Get to Grace

 

Grace. What does that even mean? We've all heard and sung the song "Amazing Grace" by John Newton, we might even know most of the words off by heart, but what is that song about? What's so amazing about grace?

I read a couple awesome quotes recently:  

"The only way licentious people start to obey is when they get a taste of God's radical, unconditional acceptance of sinners. What licentious people need is a greater understanding of grace, not a governor on grace. Grace alone melts hearts and changes us from the inside out. Progress in obedience happens only when our hearts realize that God's love for us does not depend on our progress in obedience." - Tullian Tchvidjian

"The law of God has one ministry, and the gospel has another. They do different things, and though both are important only one offers hope, freedom, cleansing, righteousness, and security. The gospel perfectly answers the law on our behalf." - Joe Thorn

Those two quotes put grace into perspective don't they? Grace is radical. Grace reveals God's unconditional acceptance of sinners (you and me). Grace changes us from the inside out, it's not about temporary or outer fixes. Grace isn't about performance. Grace offers hope, freedom, cleansing, righteousness and security all through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Gospel means "good news" and all of those explanations of grace are the good news we can know in Jesus.

In the Bible, there are many places that talk about our need for cleansing and many places that point to the gospel of grace that we can only take part in because of Christ. This grace cleanses us and makes us right in God's sight.

Jesus says in Mark 7:20-23:

And he said, "What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."

What is Jesus talking about? What is he describing? He is giving us the reason why there are so many problems in the world, why there is conflict between nations and races and tribes and classes of people, why relationships aren't always easy and why they so often seem to fall apart.

Jesus says: WE ARE WHAT'S WRONG! We all have a sin issue and it doesn't come from outside sources, it comes from inside of us. Jesus points out that our biggest problem comes from our hearts.

Growing up as a young boy on a farm with three older brothers was a real blessing for me. We had all this space to run around and play and we had opportunities to do things that not all kids do. One of those things was riding dirt bikes. My dad had me start on a little 1979 Honda Z50 and as I got bigger and older, I worked my way up onto bigger bikes. In my early teen years I had a 1981 Honda XL80R and it was an awesome bike. I rode that thing for hours on end and I loved every minute of it, but by the time I was in high school I had outgrown the good ol' 80. Even though my friends and I were too big for it, we would still take it out of the shop and rip around on it quite a bit. That bike sure took a beating, it had been crashed and wiped out on numerous times and by this time, the clutch was burnt right out. One day I hopped on it after one of my friends had been riding it and I noticed gasoline spraying onto my leg from a hole that had finally rusted through the tank. What do you do when you need to patch a hole like that? That's right, you grab some duct tape! The problem with duct tape though is that it is simply a temporary and outer fix. The tape would soak up the gas and fall off, so we'd have to constantly be re-patching it. If I wanted a true fix I would have to patch the hole with some metal or completely replace the tank.

Our condition as humans is just like the condition of that old dirt bike. It’s not about temporary outer fixes. The problem is on the inside, not the outside. Our world tells us that so many things will solve this problem. We look to external our outer fixes like religion, politics and pop culture to fix a problem in ways that Jesus says are basically impossible. Religion doesn’t work, trying hard to be moral and good on the outside doesn’t change the inside. Politics don’t work because politicians are people with this same problem. We can’t be fixed by policies or debates or wars. Pop culture puts up a picture that we try to be like, but no one can attain.

We all try to clean ourselves up or to cover up our uncleanness by doing good or trying to pay back or pay off something. But it doesn’t work and it won’t work. The prophet Jeremiah puts things into perspective: “ ‘Although you wash yourself with soda and use an abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me,’ declares the Sovereign LORD” (Jeremiah 2:22). Outside-in cleansing can’t deal with the problem of the human heart.

We often get caught up in performance don’t we? We think if we perform good, God will love us and accept us and if we perform bad, God won’t love us and won’t accept us. We get caught thinking that on our best days, on days where we read our Bibles, where we treat others with respect, where we serve other people, where we pray more than just at mealtime and bedtime; we think on those days that God is lucky to have us. And then on days, where we don’t read our Bibles, where we are rude to others, where we are selfish, where we don’t pray at all; we think on those days we are scumbags unworthy of God. You know what the truth is, it’s not just on the bad days that you are scum, it’s on your very best days that you are scum. You are offensive to God without Jesus Christ.

BUT, then there's GRACE! 

We can’t clean ourselves up. It’s only by what Jesus has done at the cross that can cleanse us and his solution is not just temporary or external, He cleanses us eternally and internally by His grace.

Too often I see people who don't understand grace and many times Christians don't even understand what they have in the gospel. We can't be stuck in this idea of performance and even if we have right doctrine in knowing we are sinners in the sight of a perfect, holy and blameless God, we have to GET TO GRACE. We have to get to the good stuff. The law has a purpose, it shows us our need for a Saviour, but that's it. The gospel reveals this Saviour to us and shows us that we can only be made right because of what He has done for us. We need to trust, believe and have faith in the FINISHED work of Christ and we need to dwell and live there. If you are stuck in seeing yourself as dirty and stained or even if you know what Jesus has done for you but you haven't moved on from the law, GET TO GRACE.

"For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." - 2 Corinthians 5:21