There is a fundamental reason any church poo-poos grace. They don't believe they need it. Why would any need the grace of God when we have worked our way through the challenging cones on the parking lot? For those who can't seem to get themselves right with God? Well, they just aren't trying hard enough. Anyone who tries can make it, we performers assume.
Why is it that grace is suspect by some in the religious marketplace? The need for grace is diminished because the power of sin has been arrested. If sin isn't realized as a major dark force in our lives, then we are free to believe we've conquered the culprit on our own. Therefore, we don't want others getting off the hook so easily through grace. If we worked our way into correction, so can they.
Romans 7:13 makes a meaningful statement: through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful. Have we become oblivious to this magnificent lack in our modern day assessment of sin? Has sin not shifted from utterly sinful to just about the norm?
No wonder the church in places is very lackluster about grace. It has lost its depth perception of sin. Sin is no longer utterly sinful. Rather it has become explainable, manageable, and recoverable. Why would anyone need much grace if there just isn't that much sin?
We have grown accustomed to our erroneous lifestyle of sin just not being all that sinful. It is. The Crucified One begs us to believe it. We must not continue oblivious to our magnificent lack.
2 comments:
Hey Man,
Saw Dusty this weekend, you got a great son. You should be proud. I've been readin your stuff for a while now thanks for your thoughts....
Isaiah 64:4-6
4 Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.
5 You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved?
6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away."
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2 Cor 12:9-10
9 But he said to me, "MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR YOU, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
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His GRACE reaches me every single day!!!
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Thank you, Terry!
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