Grace seems easy. It’s grace, after all, right?
But in reality, grace is really hard. What I mean is…
- We have a hard timereceivinggrace because we either feel that we’retooundeserving to have the undeserved favor of God, or that we’re okay and don’t really need it.
- We have a hard timegivinggrace for lots of reasons – the hurt is too deep, we’ve wrongly rankedtheirsin as worse than ours, or we still haven’treceivedgrace yet.
Thesubject of gracecontinues to be a sticky one for us. It just seems too easy.
Be forgiven, instantly, of even the most heinous of sins by a holy and righteous God because we placed our faith in his Son?
It still seems too easy. Shockingly easy. Scandalously easy.
I think there are three primary reasons we struggle with the idea of both giving and receiving grace.
1. We’re conditioned by conditional love.
We live in a world of limited, conditional love. While God says,I love you, we often say things like,
- I love youbecause… (implying conditions)
- I love youuntil… (implying limits)
- I love youunless… (you get the picture)
Far too many of us have been sent the signal that we’ll be loved until we cross some arbitrary line and go too far. Spouses are left abandoned. Children are abused and neglected. Former friends are left bewildered by the erosion of a friendship.
That’s the world we live in. That’s the way things work. So surelyGodmust work the same way, right?
That’s what we tell ourselves, even if subconsciously. That’s why we always seem to have to issue a disclaimer, like,God loves you unconditionally,but he hates your sin and wants you to repent…
Does God hate sin?Yes. Does he require repentance?Yes. But from our perspective, we’re so afraid we’ll give too much grace we’re afraid to simply state his love without making sure we’ve added the necessary call to justice.
But God’s love and grace aren’t limited or conditional in the way that ours is. He is fully capable of remaining perfectly holy while at the same time extending unconditional, limitless love to even the chiefs of sinners.
And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.
Ephesians 3:18 NLT
2. We fail to understand the reachof the cross.
We tend to think of everything as happening on a timeline. And indeed, the biblical narrative does seem to flow from age to age. We start with creation, move through ancient Israel’s journeys, captivity, and liberty to the cross, the resurrection, and the church age, culminating in the second coming of Jesus.
The problem is, God exists outside the boundaries and limitations of time.
He started the clock. He will stop the clock someday. He doesn’t have to wait for anything. He is God.
When it comes to the cross, we have this imaginary pin we stick on the timeline of our lives. We assume he forgave all of ourpastsins, but not our future sins. Or that he forgave all the sins we’ve committed up until thatreally badsin (as though some sins aren’t that bad).
But on the cross, Jesus’ death was an atoning sacrifice before God for the all of the sins of all of the people who had or would ever trust in him. When we truly knowJesus, we know the forgiveness of sins past, present, and future.
Christ suffered for our sins once for all time…
1 Peter 3:18 NLT
3. We useourmath rather thanGod’smath.
One of the most common mistakes we make is to assume that God has done 99% of the work of saving us and that we merely need to do 1% – repent and believe.
But repenting and believing doesn’t contributetoour redemption. Repenting and believing is simply the properresponseto our redemption.
Salvation is 100% a God thing.
He initiated it. He foresaw, foreknew, and foreordained. He justified, sanctified, and glorified his people. Some of the effects remain to be seen in eternity, but it’s as good as done.
Onourscales, our sins are pretty bad, buttheirsins are definitely worse. Sure, God could forgiveus, butthem?
Onourscales, most of our sins are not that big of a deal. But thebigsins – murder, rape, abuse…thosesins must be harder for God to forgive than my sins of pride, greed, or worry.
Ultimately,ourscales are justbroken. They’re inequitable.
But with God’s scales, the weight and measure of the atoning sacrifice of Christ far outweighs the power and rule of any and all sin anywhere that God’s immeasurable grace evokes a response of genuine repentance and faith.
Grace is hard for us to get because we’re limited in our perspectives, conditioned by our culture, naturally defensive, and have an inordinate sense of fairness about the wrongs committed by others.
But grace is grace. The existence of God means the existence of grace, and it’s a gift he shares with us freely on the basis of the cross where Jesus died.
And now, our challenge is to“grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”(2 Peter 3:18 NLT)
As an enthusiast deeply versed in the intricate tapestry of theological concepts and biblical narratives, I can shed light on the profound insights embedded in the provided article. The discourse on grace, its reception, and bestowing, is a nuanced exploration of fundamental Christian tenets. Let's dissect the various concepts interwoven in this insightful piece.
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Conditional Love and God's Unconditional Grace: The article delves into the human experience of conditional love, a paradigm ingrained in our societal structures. It highlights the difficulty people face in accepting grace due to conditioned expectations in human relationships. The comparison is drawn to God's unconditional love and grace, emphasizing that divine love surpasses the limitations and conditions of human love. The evidence cited, such as biblical verses like Ephesians 3:18, reinforces the assertion that God's love is boundless and not contingent on human shortcomings.
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Understanding the Reach of the Cross: A temporal perspective on forgiveness is challenged by the article. It contends that God's forgiveness extends beyond a linear timeline. The significance of Jesus' atoning sacrifice on the cross is portrayed as an all-encompassing act that covers past, present, and future sins. The narrative challenges the common misconception that forgiveness is limited to specific sins or timeframes. The theological foundation is strengthened with references like 1 Peter 3:18.
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God's Math vs. Human Perspectives: The article confronts a common misconception in Christian theology— the idea that human repentance and belief contribute to redemption. It argues that salvation is entirely a divine initiative, with repentance and belief being responses rather than contributions. The piece exposes the fallacy of comparing sins on human scales, asserting that God's perspective transcends human understanding. The concept of grace being freely given, irrespective of the perceived magnitude of sins, is grounded in the theological understanding of God's sovereignty and the atoning sacrifice of Christ.
In essence, the article urges readers to transcend their conditioned perspectives, adopt a broader understanding of God's grace, and embrace the transformative power of unconditional love as exemplified in Christian theology. The theological depth and scriptural references throughout the article contribute to a compelling narrative that encourages believers to grow in their understanding of grace and deepen their relationship with the divine.
