A friend whom I love deeply asked me recently, "What is grace to you?" Now part of me wanted to give a quick answer to just clear the question out of my mental in-box. However, this is a friend who thinks deeply. And one whom I value deeply. So it was important that I give more than a quick flip answer.
For some folks grace is just a word tossed about with lots of other quasi religious words like bless, righteous, believe, and saved. But for me grace is an experience, a way of life, and the substance of a covenant promise from the Creator God to me.
One of the great schemes of satan about which we should not remain ignorant is his on-going practice of divorcing words from their true meanings. Words are very important. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God and the Word was with God. Things just do not get more important than that. We as humans tend to toss about words; often we do so without taking notice of their true meaning or the very real damage our words are doing.
Conceptually grace is fairly simple and straight forward to define:
Grace is the act of unconditionally giving a benefit to another that the recipient has no right to receive and no basis upon which he can claim to have earned or deserved it.
Thus, for example, it is by grace we are forgiven. We have no right to forgiveness. We have no claim that we have earned it (despite all the religious lies to the contrary). Our forgiven status is entirely an undeserved gift from God given entirely at Jesus' expense not ours.
There is something important to always remember about grace. The gift always remains the property of the giver until it is actually given. Whether it will be given; how much of it will be given; and, when it will be given, are all completely within the giver's discretion and are never a matter of right to the recipient until the gift has been given. An unconditional promise is the giving of the gift. A conditional promise is not the giving unless and until the conditions are fulfilled.
But the grace of God goes far far beyond our forgiveness. He is the God of all Grace. He is full of Grace. Graciousness is a fundamental integral part of the character of each person of God, the Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit.
We do not all receive the same grace. Thus, we each can only serve to the extent of the measure of grace we have received. Some of my friends tell me I have special grace for traveling. To me it just seems like the ordinary normal way of life. Whether sleeping on the floor; or, in a mud hut with spiders crawling on the walls and bed; or, in a five star hotel, it is all just part of life to me. Changing one time zone or ten to get to the destination, it is all just just part of travel. Eating medium rare porterhouse steak or eating goat's head soup it is just nourishment to me. But, to my surprise, for some of my companions scrambled eggs can not be eaten if they are not exactly the right shade of yellow; for some having peanut butter and crackers in the hotel room is an essential survival tool not a nice luxury; for some accommodations with less than four stars simply will not do; for some birds, snakes, and insects are not acceptable parts of creation with which to share one's sleeping or eating quarters. So, I must admit that I have been given a special measure of grace for travel. But, it is not that I am making a noble sacrifice to go and lay down my life in harsh travel. For me the grace makes the travel simply part of the love affair I have with Jesus.
Some years ago when I was alone in my practice of law, I was the father of five young children with a lovely wife who depended entirely on me to provide for the family. At the beginning of the year we had some unusually high income. We made some very generous gifts to support ministries in the body of Christ Jesus had pointed out to us. Then, my wife and I decided to heed the wisdom of the Lord and get completely out of debt. It was wonderful to have all the credit cards paid down to zero. But it scraped the very bottom of the barrel and exhausted all of our savings to get that done. Then the income stopped. It stopped completely. For a period of four months our total household income was exactly $400.00. That was not enough to pay the electric bill. There was simply no money coming in -- none. As the middle of September came I was very aware that the tax payment for all the income at the beginning of the year was coming due. If it was not paid on time the penalties charged by the government would be huge.
To say I was feeling stress would be the understatement of the decade. So, in early September I decided to talk this all through with the brother who was watching over my soul. I placed a call to him. No answer. A few days later I tried again. No answer; but, I left a message. A couple days later I tried again. This time I left an urgent message. No response. Finally on September 14, the day before the taxes were due, I decided to write an email plea for help. I was well into writing my tale or worry and woe when Jesus spoke to me saying, "My grace is sufficient for you."
For the first time I really heard and understood what He meant. He was saying He would give me everything I needed. If He gave me the money to pay the taxes on time, then they would be paid. If He chose not to give the money on time then He would furnish the money to pay any penalties that became due because He personally had accepted responsibility to give me ALL of the grace I actually needed. His grace is sufficient for me. He made that commitment to me personally just as He made that commitment to Paul about 1900 years ago. I do not know whether you have heard Him make that promise to you. But, if you have not I suggest you discuss it with Him.
Gradually over the ensuing years He showed me more and more applications of His promise of sufficiency. Sufficient means all I need for any situation. Sometimes I let people irritate me. So imagine one day, John irritates me and I punch him in the nose. My Father God calls me in to account for my behavior.
And I confess, I did it and I was wrong.
Father asks me why I did it.
And I say, "Well Father it is not my fault. Jesus promised me enough grace. But I just did not have enough grace to resist the temptation to punch John."
Father says, "So your telling me this was Jesus fault !"
Jesus steps up and He says, "Absolutely Father I take all the blame for Stuart. I promised him sufficient grace so I take complete responsibility for everything he did. He is forgiven."
It was for freedom that Jesus set us free. We are so free that we are even free to sin. If we are not free to sin then we are also not free to be righteousness. The question is never whether we are free. The question is how will we use our freedom. (See Galatians chapter 5.) Our grace sets us free to choose to be in love with Jesus. The natural result of an intimate love affair with Jesus is that we choose to do the things that please Him we do not choose to ignore Him, to make other things more important than He is, or to do things we think might make Him less happy. We are free to do them. He will still love us and forgive us. But, if we love Him we will make choices that are designed to actually please Him.
I remember when I began to love my wife, Joy. She was the most graceful, wonderful, beautiful creature on two legs. But, she grew up in a very different home than I. She was timid where I was bold or reckless. She was gracious with good manners. I was brash and often rude or crude. She like fine china and cups of tea. I liked camping and gnawing on chunks of barely cooked meat while standing around a smoky fire. But God gave me a love for her. Every psychological test would have said run away. But love said learn to please her.
The church has for centuries focussed our attention on our sins. God sees our sin is already forgiven. His focus is on our relationships. His primary question is are you in love with the Bridegroom.
The tragedy of our age is that we glorify our bodies and our physical fitness above the glory of Jesus and the fitness of His Body. We treasure our earthly loves that give us pleasure over our love affair with our Bridegroom. Father accepts that we may choose the wrong path because we have freedom to choose. But there is one ultimate choice that is central to Father's view of us: Do we love Jesus more than anything else ? Will we lay down our lives, our pleasures, our own choices because we have entered into an all out love affair with the Bridegroom?
Grace opens the door to the most passionate love affair of all.
His, thus Yours,
Stuart
Stuart B. Mitchell
Community Support Fund
9764 Summer Park Court
Columbia, Maryland 21046
United States of America
Skype stuart.b.mitchell1
