Grace and Duty

Romans 5:17For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ

I watched as the big burly man knelt at the altar, once again confessing his failures and committing to never go astray again. I knew by the tone of his prayer that he had been there before, made promises before and failed to keep them. Yet, he knew that God was available to him, but also knew something that was not a part of my reality. He knew God as someone who demanded from him a certain level of perfection and if He did not find it, He would reject him yet again.

Unfortunately, most religions of the world lay out the performance that is required to be accepted by God. For some you have to bow on the ground five times a day in prayer, or refrain from eating certain things on certain days, or give money, or do good deeds or.... It really doesn't matter what the religion is or what the prescribed action is or prohibition is, for it all revolves around out bringing God into a relationship with us by our initiative and by our works.

The tragedy of this presumption is that it makes our relationship with God dependent on ourselves, as though by some strength of character or offering of goodness we can redeem ourselves from what we really are. It acknowledges human failure and sees it as a barrier to God, who is not quite big enough to overcome our behavior. So, we are left in a double bind - we can't seem to keep our humanity out of sight and God is bound to only relate to us on the basis of our level of perfection.

That, in its simplest form, is the essence of religion -man's approach to God and man's bargaining with God for His favor. Christianity was never designed to be a religion, but a relationship, not established by our performance but by the grace of God, who made us, knows our humanity, is not shocked by it and who loves us unconditionally anyway. This simple fact flies in the face of all other religious dictates, systems and cultures. This simple fact is the key ingredient in separating a relationship with God from a systematic approach to appeasement and attempts to control God's response.

It is pretty hard to control the God of creation, who is beyond comprehension, beyond being impressed with our righteousness and goodness and who is beyond the limited time bound antics of insecure human effort. He is God and He will not be manipulated into doing for us what we demand by our religious systems, religious activities or self rejecting performance. He is neither impressed nor rejecting of us because of our ignorance, our stumbling to understand or our misguided search for some step up in pleasing Him.

That is the wonder of His grace. I do not have to do things to please Him, for He is already pleased. I do not have to perform in a certain way to get His attention, for I already have His attention. I do not have to work my way into His presence, for His presence is ever present, attending to me at all times.

How sad that we are so tied to our old nature that we reject that which God accepts. How sad that we are forever drawn to the mentality of the Pharisees in attempting to be right and to be holy as a means of finding God's approval. The gift of righteousness is, exactly what it is described as being: A gift! We cannot produce it, earn it, behave up to it, we can only accept it and allow the gift of His grace to work in us what we could not work in ourselves. It is God who works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure.

How simple is that? Oh, how  wonderful, how marvelous, how in contrast to most religious effort.

Relax. Christianity was never designed to bring such pressure and tension, but to bring freedom and release.

Pastor Dave