More recycled newletter stuff: Grace for greater things

Grace for Greater Things

Ephesians 2:8-9

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

God�s grace is an awesome thing. For those who have become a part of the movement of Christ, we know we are lost without it. Grace is, �God�s unmerited favor.� Or, better, God loving us, caring for us, and offering us eternal life even when we have betrayed Him, ran away from Him, and hurt Him. Many of us think about grace in two ways. One is that God�s grace that saves us. That no matter how good we think we are we fall short, miss the mark, or to put it more simply and directly, we sin. As the Ephesians passage tells us, there is nothing we could do to earn our salvation. In our joy over God�s acceptance and God�s grace, we can often get the wrong idea about how to live out God�s grace. Some of us return to living under the limitations, restrictions, and restraints of the law. Our faith then becomes about following all the rules, and often time making sure everyone else follows the same rules. Grace becomes nothing more than a legal transaction, and something seems missing. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

This often leads us to the other way that we err in living in God�s grace. We tend to see God�s grace, because we had felt so trapped by legalism or sinfulness, as somehow being permission and excuse for our sinfulness. This is what Deitrich Bonhoeffer raged against in the Cost of Discipleship. Once we turn grace into permission and excuse we have made a mockery of the passion of Christ. We have cast our pearls before swine. This theology of grace leads to shallow living, lack of theological conviction, and at its worse the heresy of universalism. Our salvation is of the same effect as the first error. It becomes a primarily economic adventure, with maybe a little sentiment. The grace of excuse and permission is a cheap grace and a false grace, something that looks good from the outside but lacks the power to holistically change our lives. Cheap grace is like cubic zirconium. True grace is a diamond.

In Ephesians, we always read Ephesians 2:8-9, and we forget v. 10. God has given us His grace for a purpose. God has given us His grace so that He can do greater things through us than we ever thought possible. Ephesians 2:10 says that we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works. The word workmanship in Greek literally is �poema.� It is where we get the word poem. Your life is a poem, a song, an anthem of God�s grace. Your life is created to be an amazing parable in the work of God. If you don�t think the way of grace is a calling to greater things, all you have to do is look at the Sermon on the Mount. The grace of God allows us to overcome lust, not just adultery. The grace of God calls us to overcome anger, not just murderous rage. The grace of God calls us to love our enemies, not just our friends. Grace allows us to embrace suffering, instead of being shamed by it. Instead of just being here for ourselves, we are here to be a light and salt for the world. Grace calls us to greater things. God calls us to live into what He has created us to be. That means accepting our sinfulness as fact, but grace is not a permanent crutch to keep us from walking again when God is calling us to run.

Finally, as we look to the Book of Galatians, we see the church struggling with the tension between responsibility and liberty in the light of grace. After teaching the Galatians that they are not under the law, Paul begins to explain how grace works. He makes very clear that we are not given grace to satisfy the sins of the flesh. He then goes on to share that our freedom in grace allows us to live with the fruit of the Spirit. To love freely. To be free enough to be self-controlled. �Against such there is no law!� Amen!