Easter Grace

This week is a week of remembrance and celebration for Christians.  It is the annual week of remembering Christ’s final journey into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday), his death on a Roman crucifixion cross (Good Friday), and celebrating his resurrection from the dead (Easter Sunday).  His death and resurrection are important because he took the sins of every human being on himself and then conquered death once and for all for everyone.  The victory has been won, and nothing will ever change that!

God chose to send his only Son, Jesus, into this world as a fully human/fully divine baby to live alongside us and complete the process of death and resurrection because of one character trait: his grace.  He didn’t ask anyone to earn the right to be saved by his Son’s actions; he just did it because he wanted to.  Because he loved us.

God’s grace has many different aspects to it.  It begins with the grace that moved him to send his son into the world to provide a final remedy for the problem of sin and our need for salvation.  But it doesn’t stop there.  God’s grace is also available to us as we continue to live our lives after salvation to enable us to resist sinning.  There is supposed to be freedom when we live in God’s grace – not the legalism that following rules brings.  The Bible also teaches us the sufficiency of God’s grace when we face troubles                    (2 Corinthians 12:9) and the importance of extending grace to others (Colossians 3:12-14).  More about those parts of grace another time. . .  

Grace is complicated, but it starts with God’s simple love for us and his willingness to do whatever was necessary to have a relationship with you and me.  That’s the importance of God’s grace – it restores a broken relationship between us and him.  This is a good week to focus on God’s grace as we remember Christ’s death and celebrate his resurrection again.  And it’s also a good week to think about becoming vessels of his grace to those around us, so that we “don’t receive God’s grace in vain”                    (2 Corinthians 6:1).  Have a wonderful Easter week!      

Cosmic Battle

Am I the only one who gets tired of Satan’s work in the world – especially in the church and in Christians?  The Bible says that the enemy masquerades as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14), steals the Word from people (Mark 4:15), keeps people bound (Luke 13:16), and tempts us (1 Corinthians 7:5), torments us (2 Corinthians 12:7), outwits us (2 Corinthians 2:11), and stops God’s work (1 Thessalonians 2:18).  The Bible also tells us that Satan is a murderer and a liar (John 8:44) and accuses Christians before God night and day (Revelation 12:10).  This probably doesn’t cover everything that he does, but is anyone else ready to shout “ENOUGH”?

Most of us have probably experienced the work of Satan in our lives at one time or another.  And, if you belong to a community of believers, you haven’t been immune to his attacks either.  Satan is alive and well in every church, because every church has humans he can deceive and use.  Sometimes I am discouraged by the amount of power God allows Satan to have and the work of the enemy that God allows to happen in spite of His sovereignty.  It’s easy to ask “Why?”

But here’s the good news that we need to remember when the enemy’s work leads us to be discouraged (also a work of Satan!): God IS sovereign, and Satan’s power is limited and within God’s permission – he does not have ultimate power or control, now or ever.  Jesus told Peter in Luke 22:31 that Satan had asked for God’s permission to sift him like wheat.  And the story of Job in the Old Testament reminds us that Satan’s power to hurt Job was always limited by God’s permission.  We might not be happy all the time about what God permits Satan to do, but we need to never lose sight of the fact that the enemy is limited and God is sovereign.  The victory has already been won, and Satan’s days to work are numbered.

Here are a couple of other thoughts to aid with discouragement when Satan seems to be winning: Jesus prayed for God to protect us from the evil one (John 17:15), and He also advocates for us daily in the Father’s presence (1 John 2:1).  I don’t have to understand all of the ways God works and how His sovereignty interacts with my life here on earth – all I need to know is Who is on my side.  After all, “if God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31).  And knowing that Jesus asked God to protect us from the evil one helps me to recognize that things could definitely be worse.  We simply don’t know or understand what God’s protection means and what He does every day to protect us.  Instead of focusing on the work of the enemy, we need to focus on what we have been given as our protection in the midst of a dangerous world: God’s presence.  Never underestimate the incredible gift of “God with us” and the important role He plays in protecting us from the evil one’s work.

Yes, Satan has won a lot of battles, and he will win a few more.  For whatever reason, this is part of God’s plan for now.  But I am thankful that God is protecting me from at least some of what the enemy wants to accomplish in my life.  Even though I need to be alert (1 Peter 5:8), I don’t need to be afraid.  In this ongoing battle in the spiritual realm, we are told that God “. . . rides across the heavens to help you . . . the eternal God is your refuge, and his everlasting arms are under you” (Deuteronomy 33:26-27).  Understanding God’s protection allows us to live the free and joyful lives He has called us to – choosing joy over discouragement.  Are you in?      

Grace and/or Truth

The Bible presents us with an interesting and difficult assignment: finding a way to perfectly balance grace and truth so that neither of them tips the scales.  While each of us as humans has a distinct personality and God-given bent that contributes to us tending to lean one way or the other, our perfect example – Jesus Christ – was described by his disciple John as being “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).  Living as a human being here on earth, Jesus was able to get the balance just right – being 100% truth and 100% grace at the same time.

It doesn’t seem to work that way for us.  Maybe you don’t think about this as much as I do; but, as one whose natural bent is to lean heavily on truth, I think about it a lot.  How can I always uphold truth (in a world that consistently modifies and redefines truth to fit the current society and culture) without slighting grace in the process?  Beth Moore has said that “we can grace ourselves right out of obedience” (Children of the Day, 2014).  I know people who do that, and I don’t want to be one of them.

But I also know people who beat others over the head with truth and leave grace completely out of the picture, and I don’t want to be one of those people either.  For me, trying to find the balance is a daily process.  As American Christians facing current-day social issues like abortion, same-sex marriage, gay clergy, immoral church leaders, addictions, etc., it is easy to believe that the lines between grace and truth have become blurred.  It is no longer easy or straightforward to determine how to balance the two in the way God intends for us to.  Maybe it never was – and that’s why Jesus stood out as one who got it right.  He must have looked different than everyone else.

I want to look different, too.  Not only do I want to look different than those who don’t know Christ, but I also want to look different than those in the church who err on either the side of truth or grace.  I want to somehow stand firm for truth but do it in a grace-filled way.  This is what God has been teaching me.  Truth cannot suffer in order to extend grace; and grace cannot suffer in order to uphold truth.  Every situation will require much prayer and seeking “what would Jesus do”.  This may be a worn-out phrase, but in its purest form it is the right question to ask.  He is our example, and finding the balance in each situation will only come when we are seeking him with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength (Mark 12:30).  Knowing God better is the truth that will anchor our reflections of grace as we learn to love our neighbors as ourselves (Mark 12:31).  Working my way each day toward balance . . .