Amazing Grace
This is a paper I wrote for my English class, this year, 2008. Although I have written on this subject before, this is my greatest work so far. Enjoy and feel free to comment.
As I was working on this paper, I realized that so much of what is said and written can easily be taken out of context. Therefore I would like to make it clear that I am building upon my own experiences and that of my friends, teachers and good old reason. If anyone can finish reading this paper and walk away inspired or challenged, I have reached my main objective. Bias is a part of life; the least we can do is live our lives optimistically.
Nobody becomes a great person by being arrogant and self-righteous. They may be famous, prosperous and wealthy, but that does not make them great. Martin Luther King, Jr. said:
“Everybody can be great… because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
“Grace is the freely given, unmerited favor and love of God and the influence or spirit of God operating in humans to regenerate or strengthen them.”
Dictionary.com
The No Condemnation Salvation
How do people and leaders profess to be followers of Christ, yet ignore the whole basis upon which Christianity is based? I quote Romans 8:1-2 (NLT):
“So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.”
This is relevant to anyone who has made a decision to follow Christ; it is what empowers Christians to live fulfilled and meaningful lives. If we do not believe what the verse says, then Christ died for nothing, thus implying that he did not set us free from the condemnation and damnation that the enemy has accused us of.
In my humble opinion, “no condemnation” means that God is not condemning us for our sins anymore; he took the condemnation and dumped it all on Jesus. Jesus died with all the condemnation that we deserved. His death paid the penalty. So NOW there is “no condemnation”, we are set free.
Now there is no more condemnation for all the bad things that believers have done and are going to do, because by accepting Christ as their Savior, they are forgiven by God’s grace.
The gift of salvation is a gift, but it was not obtained for free. The gift was paid for by Jesus. Because God’s grace is a gift to us, we tend to take it for granted and devalue its significance. When will Believers understand that we do not deserve God’s grace? When Christians see the connotations to what it took to free them from condemnation, they can finally begin to move forward towards the great things that God has prepared.
The spiritual journey is an ever spiraling cycle. It spirals upward and downwards, always towards an unattainable perfection. The goal is not necessarily the most important thing, but rather the journey itself, because it forms and molds us into who we are. Pain is life’s teacher. As we figuratively continue on our spiritual journey, we get unique opportunities to look back at our past experiences, repeating many of the same mistakes and reliving many of the same or similar experiences. But we learn from the pain and dejection, reject the idea of losing, and just continue moving forward.
Living by Grace
I believe that living by grace is to imitate Christ, not by our own efforts which usually turn out to be fruitless, but by seeking God so much that it hurts. Jesus’ whole ministry, even his death, was for the sake of God’s grace towards humanity. Jesus healed the sick and visited the outcasts of society. He forgave his murderers as they were crucifying him. He was not forced to die and the truth is that we do not deserve his grace. To live by grace: …we received what we did not deserve and will never be capable of repaying. So because of this, we seek to know our savior personally and offer everything we have and are to him.
A beautiful story that tries to capture the significance of Christ’s sacrifice follows. A single mother and her only son were very close; she loved him with every ounce of her being and would do anything to protect him. It was a beautiful relationship. But it was too good to continue like that forever. One day after school, the son was walking down an alley on his way home. He was attacked by a hardened gang member, who stabbed him many times, picked his pockets for anything of value and left him for dead without so much as a backwards glance. The police found the body hours later and also apprehended the gang member. The mother was notified by the police, but instead of condemning the killer of her son, the mother bailed him out of jail and took him home. She cleaned him up, gave him her son’s bedroom and clothes and then provided him with food and the keys to the house. That’s amazing grace! It sounds outrageous and unfair and wrong. But that’s exactly what God did for us. We were breaking the laws of Moses, so in order to save us from the condemnation of those laws; his innocent son had to pay our debt. Unlike the story, Jesus conquered the grave, he conquered sin and death. If we had gotten what the law said we deserved, we could have died a thousand deaths and we would still be condemned every time. Thankfully, Jesus fulfilled the requirements of the law. We can live in the freedom of his grace.
Now what’s to prevent us from abusing the freedom that God’s grace has given us? In the story, what was there that prevented the killer from killing the mother and escaping? Not a thing. That’s why so many people are afraid of teaching grace, they are afraid that people will abuse it. Sadly it happens, but we still have the freedom to accept Jesus’ sacrifice and follow him. We can also deny him or even abuse his grace by continuing to stab him, in spite of his love for us.
Living a lifestyle that is defined by grace is one of the biggest and most rewarding sacrifices a person can make. It means giving up every iota of your being. Living by grace is not a band aid for your sinful nature. By accepting grace as your lifestyle, you agree to kill your sinful nature. No more band-aids, no more trying to perfect your old self. Your sinful nature is your ego, your self-centered, egotistical, selfish self. It is the very opposite of what God intends for you when you live under his grace. Living a lifestyle of grace is acknowledging (worshiping) God with every breath and allowing him to change you into the person that he always intended you to be.
The side-effects of this lifestyle are quite incredible. That which is in you will be seen, it will come out. Love and understanding, joy, peace, compassion and generosity and many more awesome and good things will just begin to flow out of your heart because you are so full of them. The worry, stress and tediousness that accompany everyday life will no longer have a hold over you because you begin to see everything in a new light. You see yourself surrounded by God’s amazing creation and all you want to do is be apart of that, to be a testimony to God’s indescribable awesomeness!
Legalism
What is legalism? I believe the following statement makes perfect sense:
“Legalism is a response to the abuse of Grace.” Johnson, Bill.
Therefore to be a perfect Christian, we would have to maintain that perfect balance between not abusing God’s Grace and not becoming legalistic. That is hard. What would happen if pastors, preachers, leader and other figures of authority within the Body of Christ would set aside their teachings and instead focus on teaching the good news of God’s amazing grace without condemning the sinner? Sadly, it appears that the very base of our salvation is often avoided. In fact, most of the time, legalistic people are still teaching the law.
In 2 Corinthians 3:6-7a,9 it says this about the law/covenant:
He has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant. This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death; but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life. The old way, with laws etched in stone, led to death… If the old way, which brings condemnation, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new way, which makes us right with God!
I believe that if grace would be taught with the full inspiration of God’s Spirit, amazing things would be happening. The church would constantly be growing “new body parts”. Christians would put aside their egotistical and self-centered search for personal gain and in turn lay all their focus on HIM!
That is all very well, but what is holding it back? Simply put, it’s Satan. Beelzebub doesn’t work nearly as obvious as we think, he’s subtle… leading leaders and their churches into the rut of organized religion, legalism and conformity. He doesn’t even have to shove and prod all that much because once people start slipping into a rut, it just gets deeper and deeper. Satan especially loves it if the “people in the rut” turn against the non-conformists, the ones who refuse to give in to the pressure, who swim against the current. Because it causes disunity, doubts, fears, anger and such a pointless mess of things that only serves to completely distract us from the bigger picture.
There is a group of people that I know are not happy with their church. I am not referring to the worship style, songs or even the type of clothing or if we kneel. I am talking about the subtle waves of legalism, such as the sermon topics that are so specific that you cannot even apply it to your life. They do not even allow for the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to inspire them to preach something else or not preach at all and just worship God. Essentially, to allow the Holy Spirit room to speak, to improvise, to do it all as a fragrant offering to God. Is it not just slightly ironic that youth attendance in many legalistic churches continues dropping? Is it consistent with the freedom their parents allow them, i.e.: when they let them make their own decisions? Young people are not happy with being bored; they already have to deal with boredom all week long in school. This is of course my own biased perspective, and also that of a lot of my friends, on churches that I have personally attended over the years. Today, I would sooner go to a five hour math class in a kilt, than voluntarily go to a church that I know to be dead in the legalistic sense. Is that not sad?
An anonymous person put it this way: “I believe in God; I just don’t trust anyone who works for him.” I can feel with that and even though there are many trustworthy believers, the likelihood of encountering one that is not, is very, very likely. Many tears have been shed for humanity, much blood has been spilled and many have died for the wrong reasons.
But who am I to judge someone else’s level of legalism? Apart from the obvious stereotypes about legalism that are out there, who am I to put those human beings in a box, ostracize, criticize and avoid them? Why do I even refer to them as “them”?!
God is the supreme judge and he is the only one who has any valid right to judge. An artist has the right to judge his own painting.
I do not know all that much about legalism. I definitely do not know all that much about grace. I want to though. Grace fascinates me; I have been consumed with it for the past year or so. It has led me to do things that go entirely against my upbringings from educational and church institutions. Grace has led me to live my life in peace. If had not understood what grace meant, I probably would not be here at ACA. It is more likely that I would be on crack and battling with AIDS, if not already pushing daisies. So here I am, writing this term paper by God’s amazing grace.
Conclusion
By striving to live by grace, I have learned to not let people’s opinions have a hold on my life. Just look at history and you’ll see that there have always been people who have opposed every change, every step out of their comfort zone. Becoming a rebel with unwavering conviction of your cause, focus on Jesus, living out love and grace to the people around you, just as Jesus did. All it takes is a smile, a word of encouragement, a helping hand, even a simple invitation for terere. Actions speak a lot louder than words. By living under grace, you no longer do good works for the sake of your salvation, but good works are an effect of the grace in your life.
The things you focus on are the things that consume you. By that logic, if you focus on good things, you will be doing good things. Jesus said: “To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away” (Matt.25:29). Jesus has an interesting way of viewing things. If God gives you grace and you “use it well”, even more will be given to you. But if your lazy, forget it. Faithfulness is rewarded in the kingdom. Even a child knows that if he is entrusted with a task and he does it well, more tasks will be given to him, except that in our case, the task is a lot more like a reward.
