered to us [that we] may be greatly encouraged. ¹⁹ We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, ²⁰ where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever.  (Hebrews 6:18-20)

We must beware.  All of us naturally drift in the Christian life.  We must flee from those temptations.  We must take hold of true gospel hope.  But remember - the direction in which we're tempted to drift is towards earnest spiritual endeavour.  When the Bible says, "Don't drift!" it's not trying to bring you back to serious-minded religious behaviour, it's calling you from it.

Don't drift!  Open your Bible and return to your true hope - Christ alone.

PS - in this light, you might like to consider Dan Hames' post on Lent