Sometimes You Don't Get What You Deserve-and That's Good.
Unmerited favor. Kindness we don't deserve. Sanctification in it's purest and most genuine form.
I struggle to understand grace.
I think I struggle to understand it, because I so often struggle to extend it. Complete and total redemption, offered to me at no cost and with no limitations. It's hard to grasp. Sometimes, it's even hard for me to accept. We live in a world where we have to earn our favor, we have to prove our worth, a world where we have to be good enough to be accepted. Yet, that's so paradoxical to how Jesus models for us to live.
I've been a Christian for 25 years now. I've gone through so many highs and lows in my walk with Christ. There have been times, when I've walked so closely with Him that I could all but feel His arms wrapped around me, guiding my every step. There have been other times, when I've wandered so far away from Him, that it seemed it was all I could do to stretch my arms and grasp His finger tips. My life, like yours, has been ever-changing. I've made mistakes and I've been righteous. I've been the light for the world, and unfortunately I've also been a terrible representation of Christ at times. Yet, one thing has always held true, no matter where I find myself-God is ever-present, freely giving the gift of grace and sanctification. He is always refining me, cleaning me up and dusting me off.
The older I grow, the more I am learning that grace is truly the core of Christianity. So often, being a Christian is boxed up in a list of dos and do nots, shoulds and should nots, judgement and pretentious Christian lingo. While there is a place for some of those things, I've come to realize the danger in living by the law rather than by grace. For so long, I lived by the laws of religion-"If you want to follow Jesus, you do this but you do not that. If you do that, you couldn't possibly be a good Christ-follower." (sidenote: What in the world is a good Christian, anyway? Christ has sanctified us all-we can do nothing to earn his grace and forgiveness and we certainly don't deserve it. We are all sinners, not a single one of us more deserving than the other, no matter how well we think we "behave.")
Or worse, "A real Christian wouldn't be seen associating with that person, they are BAD news..." Have you paid attention to who Jesus hung out with in the Bible? Jesus loved everyone-regardless of whether they chose to follow Him or not. Jesus didn't shun or shame the sinner, He just offered grace to cover the sin. He ran with the sinners because grace, love, and mercy flowed out of Him without containment for the purpose of redeeming those who don't deserve it.
I'm not dismissing the importance of living a life obedient to Jesus. When you have a relationship with Jesus, you cannot help but desire to abide by the things that please Him. I'm simply offering the suggestion that maybe if we focused more on loving like Jesus, which absolutely cannot happen without modeling the grace and mercy that He lavishes on us, then maybe following Christ would be far more appealing to the lost than what it is when we bottle it up with rules and regulations. What would happen if we loved like that? Even offering love to those who don't believe deserve it. What would happen if we surrendered to that grace in our own lives, gratefully accepting it when we know we don't deserve it?
It may not be the popular choice-it may even cause you to be shamed by others who proclaim to follow Christ, but don't understand your love and acceptance of a person who has made wrong choices along the way. You know what I'm learning to believe? That's ok. That person is just as "eligible" for God's grace, as the self-proclaimed righteous person who hasn't necessarily made a mistake quite as visible to the public eye. And when we ourselves have fallen, what would happen if we accepted God's grace with reckless abandonment of our sin, and in full acceptance of His ability to redeem us and restore us in our relationship with Him? We fall out of fellowship with God when we insist on staying stuck in condemnation, undeserving of grace.
So let's love. Let's practice grace. Let's accept grace freely and give it just as effortlessly. Let's stop letting issues such as former drug abuse, whether having a drink is wrong or right, divorce, infidelity, bad language, and other things be a deciding factor in whether we extend Christian love and fellowship. They didn't stop Jesus.
"...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." Romans 3:23-24
I struggle to understand grace.
I think I struggle to understand it, because I so often struggle to extend it. Complete and total redemption, offered to me at no cost and with no limitations. It's hard to grasp. Sometimes, it's even hard for me to accept. We live in a world where we have to earn our favor, we have to prove our worth, a world where we have to be good enough to be accepted. Yet, that's so paradoxical to how Jesus models for us to live.
I've been a Christian for 25 years now. I've gone through so many highs and lows in my walk with Christ. There have been times, when I've walked so closely with Him that I could all but feel His arms wrapped around me, guiding my every step. There have been other times, when I've wandered so far away from Him, that it seemed it was all I could do to stretch my arms and grasp His finger tips. My life, like yours, has been ever-changing. I've made mistakes and I've been righteous. I've been the light for the world, and unfortunately I've also been a terrible representation of Christ at times. Yet, one thing has always held true, no matter where I find myself-God is ever-present, freely giving the gift of grace and sanctification. He is always refining me, cleaning me up and dusting me off.
The older I grow, the more I am learning that grace is truly the core of Christianity. So often, being a Christian is boxed up in a list of dos and do nots, shoulds and should nots, judgement and pretentious Christian lingo. While there is a place for some of those things, I've come to realize the danger in living by the law rather than by grace. For so long, I lived by the laws of religion-"If you want to follow Jesus, you do this but you do not that. If you do that, you couldn't possibly be a good Christ-follower." (sidenote: What in the world is a good Christian, anyway? Christ has sanctified us all-we can do nothing to earn his grace and forgiveness and we certainly don't deserve it. We are all sinners, not a single one of us more deserving than the other, no matter how well we think we "behave.")
Or worse, "A real Christian wouldn't be seen associating with that person, they are BAD news..." Have you paid attention to who Jesus hung out with in the Bible? Jesus loved everyone-regardless of whether they chose to follow Him or not. Jesus didn't shun or shame the sinner, He just offered grace to cover the sin. He ran with the sinners because grace, love, and mercy flowed out of Him without containment for the purpose of redeeming those who don't deserve it.
I'm not dismissing the importance of living a life obedient to Jesus. When you have a relationship with Jesus, you cannot help but desire to abide by the things that please Him. I'm simply offering the suggestion that maybe if we focused more on loving like Jesus, which absolutely cannot happen without modeling the grace and mercy that He lavishes on us, then maybe following Christ would be far more appealing to the lost than what it is when we bottle it up with rules and regulations. What would happen if we loved like that? Even offering love to those who don't believe deserve it. What would happen if we surrendered to that grace in our own lives, gratefully accepting it when we know we don't deserve it?
It may not be the popular choice-it may even cause you to be shamed by others who proclaim to follow Christ, but don't understand your love and acceptance of a person who has made wrong choices along the way. You know what I'm learning to believe? That's ok. That person is just as "eligible" for God's grace, as the self-proclaimed righteous person who hasn't necessarily made a mistake quite as visible to the public eye. And when we ourselves have fallen, what would happen if we accepted God's grace with reckless abandonment of our sin, and in full acceptance of His ability to redeem us and restore us in our relationship with Him? We fall out of fellowship with God when we insist on staying stuck in condemnation, undeserving of grace.
So let's love. Let's practice grace. Let's accept grace freely and give it just as effortlessly. Let's stop letting issues such as former drug abuse, whether having a drink is wrong or right, divorce, infidelity, bad language, and other things be a deciding factor in whether we extend Christian love and fellowship. They didn't stop Jesus.
"...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." Romans 3:23-24
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