I've come to understand that this is what 'Grace Roots' is all about. It's about getting the heart established in grace, and growing in grace. Grace is fertile soil. Grace is far more than forgiveness of sins. Grace is the power and source of the Christian life.
I believe our hearts need to be established in grace, and we need to grow in this. Not just a dab here and a dab there. Not just a sermon series now and then. My frustration, as I think about churches I've been in and as I survey Christian media, and as I simply look at the lives of people I know who are trying to live this Christian life, is that so much of the teaching and preaching is about establishing people in what to do and how to live as a Christian. Now, aside from some teachings that I don't agree with, I think that a lot of the "doing" that's taught isn't necessarily wrong. It's just that it's very rare to find ongoing teachings about grace and our identity in Christ. It seems as if the church is established in doing, and that grace is merely a supplemental teaching.
What I've found to be true in my own life, and what I believe to be Biblical, is that when the foundation is grace - which is found in the living Jesus Christ, with whom we've been made alive together - the "doing" becomes an outflow of our relationship with Christ and His life in us.
If your life is established in "doing" the things of the Christian life, it may seem very noble and it may appear very wise. But I hope you'll consider taking a breath and taking a step back and reevaluating and readjusting your thoughts, and asking God to help your heart to be established in grace. I don't believe for a minute that you'll ever regret it!
<idle musing>
Yes! The works are an outflow of a life lived in union with Christ. They are not works that I do, but works that God does through me by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. I can take no more credit for them than I can take credit for being born; my only action is surrender—and even that is a result of the prevenient (going before) grace of God!
As an aside, Debbie (my wife for the past 29 years) doesn’t like me to use the word “grace;” she says too many people view grace as a “pep-pill” that they take when their own strength runs out. She is probably right. She prefers to say it is “the indwelling power of God, Christ’s life within us” that enables us to live the Christian life. That is a mouthful—a very good mouthful, but a mouthful nonetheless. So, I continue to use “grace,” but for me the word is packed with years of reading theology, Greek, and Hebrew; all of which cause me to lose touch with what the average Christian is thinking when they hear the word.
I remember teaching a class once and asking people to define what grace was. I got the fairly standard “God’s riches at Christ’s expense” answer. When I asked them to explain what that meant, they were at a loss. They had simply memorized a definition that was cute, but it had no impact on daily life. How sad.
<idle musing>
1 comment:
Hello again! When I posted my first comment on your "Consumer Church" post, I didn't realize you had linked to me here. :) Thanks for the link. I fully agree that we can take no more credit for the work the Spirit does in and through us by His grace than we can take for being born.
I also have similar thoughts about the word "grace." While "I" know what I mean when I use the word, and while I'm much more content to use the word when there's an opportunity to provide more full context, the word really has taken quite a beating in the church and in the world in general. This was brought up on another blog recently. The blog is called "Grace in Flood," and the short link to the post is http://tinyurl.com/2nats2.
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