Stay focused on God's grace

173 focus on God's grace

I recently saw a video parodying a TV commercial. In this case it was about a fictional Christian worship CD entitled "It's All About Me". The CD contained the songs: “Lord I Lift My Name on High”, “I Exalt Me” and “There is None Like Me”. (Nobody is like me). Strange? Yes, but it illustrates the sad truth. We humans tend to worship ourselves rather than God. As I mentioned last, this tendency causes our spiritual formation to short-circuit, which is based on trust in ourselves and not in Jesus, "the beginner and finisher of the faith" (Hebrews 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 dedicated Christians. The first discussion I had was with a man about his struggle with giving. He has long struggled to give more to the church than he budgeted, based on the mistaken concept that in order to be generous, giving must be painful. But no matter how much he gave (and no matter how painful it was), he still felt guilty that he could give more. One day, full of gratitude, while writing a check for the weekly offering, his perspective on giving changed. He noticed how he focused on what his generosity means to others, rather than how it affects himself. The moment this change in his thinking of not feeling guilty happened, his feeling turned to joy. For the first time he understood a passage of Scripture often quoted in sacrificial recordings: “Each of you should decide for yourself how much you want to give, voluntarily and not because others are doing it. For God loves those who give cheerfully and willingly.” (2. 9 Corinthians 7 hope for all). He realized that God loved him no less when he was not a joyful giver, but that God now sees and loves 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 may object, “what about people who commit great sins? Surely God does not love them as much as He loves faithful believers.” To answer this objection we need only refer to the heroes of the faith in Hebrews 11,1-40 to watch. These were not perfect people, many of whom experienced colossal failures. The Bible tells more stories of people whom God saved from failure than of people who lived righteously. Sometimes we misinterpret the Bible to mean that the redeemed did the work instead of the Redeemer! If we do not understand that our lives are disciplined by grace, not by our own efforts, we mistakenly conclude that our standing with God is by our achievement. 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.

If we put Jesus at the center and not ourselves, then we see ourselves and others in the way that Jesus sees us as children of God. That includes the many who do not yet know their Heavenly Father. Because we lead a life pleasing to God with Jesus, he invites us and equips us to participate in what he does, to reach in love those who do not know him. As we participate with Jesus in this process of reconciliation, we see with greater clarity what God is doing to move His beloved children to turn to Him in repentance, to help them put their lives completely in His care. Because we share with Jesus in this ministry of reconciliation, we learn much more clearly what Paul meant when he said that the law condemns but the grace of God gives life (see Acts 1 Cor3,39 and Romans 5,17-20). Therefore, it is fundamentally important to understand that all of our service, including our teaching on the Christian life, with Jesus is done in the power of the Holy Spirit, under the umbrella of God's grace.

I stay tuned to God's grace.

Joseph Tkach
President GRACE COMMUNION INTERNATIONAL


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