God's House of Grace

The longer I live, the more I see the necessity for grace.  Not just the need for us to show pardon to each other, but also the various ways in which God's grace works within our personal lives each day.  I see God's hand in the lakes and ponds around the county, in the sky on a placid summer day, in the woods, and most certainly in ourselves.  As author C.S. Lewis once said, "I believe in Christianity as I believe the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."  And God's grace must surely be among the things we see by the light of Christ.  

According to Wesleyan tradition, there are three kinds of grace.  The first of these is something known as Prevenient grace.  This is the type of God's presence that engulfs us from the very beginning, surrounding us even when we don't realize that we need Him.  It is something that is freely given from the Father, without an expectation that it will be reciprocated.  The way I tend to think of this concept is that it exemplifies a situation where we need help, and God provides.

The second type is called Justifying grace.  This is where we get help.  It is that action from God which allows for the pardon of sin.  It is at this point we are confronted with a choice I think - do we choose to follow God and accept Jesus, or not?  We have the ability to ignore or respond at this point.  If we are wise and accept the gift  Jesus is offering, our sins are nullified, and we have the assurance of salvation and life everlasting.  

The third type of grace is Sanctifying grace.  This is where we are able to give help.  I tend to think of sanctification as a process which extends over a lifetime.  It is that time frame where God works on us in little ways here and there in order to make us more holy, just like Christ.  It is sometimes a painful process (like when we must actively repent from the hold that sin has on our life).  But it is often a great joy also, as it allows for opportunities where we can use the things that God has done in our lives to help edify and build up other people.  God saved us, now we work to help move others toward an understanding of the Gospel message.  This is no small thing.

I have often heard where people have compared these three types of grace to a house.  The front porch of the house is where a person first arrives.  They may choose to stay on the porch, or to gather up the courage to actually knock on the front door.  You made it this far, right?  Might as well knock.  This is Prevenient grace in action.

The foyer of the house is analogous to a person coming inside to stay a while.  Salutations have been exchanged between the visitor and the homeowner at this point, and it is time to come inside and take your jacket off.  There may be a coat rack, or even a comfortable bench perhaps.  The point is that we made the choice to enter, and the owner has accepted us inside.  Now the real learning can begin.  This is justifying grace.

Finally, as we are given a tour of the house, the new arrival is subject to Sanctifying grace.  Full access has been granted, and we may roam freely.  In this manner we get to know the floor plan really well.  The furniture, the window treatments ... all become familiar territory.  And then the really good news strikes us: if we want, we may seek to invite other people into God’s house as well.  If we are courageous enough in fact, we will ask them to stay a while.  This is Sanctifying grace in action.

As you can imagine, God's spiritual house in this story is well built.  A large open front porch, a spacious entry way and foyer, followed by several master bedrooms and a large living area and kitchen.  It has central heating and cooling of course ... no window air conditioners or space heaters for God's dwelling place.  But if we decide not to enter, we may find ourselves back in a dilapidated one room studio apartment in no time.  Cold showers and backed up plumbing will be the order of the day.  Hopefully we are invited back to the large house again, and the sooner the better!

It seems then, that God is interested in us responding to His grace very much.  No one stays 'lost' unless they want to.  No one simply loiters on the front porch forever, or stays content shouting through a backyard window unless they choose to be there.  God invites us in, and we had better seriously consider obeying that request.

We have the freewill to choose otherwise, of that I'm sure.  We humans are often a bit silly, and full of pride.  We act in peculiar ways.  At times, if it were up to us, I think we would rather run things ourselves.  To stay outside on the front lawn instead of coming inside.  In fact, I think we tried that once; I remember an ancient story about a garden, a serpent, and two disobedient people deciding to do something similar.  Look how things turned out for them.  Better to go inside God’s house I think - don't you?

.

 

 

Living with The Gospel Effect

 The Gospel message about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is just as important now as it was two-thousand years ago.  During this time of uncertainty in the world, I have learned a couple of things.  First, people need each other.  No matter how technologically advanced we get, we still have a deep desire to be in relationship  with others.  I have also noticed that trials and difficult times really do build character, and can also be redeemed by God for our spiritual growth.  Keeping both of these things in mind, the idea of the 'Gospel Effect' (the notion of the work that Jesus does in our hearts and minds) has become paramount.  

When I was younger, I worked countless part time jobs.  I started working in a grocery store when I was fourteen, and I've been working ever since.  As such, I've had the opportunity to work with a variety of people and personality types over the years.  I will never forget one young man in particular.  Bill and I worked together at a video store.  Week after week, we shared time in the trenches together, helping hundreds of people rent movies (you wouldn't believe how crowded those little stores would get on the weekends).  I remember him as being very secular-minded, and constantly on the go.  No time for church, but rather, it was on to this tournament or that event.  He was always busy; always moving.

I had lost track of Bill over the years, until one day I saw him at a local supermarket buying groceries.  We were both adults at this point.  We were a little older, and maybe a little wiser.  We talked for about half an hour.  He spoke about teaching an Alpha class, which is a series of Christian seminars typically hosted by churches.  Bill spoke also about the love of Jesus Christ, and the effect it had on him.  I could hardly believe my ears.  Not because he wasn't worthy of a Godly life, but because it was a night and day difference.  If you had placed the Bill of today in a room with the Bill of twenty years ago ... there would be two very different portraits.  The Gospel had changed him.  God had redeemed his soul and transformed his heart.

So, I want to talk about a particular story relating to transformed hearts.  It is often known as the Parable of the Leaven.  This teaching from Jesus occurs both in the book of Matthew and the book of Luke.  It is very short, but as you can probably guess, also very profound.  Matthew 13:33 says, "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough."

From this concept, I believe we can take away two points in particular.  First, much like leaven (or yeast), the kingdom of heaven can take some time to develop and mature.  We ought not apply today's fast paced, technology driven lifestyle to the Gospel Effect.  Not always anyway.  When the Spirit of God begins a work in us, it often starts slowly and might be barely noticeable at first.  Maybe my friend Bill was aware of how God was changing his heart over time, but maybe not.  Most certainly his wife noticed, not to mention the change I saw in him that day at the store.  

Second, I believe we can take from this teaching that the kingdom of heaven starts from the inside and works its way outward.  Like leaven that permeates through an entire package of dough, Jesus begins working inside of a person's heart and mind.  The changes are often not obvious from other people's perspective, until the overflow of God's love begins to come out of that individual through the words they speak and the things they do.  At the end of that twenty-year time period, Bill's born again heart was very prevalent to me.  God had started a work in him years ago, and now he was teaching Christian classes himself!  Leaven may start small, but the end result is irrefutable.  

We are sometimes impatient with God, aren't we?  Instead of waiting for the dough to rise, we might decide that a trip to the fast-food restaurant is a better idea.  We drive up to the window, hand our money to the employee, and off we go with a bag full of junk food.  Quick, easy, and also not very good for us.  

By contrast, if we wait on God and allow the leaven time to work through the dough, the end result is impressive (and much better for us than spiritual junk food).  It goes without saying then, that God probably has to wait on us a good portion of the time also.  The Bible says He is infinitely patient with Israel, and with us as well.  And if we stop to think about things for just a moment, we can see how true this is.  How many times have you and I failed to meet God's holy law?  More than a few times I would suspect.  If you disagree, stop reading this immediately and turn to the ten commandments in the Old Testament.  Go down the list with each one, and apply it to your own life.  Humbling, isn't it?

Little doubt that God is the very embodiment of patience and love.  I often see this truth wherever I look.  My advice is this: allow God's Holy Spirit to make little in-roads into your life.  Give this Gospel Effect time to take hold, and work in you from the inside out.  Who cares if other people around you notice a change immediately or not.  Your sanctification walk is between you and the Creator.  Revel in that intimate time together with God; Jesus died on the cross so that you could have it.  So don't waste it.  

Sooner or later, those around you will notice the end result.  You will have your own supermarket meeting epiphany, just like Bill and I.  

 

 .