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Grace
Grace Entries in Grace (51)
Meditation: The Lessons of Grace
Monday, March 12, 2012 at 12:05AM 
You’ve already doing it, usually unaware. But now: take a breath. Breathe deep.
Again. This time feel the air circulate through your nose; feel your chest swell, and instead of expelling the air with force, allow it to find its way out.
The air we breathe reaches the smallest parts of our body--nothing is ignored. The air we breathe will clean our blood and strengthen every cell. The air we breathe is the grace of God.
The great sky is more than a home for the clouds--the heavens themselves reach down to us all. From around us to inside us, from our lungs to every part of our souls, his grace is reaching you and me. His grace surrounds us and flows through us. We cannot live for more than a moment without it.
The reality of grace is all around us: every breath a parable, every moment sustained by him. Sitting alone or on the subway, we can draw the lessons of Grace.
Ubiquitous grace: We have all received his grace. Sinner or saint, unconscious or aware, asleep or awake, we have received. We receive now. We will receive. His grace is for everyone, foe or friend.
Unlimited supply: We cannot use it all, even if we try. We cannot use all the air in the room, much less the sky. Great clouds of grace sweep over the face the earth, bringing wave after wave of our greatest, most basic need. What we most need we can never expend. Nor does he chide or limit, ration or withhold. It is his joy to give.
A parable of love: The schoolchild learns that as we breathe our body benefits and thrives: from our lungs to our blood, from the blood to the cells, airy grace first delivers what we crave and carries away our most toxic waste. His grace brings us his life, and carries away our death.
Grace for all, because all have need: He is as close as our need: blowing, waiting, filling, cleansing, bearing away all that is ill and returning again and again afresh in a joyful cycle of life. All this when we breathe, whether we know it or not.
But it is always there for us to experience, if we just breathe.
Monday's Meditation: How Jesus Used Grace
Monday, November 28, 2011 at 12:04AM 
“If you want to know what the full potential of your life can be, look at Jesus. All that he did during his earthly ministry was done through reliance upon the Holy Spirit. That means we can imitate his example.“ ~ Ray Hollenbach
Yep, I just quoted myself. There’s no better way to underscore one of the central passions of the Students of Jesus blog: if we fail to embrace the humanity of Jesus (along with his God-nature) we are sure to to fall short of our calling to become conformed to his image. For example, have you ever considered the possibility that Jesus himself depended upon the Father’s grace day-to-day?
Our modern, limited view of grace is directly attributable to the separation we see between Jesus and us. We have been schooled regarding his divinity but the lessons stop with respect to his humanity. Without putting it into so many words, we see Jesus cruising through the challenges of everyday life with the ease of walking on water.
Perhaps we are able to recognize the human side of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, where he cries out in anguish because of the task ahead. We understand the fear of suffering and the desire to avoid it. We understand why Jesus would say, “Father take this cup from me . . . “ but we have no idea how the grace of God helped Jesus to develop into the kind of person who could also say, “ . . . yet not my will, but yours be done.”
If our view of God's grace is limited to receiving forgiveness, Jesus cannot be our model for how to receive grace, live in grace, and depend upon grace. Who taught Peter, John, Paul and countless other believers how to live the kind of grace-filled life we see in Acts and the history of the church? How does grace apply to everyday life in a manner that we are conscious of the supply and know how to use it?
If the grace of God is shortened to mean only forgiveness, we are forever trapped in a cycle of sin and grace and more sin again. Where do we see that cycle in the life of Jesus? We cannot see it because it is not there. What is there for us to see is grace in operation when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, when he wept at the tomb of Lazarus, even when he angrily drove the merchants from the Temple. He is our model for the operation of grace in times of testing, in sorrow, and in every human emotion we face. He said "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and lived a self-controlled, upright and godly life in this present age. He can be the author of such grace toward us, because what he has received he freely shares.
Jesus: My Favorite Old Testament Priest
Thursday, August 18, 2011 at 10:32AM 
I have a friend who ends every prayer with, “Forgive us for the many ways we’ve failed you, In Your name we pray, Amen.” It doesn’t matter if he’s blessing the food before a meal or asking for wisdom in an important decision. The closing is his default praise, like a customized signature at the end of every email.
I’m sure he’s sincere--every time he prays it. Yet I wonder if Jesus ever gets tired of hearing it. Do you think Infinite Patience ever rolls his eyes at something that just gets old? OK, that’s snarky, I know. But no friendship or marriage on earth could survive if one partner constantly affirmed, “I’m no good.” What kind of relationship requires a constant--constant--rehashing of our inadequacy? I’d like to suggest an answer: an Old Testament relationship.
The book of Hebrews discusses the practice of forgiveness before Jesus came:
The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. (Hebrews 10: 1-3, my emphasis)
Note the final phrase: the people of Old Testament experienced an annual reminder of their sins. My friend reminds himself of his sin as often as he prays. The unspoken message is that he was powerless against sin before he came to Jesus and he is apparently powerless against it after he received him.
Dallas Willard refers to this as miserable sinner theology. Simply put, if we are told often enough that we are miserable sinners who are unable to overcome our shortcomings in God’s eyes, sooner or later we will begin to see ourselves in that light—even though we have turned to Christ! This problem is widespread: the substance of most evangelical preaching is "sin management." (Willard again) by which Christians are reminded of their sin problem and God’s sin solution. It reinforces the idea they can find forgiveness apart from the call to come and follow Jesus. Yet following Jesus includes the possibility of being formed into his likeness.
Since many believers only hear about God’s grace in the context of forgiveness, their expectation of the Christian life is a cycle of sin, forgiveness, and more sin. Perhaps most dangerously, the presence of sin is considered normal in the life of a believer. Any real attempt at imitating Jesus is considered a presumption upon God’s grace because we cannot save ourselves through “works.” The Apostle Paul had a larger vision for the grace of God. It included the possibly of learning how to say “no” to ungodliness (Titus 2: 11-12). The grace of God in Jesus Christ is so much bigger than forgiveness: it does forgive, but it also teaches. Perhaps that’s why Willard says that God’s grace is not opposed to effort, but it is opposed to earning. Two pretty different things, aren’t they?
It’s not just a problem with our understanding of grace, it’s also our understanding of Jesus: his message, his sacrifice, his Kingdom and his mission for us. To see the work of Jesus as only an endless offering for sin is to consign him to the Old Testament priesthood.
Surely his is a greater priesthood, capable of altering us at the very core. I’m grateful that he paid the price for my sin--eternally grateful. I am also grateful for his resurrection empowerment, which is capable of changing me from the inside out. Perhaps we can usher Jesus out of the Temple once and for all, and receive him not only as the source of forgiveness, but also the Master teacher of life.
The Private Side of Grace
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 12:26AM 
The Father communicates his grace in ways both big and small. When you’re on the interstate, doing 85, you need a big sign: white reflective letters two feet high against a green background, shouting “Exit Here.”
Late at night, when your baby is sick, you’re looking for a much smaller sign, in print so small you reach for your glasses and turn on the light, Ages 2-4, one teaspoon every four hours, do not exceed four doses in 24 hours. You read the label twice to make sure you’ve got it right. Both sets of words communicate God’s grace.
It’s easy to see the public side of grace: it’s represented in the cross. The cross is splashed across church buildings like so many interstate signs, signaling that the love of God is available to any who will stop. The news is so good it deserves a elevated platform. But those who see grace written large on the landscape might think that’s all there is. Still, grace has a private side as well.
Consider some of the private sides of God's grace:
- Richard Foster points out the kind of grace you cannot see from the highway: “Grace saves us from life without God--even more it empowers us for life with God." The grace we receive at the new birth is only the introduction. Students of Jesus need grace for growth as well. Grace opens up the startling possibility that we do not have to yo-yo between sin and forgiveness, sin and forgiveness. It becomes possible to yield every choice, every thought to God, because his grace can teach us to say “no” to ungodliness (Titus 2:11-12).
- Three times the scripture reminds us, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Humility is part of the private side of grace. When the Father sees one of his children willing to take the low place in the family he pours out a special portion of grace to strengthen us in service to one another. Humility draws the blessing and favor of God. The same one who stripped to the waist and washed our feet rejoices when we learn to prefer one another.
- Dallas Willard’s famous phrase, “grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning” reminds us of the proper response to God’s saving work. The Apostle Paul understood the private side of grace as well: “By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” (I Corinthians 15: 9-10) The “famous” apostle is the same one who described his task as one of “great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger,” all in order to share what he himself had been given. Paul had no trouble seeing the connection between grace and effort.
- Paul was so convinced of our ongoing need for grace that he opened every letter he wrote (every one!) with the greeting, “grace to you, and peace.” Perhaps--just perhaps--the Holy Spirit and Paul considered grace and peace indispensable to everyday Christian life.
What is the private side of grace? The private side of grace is the discovery that the new birth should be followed by growth into the image of Jesus. The private side of grace is when we begin to take on the family likeness. It begins when his children are old enough to understand that the Father sees what is done in secret--not in order to catch us in transgression--but to reward those hearts who joyfully follow his example.
Monday's Meditation: Jesus the Know-it-All
Monday, July 25, 2011 at 09:43AM 
Consider the burden of the know-it-all: he must sit and listen to the mistakes of others: their opinions un-informed, filled with swiss cheese logic and day-old data. Above all, what he cannot understand is that, after he’s explained everything so clearly, no one wants to listen. Apparently not everyone cares about being right.
When the know-it-all meditates on the life of Jesus, he is filled with wonder at how Jesus could put up with so many idiots. Unless, of course, Jesus had a secret weapon:
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
If ever there was someone with a rightful claim to the title, Know-it-All, it was Jesus. Yet clearly, Jesus declined the honor. Turns out being right is not enough. Truth, meet grace.
Grace is love made practical. Grace empowers. Grace cares not for the argument, but for the people arguing. Grace has an agenda beyond the truth. Grace knows that the frustrated heart would rather sit on the sidelines and be wrong than be forced to run with the schoolyard bullies who are right. Grace turns its nose up at winning the fight and aims instead to win the person. Grace plays the long game.
Grace understands that merely knowing the truth is a slippery slope. The problem with knowing it all is the tendency to judgment. Even a smartie like the Apostle Paul recognized, "knowledge puffs up." It’s so easy to wander across the border between truth and disdain, to pity the fools who cannot see what is so clearly true. Before we know it we have crossed into enemy territory, even though we were right all along.
Sometimes the most insightful people appear uncaring and cold, like an oncologist who diagnoses the cancer but misses the human being standing before him. Insight is never enough. The line between insight and judgment is drawn by grace.
This week’s meditation can be applied again and again in the gospel accounts: Jesus was always the smartest guy in the room, but he was also the most gracious. As you bring the gospel scenes to your imagination this week, add one more ingredient to your musing: Jesus embodied what he read in the Psalms:
I will listen to what God the Lord says;
he promises peace to his people, his faithful servants—
but let them not turn to folly.
Surely his salvation is near those who fear him,
that his glory may dwell in our land.
he promises peace to his people, his faithful servants—
but let them not turn to folly.
Surely his salvation is near those who fear him,
that his glory may dwell in our land.
Love and faithfulness meet together;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.
righteousness and peace kiss each other.