Stay focused on God's grace
I recently saw a video parodying a TV commercial. In this case, it was for a fictional Christian worship CD titled "It's All About Me." The CD included the songs "Lord I Lift My Name on High," "I Exalt Me," and "There Is None Like Me." Strange? Yes, but it illustrates a sad truth. We humans tend to worship ourselves rather than God. As I mentioned recently, this tendency causes a short circuit in our spiritual formation, which is based on trusting ourselves rather than Jesus, "the author and perfecter of our faith" (Hebräer 12,2 Luther).
Through themes such as "overcoming sin," "helping the poor," or "sharing the gospel," ministers sometimes inadvertently help people adopt a wrong perspective on Christian life issues. These themes can be helpful, but not when people are focused on themselves rather than Jesus — who He is, what He has done and is doing for us. It is vital to help people trust Jesus fully for their identity, as well as for their life calling and ultimate destiny. With eyes fixed on Jesus, they will see what has to happen in order to serve God and mankind, not of their own effort, but of grace to participate in what Jesus did in accordance with the Father and the Holy Spirit and perfect philanthropy.
Let me illustrate this with conversations I had with two committed Christians. The first discussion was with a man about his struggle with giving. For a long time, he strove to give more to the church than he had budgeted for, based on the flawed notion that giving, in order to be generous, must be painful. But no matter how much he gave (and how much pain he experienced in doing so), he still felt guilty that he could give more. One day, while writing a check for the weekly offering, his perspective on giving shifted, filled with gratitude. He noticed himself focusing on what his generosity meant for others, rather than how it affected him. The moment this shift in thinking occurred, the feeling of guilt transformed into joy. For the first time, he understood a scripture passage often quoted during offerings: “Each of you should give what you wish, freely and not because others do, for God loves a cheerful and generous person.” (2. Korinther 9, 7)He realized that God loved him no less because he was not a cheerful giver, but that God now experienced and loved him as a joyful giver.
The second discussion was actually two conversations with a woman about her prayer life. The first conversation was about setting the clock to pray to make sure she was praying for at least 30 minutes. She stressed that she could handle all prayer requests in that time, but was shocked when she looked at the clock and saw that not even 10 minutes had passed. So she would pray even more. But every time she looked at the clock, the feelings of guilt and inadequacy would only increase. I jokingly remarked that it seemed to me that she "worships the clock." In our second conversation, she told me that my comment had revolutionized her approach to prayer (God gets the credit for that—not me). Apparently my off-the-cuff commentary got her thinking going and when she prayed she started just talking to God without worrying how long she was praying. In a relatively short time, she felt a deeper connection with God than ever before.
Focused on performance, the Christian life (including spiritual formation, discipleship, and mission) is not a must-do. Instead, it is about participation by grace in what Jesus is doing in us, through us and around us. Focusing on your own effort tends to result in self-righteousness. A self-righteousness that often compares or even judges other people and falsely concludes that we have done something to deserve God's love. The truth of the gospel, however, is that God loves all human beings as only the infinitely great God can. That means he loves others as much as he loves us. God's grace eliminates any "us versus them" attitude that exalts itself as righteous and condemns others as unworthy.
“But,” some might object, “what about people who commit great sins? Surely God doesn’t love them as much as he loves faithful believers.” To answer this objection, we need only look at the heroes of faith in Hebräer 11,1-40 to look at. These were not perfect people; many of them experienced times of colossal failure. The Bible tells more stories of people whom God saved from failure than of people who lived righteous lives. Sometimes we misinterpret the Bible to mean that the redeemed did the work instead of the Redeemer! If we don't understand that our lives are trained in discipline by grace, not by our own efforts, we mistakenly conclude that our standing with God is based on our performance. Eugene Peterson addresses this error in his helpful book on discipleship, "A Long Obedience in the Same Direction."
The main Christian reality is the personal, unalterable, persevering commitment God places on us. Perseverance is not the result of our determination, but it is the result of God's faithfulness. We do not exist the way of faith because we have extraordinary powers, but because God is righteous. Christian discipleship is a process that makes our attention to God's justice ever stronger and our attention to one's own righteousness weaker. We do not recognize our purpose in life by exploring our feelings, motives, and moral principles, but by believing God's will and intentions. By emphasizing God's fidelity, not by planning the rise and fall of our divine inspiration.
God, who is always faithful to us, does not condemn us if we are unfaithful to him. Yes, our sins even bother him because they hurt us and others. But our sins do not decide whether or how much God loves us. Our triune God is perfect, he is the perfect love. There is no lesser or greater measure of his love for each person. Because God loves us, He gives us His Word and Spirit to enable us to clearly recognize our sins, to admit them to God and then to repent. That is, turning away from sin and returning to God and His grace. Ultimately, every sin is a rejection of grace. By mistake, people believe they can absolve themselves of sin. It is true, however, that anyone who renounces his selfishness, repenting and confessing sin, does so because he has accepted the merciful and transforming work of God. In his grace, God accepts everyone where he is, but he continues from there.
When we put Jesus at the center and not ourselves, we see ourselves and others as Jesus sees us, as children of God. This includes the many who do not yet know their heavenly Father. Because we live a life pleasing to God with Jesus, he invites us and equips us to participate in what he does: reaching out in love to those who do not know him. As we participate with Jesus in this process of reconciliation, we see with greater clarity what God does to move his beloved children to turn to him in repentance, helping them to place their lives completely in his care. Because we participate with Jesus in this ministry of reconciliation, we experience much more clearly what Paul meant when he said that the law condemns, but the grace of God gives life (see Apostelgeschichte 13,39 and Römer 5,17-20Therefore, it is fundamentally important to understand that our entire ministry, including our teaching about the Christian life with Jesus, is done in the power of the Holy Spirit, under the protection of God's grace.
I stay tuned to God's grace.
Joseph Tkach
President GRACE COMMUNION INTERNATIONAL
