This was actually written by David Lim at a time when I was trying to come to terms with Joseph Prince's message of grace. For the unfamiliar, David actually attended New Creation church for about 2 years and the pastor there has a different take on the message and its application. And I needed intellectually to resolve the two interpretations before I can move on ( poor boy? haha). So we decided to read two different interpretations of grace.. one by Philip Yancey who I'm familiar with and Pastor Prince's book on ' Destined to reign'. We then summarised a book each and shared it with each other. And they actually meet in many parts of their argument. Maybe I would do a similarities and differences one day when i reread these summaries written more than 2 years ago.
It was a long hard struggle of questioning before I came to some sort of resolution. I must thank David Chan also because he had a heart to share Ps. Prince message with us and loved enough to debate endlessly with me despite me being emotionally involved. And more importantly, he has a clear idea of why he believes what he believes which helped my understanding at the end. yup, i think i came away with a clearer idea of what grace is, something which i think is paramount! especially if you grow up with the image of a stern God. You should run to God more when you're darn dirty rather than wait till you're clean. okay enjoy reading if you decide to.
In his opening chapter, Yancey recounts how a prostitute refused to enter a church for fear of facing its condemnation. The Church has sadly become a place where people with their sins are afraid to go to. In contrast, a look at the life of Jesus in the Gospels reveals that the down-and-outs and the outcasts were the ones who were attracted to Him. The church should thus be a place where people clean up their lives after, and not before, attending. The world can do almost anything as well as, or better than, the church. The only thing it cannot offer is Grace.
HOW SWEET THE SOUND
In a world full of ungrace, grace is the best gift the church can give to the world. Unfortunately, the church has become so legalistic that we are not known as a religion of grace. Churches and denominations argue over laws and doctrines and stands, but you rarely find them trying to out-do each other in showing grace. Instead of reaching out to the hurting with same sort of Grace Christ showed, we chastise them that their hurts are a result of bad choice in life.
It is a natural human tendency to feel that we must work for God’s approval. Yet no amount of self-righteousness can overcome the feelings of guilt we have over certain defects in our lives. It is this feeling of guilt over past events and failed relationships that enhance our longing for grace. In many ways, we Christians have started to align ourselves with the graceless world. We expect much of others and are slow to forgive because that is how the world treats us. From school to the working world, we taught that you have to earn what you get. Yet we need to remember that grace comes free of charge to people who do not deserve it. We serve a God who is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.
Aware of our inbuilt resistance to grace, Jesus mentions it often without actually defining it. Instead, He chose to illustrate using parables: the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son. Each story tells of the loser’s sense of loss, followed by the thrill of its discovery. Like the father of the prodigal son who ran forward with his arms outstretched, God rejoices when we come back to Him. Sadly, we often turn away, thinking that we do not deserve such grace. Such parables are not really meant to teach us how live, but rather, to teach us who God is and who God loves. Throughout the Bible, we see that He had a preference for “real” people over “good” people. The thief He forgave on the cross converted out of fear and not because He suddenly decided to attempt to understand what Christ was all about. Grace does not depend on what we have done for God; it is all about what He has done for us.
Grace and mathematical logic do not seem to agree with each other. In fact, Grace seems to have a sense of unfairness in it. Like the shepherd who abandoned the ninety-nine to search for that one lost sheep. Or the woman whose two coins in the temple collection bucket was deemed to be worth more than all of what the other donors gave. We like to think of ourselves and responsible, hardworking and generous people. Thus it irritates us when we see people who do not possess such qualities receiving as much, or even more, than what we have. However, we must remember that God dispenses gifts, not wages. We are not paid according to our merit, for none of us come close to satisfying God’s requirements for a perfect life on our own. When God looks at my life, He does not see occasions of good and bad. Instead, He sees only the goodness of His son. Grace means there is nothing I can do to make Him love me more, and nothing I can do to make Him love me less. Jesus has already earned for us the costly victory of God’s acceptance.
BREAKING THE CYCLE OF UNGRACE
The hardest part about grace is that it is unfair. That is why we are often reluctant to show grace to others. These feelings of ungrace can only be overcome with forgiveness. But behind every act of forgiveness lies an episode of betrayal and failure. God calls us to this difficult task of forgiving when he commands us to love our enemies so that we may be sons of our Father in heaven. Very often, the unwillingness to forgive is passed on from generation to generation However, the message of grace starts and ends with forgiveness. At the centre of Jesus’ parables of grace stands a God who takes the initiative towards us. This is in contrast to our human train of thought that expects the other party who wronged us to make the first move in asking for forgiveness. Sometimes we try to justify what we did and thus make no attempt to resolve our differences. For some of us, even after saying “I forgive you”, we still retain some hurt in us. We even want some sort of praise for showing forgiveness. However, our feelings of justice pale in comparison to how much grace God has shown us. It is important to always remember that we ourselves are benefactors of God’s grace. Only by living in the stream of God’s grace, will we have enough grace for others.
The scandal of forgiveness confronts anyone who agrees to a moral ceasefire just because someone says “I’m sorry”. Many a times we feel that other party needs to learn a lesson first, or we don’t want to encourage irresponsible behavior. And when we do finally soften to the point of granting forgiveness, it feels like a capitulation. But forgiveness does not settle all questions of blame and fairness. It seems to gloss over the point of who was right and wrong. Without forgiveness, conflict will turn into resentment as each side waits for the other to forgive first. Often, the only person to be healed by forgiveness is the person who does the forgiving. When you forgive someone, you detach that wrong from the person who committed. In a sense, that person becomes a new identity again. Forgiveness breaks the cycle of blame and loosens the stranglehold of guilt.
Forgiveness may be unfair, but at least it halts the cycle of retribution that is happening across the globe. So many countries are living in a state of war or tension because they are striving to overcome a sense of injustice that occurred years ago. We live in a world where force works, which is why so many nations are willing to spend big money on weapons and jump at any opportunity to use them. This has created generations of young children who are taught to fight, and not to forgive.
A metaphor that Jesus used – “the gates of hell will not prevail against it” – is a metaphor that calls the church to be on the offence, not defence. No matter how it looks at any point in history, Christians should storm the powers of evil with grace. Because it goes against human nature, forgiveness must be taught and practiced. Forgiveness is not an occasional act, but a permanent attitude. The likes of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. have showed the world how to conquer force with forgiveness. The fall of communism in the Soviet Union has been attributed the willingness of the Christians there who forgave the ruling powers even after seeing their priests and leaders executed. If one does not forgive, it will leave a wound in that person’s spirit and once again become part of nature’s laws of cause and effect.
SCENT OF SCANDAL
We sometimes feel that we are morally superior to the people around us, and this makes us less willing to accept their short-comings. However, we must remember that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We come face-to-face with God’s love when we are at our worst, and not our best.
When God gave Peter a vision of some animals for him to eat, he refused. And according to Old Testament Law, he was right to do so. They were considered unclean and not fit for someone to remain holy. The Law taught us to maintain perfection and give God only the best. Anything substandard was not allowed. Yancey describes it as being “Oddball”. However, Jesus has made clean all that was unclean. The story of Peter concludes with him saying “God has shown me that I should not call any man pure or unclean.” Jesus’ willingness to reach out to the Gentiles, considered “unclean” by the Jews, ultimately helped to get Him crucified. In essence, He erased to old law of “No oddballs allowed”, to “we are all oddballs, but God loves us anyhow.” The Gospels speak many times of Jesus willingness to ignore the boundaries of clean and unclean. The Good Samaritan was despised, a woman with hemorrhage touched His robe, He touched corpses to bring them to life. Jesus did not abolish God’s laws. Rather, he fulfilled them by changing the source of our holiness. We can stride in an unclean world and still remain clean.
Yancey devotes a chapter towards the issue of homosexuality out of his own personal experience of dealing with a close friend who confessed to be gay. The man’s name is Mel White and he was a loving husband and father and worked as a consultant on Christian films where he befriended many well-known Christians. It was a challenge for Yancey to put all that he had learnt in theory into practice. Through Mel White, Yancey was invited to observe homosexual marches where they came into direct confrontation with Christians. The Christians’ responses were largely devoid of grace. They ranged from shouts of condemnation to blatant insults. Interesting, the homosexuals drowned out their voices with “Jesus Loves Me”. It was ironic, seeing Christians defending pure doctrines versus “sinners” singing of Jesus’ love. As Mel White’s story became publicized, famous Christians who had worked with him and praised him suddenly turned away. And since Yancey was his friend, he too was also subject to hate mail. The issue of how to treat sinners is one the church is still learning to deal with. “To love a person means to see him as God intended him to be.”
Every teacher of grace has struggled with its apparent loopholes from time to time. It seems as though God is a lovesick father, eager to forgive and merciful enough to overcome the deepest differences between us. It seems as though the message of grace is too good to be true. The issue of “grace abuse” stems from our confusion over what is forgiving and what is condoning. To condone is to treat an evil as good, or simply ignore it, whereas forgiveness requires acceptance. People are divided into two categories: those who are guilty and acknowledge their wrongs, and the guilty ones who do not. It is only those who accept that they have sinned who can receive grace. God does not seek to crush us but to liberate us, and liberation requires a defenseless spirit. There is a common train of thought that grace is license for immorality. However, that is not true. We seek not to do evil things not just to put on a performance for God, but because we love Him and thus seek earnestly to please Him. Good works are not meant to impress Him, but are done as an expression of our love for Him. If we truly live in a spirit of gratitude for His grace, we will be trying to fathom and not exploit God’s grace.
Many scholars agree that Jesus closely matched the profile of a Pharisee, yet he usually reserved His strongest attacks for them. The reason was their legalism. Legalism usually focuses on the external appearance and has the potential to boost one’s reputation. Legalism is subtle danger, simply because no one thinks of themselves as a legalist. Yet, we often look at others and compare and comment. We focus a lot on the trivial matters and neglect the weightier matters. By its very nature, legalism encourages hypocrisy because it defines a set of behavior that cloaks what is going on inside. The church has created an expectation for people to follow the rules, but is at the same time ambivalent that many of its people are hurting and struggling inside. Paul teaches that legalism actually fails at the one thing it is supposed to do: encourage obedience. By knowing what we are not supposed to do, our nature leads us towards that which were told are unacceptable. Yet by striving to prove how much they deserve God’s love, legalists miss the whole point of the Gospel, that it is a gift from God to people who don’t deserve it. The solution to sin is not to impose an even-stricter code of behavior. It is to know God.
GRACE NOTES FOR A DEAF WORLD
Although the message of Grace is one the best news available, many Christians still do not embrace it readily. The church itself has become swept up in political issues that it plays by the rules of power. It is in the public square where ungrace is most openly displayed. While it is the responsibility of Christians to be concerned about moral issues in society, there is a feeling that Christians are increasingly perceived as rigid moralists who want to control the lives of others. Many Christians do not display grace out of fear: fear of society’s decay in areas such as high divorce rates, gambling, drug use, abortion, etc. A concern for morals must be accompanied by grace. In the end, it was the moralists, and not the sinners of Palestine, who called for Jesus’ crucifixion. The confusion between politics and religion is one of the greatest barriers to grace. The church’s history is filled with episodes when grace was traded away for power. There is a lot of energy these days devoted towards restoring morality in society. It thus leads one to wonder if we are perhaps focusing too much on the kingdom of this world rather than on the kingdom that is not of this world. It would be a sad chapter in church history if we were to champion against abortion and homosexuality, but not fulfill the Great Commission and spread the aroma of grace throughout the world.
Many Christians wonder how they can dispense grace in a world that seems to be veering away from God. Jesus submitted to the judgment of a Roman governor and Paul appealed his case all the way to Caesar. However, the Bible gives no direct advice for citizens of a democracy. There are three ways suggested for how Christians can display our care for our country. Firstly, dispensing God’s grace should be the Christian’s main contribution to the world. However, to be honest, we are not doing a very good job of it as we often let politics and religion mix. Although we are taught to love our enemies, it is often hard to distinguish who exactly is the enemy in society nowadays. Anyone who seems to challenge what we perceive as morally right is deemed to be the corrupt one. However, we are to show grace to such people even if we think that their actions are slowly eating away our society. Secondly, commitment to a style of grace does not mean Christians will live in perfect harmony with the government. Christ himself was executed by the state and throughout its history; the church has always lived in tension with the government. Yet in some ways, the church has pivotal in dispensing the message of grace in areas that challenged the rule of the government. Christians brought an end to slavery and it was Christians who opened the first hospices. In this sense, Christians need to be wise in the issues we choose to support. All too often in their forays into politics, Christians have proved to be as wise as doves but harmless as serpents. If we expect society to take seriously our contribution, then we must show more wisdom in our choices. Finally, coziness between church and state is good for the state and bad for the church. As the “consciousness of the state”, we help inform the world about justice and righteousness. However, the state, which runs on the rule of ungrace, gradually drowns out the church’s sublime message of grace. The cozier it gets with the government, the more watered down its messages becomes. In sum, the state must always water down the absolute quality of Jesus’ commands and turn them into a form of external morality.
Jesus’ images portray a kingdom as a kind of secret force. His examples of sheep among wolves and wheat growing among weeds hint at a movement that moves within society, changing it from the inside out. Perhaps Christians should work harder towards establishing colonies of the kingdom that point to our true home rather than hold up a mirror reflecting back the society around it. The reason politics has proved a snare for the church is that power rarely coexists with love. Politics draws lines between people, whereas the love of Jesus cuts across those lines and dispenses grace. Christians may enter the arena of power, but we should not leave love behind. Those most conscious of another world are the most effective Christians in this one.
A grace-full Christian is one who looks at the world through grace-tinted lenses. We recognize that everyone is a sinner who should be loved the same way God loves us despite our defects. It is our human destiny on earth to be imperfect and incomplete, and only by accepting that destiny can we escape the force of gravity and receive grace. The church is actually a community of people thirsty for grace. God needs humbled people to accomplish His work. Whatever makes us feel superior to other people is gravity, not grace. Jesus seemed to prefer mixing among the sinners because they were open and honest about themselves. One who has been touched by grace will no longer look on those who stray as “evil” or “poor people who need our help”. Christians should not compromise in hating sin. Rather, we should hate the sins in others the same way we hate them in ourselves. Grace teaches us that God loves us for who He is and not who we are.
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