Sometimes as I've traveled, people have said to me, "Our church is focusing on grace this year." When I'm told that, I can't but find myself thinking, "What did you focus on last year? What will you focus on next year?" I've even heard some say that grace is a very important doctrine and how important it is that we understand it.These kinds of statements sound good on the surface, but they completely miss the point of grace. Grace is not an important doctrine. In fact, grace is a Person. His name is Jesus Christ. He is Grace personified. When we talk about grace, we're talking about Him.
Grace is the essence of our very lives in Christ. Grace is the foundation of who God the Father is to us through His Son, Jesus Christ. To say that grace is an important doctrine puts it in a categorical list of other doctrines, which undermines its value and meaning. Grace is not to be put in a list of doctrinal teachings. It is the fountainhead from which every doctrine of the Bible flows.
To suggest that grace is an important doctrine is like saying that breathing is an important part of my life. That would be an understatement of ridiculous proportions. Breathing is not an important part of my life. When Paul said, “For me to live is Christ,” he might as well have said, “For me to live is grace.” They are the same. John said that Jesus came “full of grace.” (See John 1:14) It’s who He is.
Yes, grace is as much a part of our lives as is breathing. It is the core and essence of the gospel. In Acts 20:24, Paul showed that grace is the gospel. “I do not consider my life of any account, as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.” Note how the gospel is inseparably joined to grace here.
The word gospel means “hilariously good news.” What is this good news that Paul said he had been entrusted to share with those around him? It was the good news of the grace of God. Once we wander away from grace in what we proclaim, we've left the gospel. We might be telling the truth, but we've left the gospel. We might be helping people to some degree, but we've left the gospel. The gospel is the message of grace. It's the only thing that has the power to transform lives. Paul described it as "the power of God unto salvation."
Let's not think we flatter grace when we call it an important doctrine. It's more than that. It's everything.
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Steve, you are one of the best preachers of the gospel of grace in the world, a Shephered after God's own heart! THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS!
ReplyDeleteAmen to that Steve! Another problem that arises when people think of grace as a "doctrine" is that then you get these tainted hybrids of people who imagine that the "real" gospel must somehow "contain a proper balance between grace and the law" as if grace is not enough. The gospel is ALL grace!!! Jesus Christ FULFILLED the law in every particular -- obeying it in His life, paying the penalty of disobedience with His death, and completely superceding and surpassing it as a relational template between man and God. You cannot balance truth and lies, and the law constitutes "lies" whenever we endeavor to relate to God as one under it -- for we are not under it, we are under grace -- and the law only condemns.
ReplyDelete(p.s. I really need to set up a new name/account on here so when I comment it does not link to all my past demonic stuff.)
Faith working through love! The hilarious good news of the Grace of the Gospel was more than all the Judaizers of Paul's day could put forth. It's never salvation plus something but Grace in the Person of the Son, Christ Jesus!
ReplyDeleteGrace that is greater then ALL our sins! It's true sin does not affect our relationship to God, letting grace in does.
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
ReplyDeleteFor what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.
Shall we sin that grace may abound? God forbid. By inference grace may be, and is abounding much more than sin as we live righteously.
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