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THE
BIBLE
Can we trust a book written 2000 years ago?
EYEWITNESS
Did the writers of the New Testament get their picture of Jesus right?
GOD
- MAN
Is Jesus really God?
RESURRECTION
Did Jesus really rise from the dead?
RELIGIONS
With so many religions, why Christianity?
SUFFERING
If there is a God, why is there so much suffering?
TRINITY
Understanding the Trinity.
SCIENCE
The complementary nature of Science & Christianity.
FORGIVENESS
What it is and why it matters?
GUIDANCE
How does God guide?
REPENTANCE
What it is and why you can't get to heaven without it.
BORN
AGAIN
What does it mean to be converted and born again?
SAVING
FAITH
The kind of faith that will get you to heaven
ASSURANCE
Can I know for sure that I am going to heaven?
TRUTH
What is truth and does it matter?
MORALITY
Does it matter how we live? A Christian view of morality.
THE
CHURCH
God's vision for his family, the Church. A call to the churches of the
new millennium.
PURPOSE
How
can I find a great purpose for living?
IDENTITY
Who am I; Finding my true identity as a human being and as a child of
God.
SELF-ESTEEM
How
can I feel good about my self? The Christian basis for proper sel-esteem.
LIFE AFTER DEATHChristianity's Hope & Challenge.
THE CROSS
Why did Jesus Die? What the Bible says about the Cross.
Grace
The importance of grace in the New Testament.
Growing by grace
Second Peter ends with the challenge to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (3:18). I expect that “growing in the grace of Jesus” and getting to know Jesus amount to much the same thing. Growing in our relationship with God and Jesus involves growing in our understanding and experience of their grace.
In Romans 5:17, Paul says that “thosewho receive God’s abundant provision of grace and the gift of righteousness” will “reign in life through…Jesus Christ.” What does it mean to “reign in life?” I suggest it goes something like this: having a settled confidence that God is in control of things and knows what he is doing; when God seems distant, being able to trust his promises that he is not; learning to love the unlovely; seeking his will in important decisions and trusting him to guide, even when that guidance is not obvious; being committed to that will and to God’s glory; learning to deal, in dependence on God, with habits and attitudes that are hindering one’s growth; learning to thank him in all circumstances. In other words, “reigning in life” is all about Christian maturity. It has much to do with commitment and trust and understanding what God has revealed of himself in the Bible. And to reign in life, what we need first of all is not a better set of rules, or to try harder, but “God’s abundant provision of grace”.
One of the mistakes we often make in the Christian life is to suppose that, though we are saved by grace alone, our good behaviour in the past having contributed nothing towards our forgiveness and acceptance by God, from then on we have to earn God’s acceptance by sticking to the rules. Daniel Rowland, a Welsh revivalist, wrote: “No sooner do we become Christians and accept salvation by grace than there is an impulse in us to earn God's approval, and we set about obsessively trying to please Him by our good works.” If we have been brought up by parents who only expressed love towards us when we were good, we may well find it hard to believe that we can be accepted by someone, especially God, without earning that acceptance. However, Paul tells the Christians in Rome that once we have been “justified by faith” we not only “have gained access into this grace” but we continue to “stand” in it (Romans 5:1, 2). Again he declares that we are “under grace” and no longer “under the law” (6:14). He tells the Galatians that if they are trying to find acceptance by keeping the law, they “have fallen away from grace” (Galatians 5:4).
So we continue to be accepted by God on the basis of the fact that Jesus has paid the penalty for our sins on the cross, and not on the basis of our having kept God’s laws. This will be true until the day we are presented “before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy…” (Jude 24). As John Newton’s hymn ‘Amazing Grace’ puts it, the grace that “taught my heart to fear” is the same grace that “will lead me home.” Philip Yancey says, “Grace sounds a startling note of contradiction...and every day I must pray anew for the ability to hear its message.” Jerry Bridges, in The Discipline of Grace, [1] says, “Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace, and your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace.”
If this is the case, then does it matter how we live as long as we trust Christ for forgiveness? In order to get a balanced perspective on this subject, let’s look first at the relationship between grace and law.
[1] NavPress, 1994, ©.
Paul gives a good deal of attention to this in two of his letters, to the Christians in Rome and those in Galatia.
Romans
The relationship between law and grace is one of the major themes of the first half of Paul’s letter to the Romans. As his arguments are somewhat lengthy and at times not easy to follow, I will focus on a few of his important points in the hope that you may get the overall picture. In the first four chapters, he makes it plain that it is the moral law of God which proves all humans guilty before him and reveals the impossibility of anyone being accepted on the basis of obedience to that law. “We know that everything in the Law was written for those who are under its power. The Law says these things to stop anyone from making excuses and to let God show that the whole world is guilty. God does not accept people simply because they obey the Law. No, indeed! All the Law does is to point out our sin.”(3:19,20). The law reveals the character of God as it is the expression of his glory, but “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (v. 23). However, God has devised a means whereby we may be regarded as righteous “apart from the law” (v. 21); that is, apart from any consideration of how well, or not so well, we have obeyed the law of God. It is by means of the cross that we “are justified freely by his grace” (v. 24). This justification, or forgiveness, is “received by faith”(v. 25).
In chapter 5, Paul goes on to explain that, having been justified by means of the cross, “we havegained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand” (v. 2). Later in the chapter he has an extended passage explaining that this “abundant provision ofgrace” (v. 17) which has “overflow[ed]” (v. 15) through the coming of Christ is more powerful and effective than the sin that entered the world through Adam. By means of it believers can “reign in life” (v. 17) or “reign through righteousness” (v. 20).
If it is true that we now have access to this overflow of grace and are continually standing in it, does it really matter how we behave and whether we live up to God’s moral demands? Does the law now have any relevance for the Christian? These are the questions that Paul deals with in chapters 6 to 8.
First of all, he answers the two questions “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” and “Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace?” with a resounding “By no means!” (6:1,2,15). J. B. Phillips translates that as, “What a ghastly thought!” The reason why it is inconceivable that we should go on living in sin is that, in God’s reckoning, our old way of life was nailed with Christ on the cross and we are now united with him in his resurrection life. We are therefore to “count [ourselves] dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (v. 11). We now have a freedom to make choices that are pleasing to God, a freedom that was not ours when we were without forgiveness and the grace of God. “Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace” (vv.13,14). It is our understanding of his grace that should motivate us to commit ourselves unreservedly to God in order that he may do those things in our lives which bring glory to him and give all the blessings he intends for us. Though we now have access to grace, stand in it and are under its influence, our choices still have consequences. In the last half of chapter 6, Paul enlarges further on the consequences of our choices: either sin which leads to death, or obedience to God which leads to righteousness, holiness and eternal life. Now that we are accepted on the basis of grace and not law, you will notice the emphasis that Paul puts on offering ourselves to God as our only reasonable response (vv. 13, 16, 19).
In chapter 7, Paul returns to the theme of our identification with Christ in his death and resurrection. Using the illustration of marriage, he points out that legally, through our identification with Christ in his death, we are set free from the condemnation of the law (pictured here as an overbearing, fault-finding husband who never offers a finger to help), so that “[we] might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God” (vv. 1-4). We have a new relationship with new results. The law only offered instructions. Jesus offers life.
In the rest of chapter 7 (vv. 7-25), Paul underlines the fact that though we are no longer condemned by our failure to keep the law, yet it still has a place in the life of the believer. It shows us what true goodness is all about. It is still there as a standard of the kind of behaviour God expects of those who would live in a relationship with him. “The law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good” (v. 12). The problem is not with the law, but with our self-centred natures. To underline this Paul selects the one commandment of the Ten Commandments that deals specifically with our inward motives, rather than our actions. “I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet’” (v. 7). He goes on to say, “in order that sin might be recognised as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful” (v. 13). As the Reformed theologian J. Gresham Machen wrote, “A low view of law leads to legalism in religion; a high view makes one a seeker after grace.”
It is our self-centred nature that is the cause of all our problems. “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” (vv. 14, 15). Paul describes here the struggle that many Christians face who long to live a life pleasing to God. He finishes the chapter with a cry of despair, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (v. 24).
In the light of all that Paul has been saying in this chapter, we might well ask the question, “However much we have been motivated to please God by our understanding of the grace of God and our experience of his forgiveness, what is the point of it all if I don’t have the power to live a life that is pleasing to him?” It is important to understand that what Paul has been taking such pains to get across is that what we need is not greater effort or will power, but transformation. The possibility of this transformation, which God had foretold 600 years previously when he declared that the day would come when “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts” (Jeremiah 31:33), is what Paul now turns to in chapter 8.
It is significant that the Holy Spirit, the third person of the divine Trinity, is only mentioned twice in the first seven chapters of Romans (5:5; 7:6). However, in chapter 8 he is mentioned nineteen times. Paul declares that the purpose of all God achieved “by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful humanity to be a sin offering” was “that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit” (v. 3, 4). Reading through this chapter, you will come across phrases such as: “live…according to the Spirit” (v. 4), “minds set on what the Spirit desires” (v. 5), “mind controlled by the Spirit” (v. 6), and “led by the Spirit of God”(v. 14). Notice the emphasis on our thinking. Later in Romans, he tells us to “be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (12:2). The Spirit not only changes our attitudes and our thinking, but can even have an effect on our physical bodies. “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you” (8:11).
In other words, the grace of God has not only provided us with the means of forgiveness, but the means of transformation. Simon Gathercole, lecturer at Cambridge University, says: “Trying to obey the law is like trying to climb a sheer rock face with no foothold or handhold, without equipment. It can’t be done.” However, by means of the Holy Spirit, God has provided us with the necessary equipment. It is the Holy Spirit who not only gives us the desire to please God, but the ability to do so. As we learn to commit ourselves more fully to him, depend more trustingly on him and follow his prompting, “the righteous requirement of the law” begins to “be fully met in us” (v. 4). Later in the chapter he describes the ultimate purpose of this transformation, that we might be “conformed to the image of his Son” (v. 29). In a similar passage in 2 Corinthians Paul describes this transformation as follows, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (3:17, 18). However much we must co-operate, and however much personal effort we must put into our growth, as we shall see, it is important to note that the work of transformation is God’s work.[2]
[2] For other passages that emphasise this, see 1 Thessalonians 5:23, 24; Philippians 1:6; Hebrews 13:21.
Our responsibility is to commit and trust and obey. It is the responsibility of the Spirit to do the work of making us more like Jesus, the one who fulfilled the law in every respect. This is a lifetime process and will only be completed in the life to come.
Paul makes another relevant point in chapter 8. When we are given the Holy Spirit we are adopted (John uses the expression “born”—e.g. John 3:5) into God’s family and are now his sons and daughters. “The Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship…The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children” (Romans 8:15,16). If we are his children, then we don’t have to prove ourselves good enough in order to be loved. God loves us, even when we misbehave, simply because we are his children. And when we misbehave, we don’t stop being his children. We are still “under grace”. God is now “for us” (v. 31). The cross and the giving of his Spirit prove that. However, as we are his children, he desires the very best for us and is going to use every method he can in order to make us into what he wants us to be. This includes discipline. The writer of Hebrews has an extended passage on our need for discipline (12:7-11). But we can be assured that whatever experiences God allows in our lives, whether joyful or painful, his ultimate purpose is to mould our characters and train us for his service. “We know that God is always at work for the good of everyone who loves him. They are the ones God has chosen for his purpose” (Romans 8:28).
Galatians
In Galatians, Paul follows much the same line that he does in Romans, but as the relationship between grace and law is one of the areas where there is so much misunderstanding about the Christian life, I will spend a little time here too.
The Christians in Galatia had understood Paul’s preaching of salvation by the grace of God alone, but they were now being influenced by teachers who were telling them that they had to maintain their relationship with God by obedience to his laws. Paul doesn’t pull any punches. “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let that person be under God’s curse!” (Galatians1:6-8).
Notice his statement that turning away from trusting in grace to a gospel based on our acceptance by obedience to law is not just a distortion of the gospel. It is “a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all.” He also describes it as a desertion from “the one who called you”—deserting God himself. He then calls down a curse on those who teach such things. Obviously, this is a matter of no small importance!
In the first two chapters of Galatians, Paul tells how he received his authority and his understanding of the gospel from Christ himself, an authority that was recognised by the other apostles. He then underlines the truth that it is by the grace of God alone we are saved, and not by keeping God’s laws. He finishes these chapters with the statement, “I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (2:21). Paul makes it very clear that you can’t be saved by a little bit of self-effort and a little bit of grace. Jesus didn’t just pay the price for some of your sins and leave you to earn forgiveness for the rest of them. If you and I could have done anything at all to earn our salvation, Jesus would never have gone to the cross.
Paul spends the rest of the letter reinforcing this truth and that our continued acceptance by God and usefulness to him is dependent on grace alone from beginning to end. It is foolish to assume otherwise. “Youfoolish Galatians! [“You dear idiots!”—J. B. Phillips] Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by human effort? (3:1-3). Paul goes as far as to say that if they are hoping to maintain a relationship with Christ on the basis of keeping the law (i.e. by trying to be good enough), they have “fallen away from grace” (5:4). This is well illustrated by the behaviour of the older brother in the parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15. Like the Pharisees mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, he expected to receive all his fathers goodies because he had been a good son. When his father welcomed his rebellious brother solely on the basis of grace, he was offended and stayed outside the banqueting hall. Though still a son, he missed out on all the blessings of grace. As Philip Yancey puts in Soul Survivor: How my faith survived the church:
Like the elder brother in the parable, I can never experience the cleansing flow of God’s grace or enter the family celebration if I stand outside the banquet hall, arms folded in a posture of moral superiority. God’s grace comes as a free gift, but only one who has open hands can receive a gift.
In practical terms, there are two ways in which I can “fall from grace”. Jerry Bridges puts it like this:
[Grace] can neither be earned by your merit nor forfeited by your demerit. If you sometimes feel you deserve an answer to prayer or a particular blessing from God because of your hard work or sacrifice, you are living by works, not by grace. But it is just as true that if you sometimes despair of experiencing God’s blessing because of your demerits—the “oughts” you should have done but didn’t, or the “don’ts” you shouldn’t have done but did—you are also casting aside the grace of God.
Those who are tempted towards an unhealthy pride in their gifts or achievements need to focus on the first of these statements. Those tempted towards despair need to focus on the second.
Bridges makes another important point when he says:
The Bible is full of God’s promises to provide for us spiritually and materially, to never forsake us, to give peace in times of difficult circumstances, to cause all circumstances to work together for our good, and finally to bring us safely home to glory. Not one of these promises is dependent upon our performance. They are all dependent on the grace of God given us through Jesus Christ.
In Galatians, as he does in Romans, Paul puts considerable emphasis on the Holy Spirit as the one who does his transforming work in our lives, producing his fruit of “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (5:22, 23). As the sap flowing through the branches of an apple tree causes it to produce apples, so, if we maintain our relationship of commitment, trust and obedience to Jesus, the Holy Spirit will produce this fruit. This is similar to the statement of Jesus, “I am the vine, and you are the branches. If you stay joined to me, and I stay joined to you, then you will produce lots of fruit. But you cannot do anything without me” (John 15:5). If this fruit is manifest in our lives then we will fulfil the law (cf. Romans 13:10, “Love does no harm to its neighbour; therefore love is the fulfilment of the law”).
Notice Paul’s statements, similar to those in Romans: “walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature” (Galatians 5:16); “if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law” (5:18); and “Sincewe live by the Spirit,let us keep in step with the Spirit” (5:25).
As in Romans, Paul also speaks here of our new relationship as sons and daughters of God. “When the time was right, God sent his Son, and a woman gave birth to him. His Son obeyed the Law, so he could set us free from the Law, and we could become God’s children. Now that we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts. And his Spirit tells us that God is our Father. You are no longer slaves. You are God’s children, and you will be given what he has promised” (Galatians 4:4-7).
In Romans, Paul uses the illustration of marriage, death and remarriage to describe our relationship to the law before conversion and our relationship to Christ after conversion (Romans 7:1-4); Whereas in Galatians he compares the status of a minor in a Roman household with that of an older child. “The law was put in charge of us until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. So in Christ you are all the children of God through faith” (Galatians 3:24-26). The phrase “put in charge” in the Greek is paidagogos. John Stott, in Calling Christian Leaders, says of this word:
The paidagogos was a slave charged with the supervision of a boy during his minority. He was responsible for his dress, food, speech and manners, and would accompany him to school. He was a disciplinarian and was allowed to administer corporal punishment, so that he was often depicted in ancient drawings as wielding a rod.
In Christ we are regarded as mature and responsible children of the Father and are treated as such.
Before leaving this subject, let’s summarise some of these truths and reinforce them with other significant passages from the New Testament and comments from other helpful writers on the subject.
The purpose of laws and instructions for the Christian
In the light of all we have said so far, we might well ask the question, “Do the numerous commands and instructions of the New Testament have any relevance for the person who has faith in Christ and has experienced his grace?” Obviously they are there for a purpose! If we are to live lives that are pleasing to God—that is, if we are going to be good and useful children, then we need to know how to do it. Because of our limited understanding, we need clear guidance as to how we can indeed please our heavenly Father and how we can grow into all that God desires for us and has in store for us. That’s what the New Testament commands and instructions are all about. Tom Wright, in his excellent book Simply Christian,[3] puts this well:
The rules are to be understood, not as arbitrary laws thought up by a distant God to stop us having fun (or to set us some ethical hoops to jump through as a kind of moral examination), but as the signposts to a way of life in which heaven and earth overlap, in which God’s future breaks into the present, in which we discover what genuine humanness looks and feels like in practice.
[3] SPCK, 2006, ©. This book as been described as the most thrilling attempt to re-express the heart of the Christian faith and the transformation it offers to every area of personal and social life since C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity.
If we keep the rules, life will be a lot more pleasant and useful. Consider the following passages: “Great peace have those who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble” (Psalm 119:165); “If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your well-being like the waves of the sea” (Isaiah 48:18); “The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart…They are more precious than gold…they are sweeter than honey…By them your servant is warned; and in keeping them there is great reward” (Psalm 19:7-11). The author of Psalm 119 was one who had a great love for and delight in the laws of God. All but four or five of its 176 verses contain a reference to the laws, commands, precepts, decrees, promises, statutes or words of God. Jesus himself delighted to keep all the laws of God. He said, “Do not think I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them” (Matthew 5:17).
So when Paul says in Romans that we “died to the law through the body of Christ” (7:4), and in Ephesians that Jesus, by his cross, was “setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations” (2:15), he obviously doesn’t mean that God’s commands no longer matter, but merely that they are set aside as a means whereby we can make ourselves acceptable to God. After all, Paul has plenty of instructions for the Romans and Ephesians about how they should live!
And God’s commands “are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). In referring to his yoke of obedience, Jesus said, “my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30).
It is grace that provides the motivation for this way of life. Paul has a significant passage on this in his letter to Titus: “The grace of God has appeared to all people. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good” (Titus 2:11-14). Note that it is grace which teaches us all this. The word translated “teach” here is the same word Paul uses when he says fathers are to bring up their children in the training and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4). It includes admonition, reproof and punishment given in love for the benefit of the child, as well as instruction. It is encouraging to know that God is the one who accepts responsibility for our spiritual growth and will allow only those experiences that, in his grace, will contribute to that end. Grace “teaches” us not only to be good, but how to say “No”—no to those things that would disqualify us for the race and make our Christian lives ineffective. It also makes us “eager” to do what is good. And it is grace that gives us hope and sustains us through the difficult periods as we look forward to the appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Another question we may well ask is: “If we wish to live a life pleasing to God as our response to grace, is it going to require any effort on our part?” The New Testament answer is a very positive “Yes”. Even though we are fully accepted as God’s children, forgiven and standing in his grace, we must still put effort into doing the things God wants us to do. Terms like “struggle”, “strive” and “effort” are common enough in the New Testament (e.g. Luke 13:24; Romans 15:30; Philippians 1:27; Hebrews 12:4). However, it is effort motivated by love for God and our understanding of his grace, not effort made in order to prove ourselves worthy of his favour. As Dallas Willard puts it, “[Grace] is not opposed to effort; it is opposed to earning.” Spiritual disciplines such as prayer, study, meditation on the Biblical writings, sharing and worshipping with God’s people, all have a place in allowing the Holy Spirit to do his work in our lives. However, it is grace alone that provides both the motivation and the resources for growing into all that God wishes us to be and do.
Peter spells this out clearly in his second letter. “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness…knowledge…self-control…perseverance…godliness…mutual affection…love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if you do not have them, you are nearsighted and blind, and you have forgotten that you have been cleansed from your past sins. …If you do these things you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:3-11).
Notice some important points in the above passage. By his grace (his glory and goodness) he has given us “everything we need” for living a godly life. By responding to his “great and precious promises”, we have received the Holy Spirit and therefore “participate in the divine nature”. It is for this reason that we are to “make every effort” to add to our faith all the other qualities he mentions. The thought of what we have already undeservedly received and our understanding of the resources that are already ours spur us on to make that effort. And note that if we do make the effort, when we eventually arrive in his eternal kingdom, we won’t have to creep in with shame but will receive a “rich welcome”—with bells ringing, trumpets blowing—and maybe the Lord himself to greet us with those wonderful words, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!” (Matthew 25:21, 23).
Conversely, if we do not make the effort, then “[we] have forgotten that [we] have been cleansed from [our] past sins”. In other words, we have forgotten that we have been forgiven at such a cost and with such grace. As believers, we always live in the shadow of the cross. “Discipleship,” says Clifford Williams, “simply means the life which springs from grace.” Or, as Jerry Bridges puts it, grace provides the atmosphere in which discipleship can be practised. When Paul urges the Christians in Rome to “offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God”, he does so not because it is their duty or because of what will happen if they don’t, but “in view of God’s mercy” (Romans 12:1). He asks for their commitment, but it is a commitment based not on threat or obligation but on heartfelt gratitude. Martin Luther wrote of this passage:
A lawgiver insists with threats and penalties; a preacher of grace lures and incites with divine goodness and compassion shown to us; for he wants no unwilling works and reluctant services, he wants joyful and delightful services of God.
The writer of Hebrews also says we are to “Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord” (12:14). The Greek word here for “make every effort” is literally “to run after” or “pursue”.
Similarly, Paul, in likening our Christian pilgrimage to a race, urges us to “Run in such a way as to get the prize”, not a fading crown but one “that will last forever”. He himself does not “run like someone running aimlessly”, but disciplines his body “so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).
Terry Virgo compares grace with the moving walkways one often finds in airports. No doubt there are times when our own efforts achieve nothing and all we can do is rest in complete trust that the walkway will get us where we need to go. Most times, however, if we are able-bodied, we can make more significant progress by striding along while taking advantage of the added momentum provided by the walkway.
Selwyn Hughes says, “Grace is the strength God gives which enables us to live or do as Jesus would do were He in our situation.”
Jerry Bridges gives a good balance when he says:
One of the great paradoxes of the Christian life is that we are fully responsible for our Christian growth and at the same time fully dependent upon the Holy Spirit to give us both the desire to grow and the ability to do it. God’s grace does not negate the need for responsible action on our part, but rather makes it possible.
And finally, D. A. Carson sounds a warning in For the Love of God:
People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate towards godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.
Another way of looking at the subject of Christian growth is to consider the connection between grace and love. God has always existed as a Trinity of persons with love constantly flowing between the Father, Son and Spirit.[4] He created us because he desired to share that love with others. His whole purpose in creating the world and sending his Son to die for us was that he might shower his love upon us. What he longs for most of all from us is our love in return. When Jesus was asked what the most important commandment was, he replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). He was quoting from the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 6:5). This is not a command that we must endeavour to keep for fear of what will happen if we don’t. Love cannot issue from such a response. As John tells us, “perfect love drives out fear” (1 John 4:18). This love comes only in response to his love. “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). The Puritan John Owen wrote a book entitled Communion with God, in which he made this statement: “The greatest sorrow and burden you can lay on the Father, the greatest unkindness you can do to him is not to believe that he loves you.” However, it is our understanding of the cross and the awareness that we have his undeserved love, even when we mess things up, and that he longs for nothing but the very best for us, which prompts us to love him in return.
[4] For further information on this point, see my booklet Understanding the Trinity, and the chapter, ‘The cross and the love of God’ in my book Why Did Jesus Die? Unearthing the meaning of the Cross.
But how do we express our love for God? The connection between love and obedience is significant here. Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commands” (John 14:15; see also vv. 21 and 23). John says, “This is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3).[5] We show our love by seeking to please him. Paul sums this up well in his second letter to the Christians in Corinth: “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, …that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Corinthians 5:14, 15). “Compel” is a strong word and often has a negative association. But here its meaning is positive. In An Exposition of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, Charles Hodge wrote that the love of Christ “coerces, or presses and therefore impels. It is the governing influence which controls the life.” Kenneth Wuest, in his expanded translation of the New Testament, beautifully captured the flavour of this word as Paul uses it:
For the love which Christ has [for me] presses on me from all sides, holding me to one end and prohibiting me from considering any other, wrapping itself around me in tenderness, giving me an impelling motive.
[5] This emphasis on obedience growing out of love occurs also in the Old Testament, particularly in the book of Deuteronomy. See 6:1-8; 10:12, 13; 11:13, 22; 19:9; 30:6-8.
As Jerry Bridges says, “Duty or guilt may motivate us for awhile, but only a sense of Christ’s love for us will motivate us for a lifetime.”
It is the love of Christ coming to us through the cross that motivates us to love him in return and express that love by committing our lives to him, choosing to live for him and doing the things that please him. And it is our motivation that God is primarily concerned with, rather than how well we perform.
The basic difference between living by law and living by love is described delightfully by the Catholic writer Nancy Mairs in her memoir Ordinary Time. She tells of her years of mutiny against childhood images of a “Daddy God,” who could only be pleased if she followed a list of onerous prescriptions and prohibitions:
The fact that these took their most basic form as commandments suggested that human nature had to be forced into goodness; left to its own devices, it would prefer idols, profanity, leisurely Sunday mornings with bagels and the New York Times, disrespect for authority, murder, adultery, theft, lies, and everything belonging to the guy next door...I was forever on the perilous verge of doing a don't, to atone for which I had to beg forgiveness from the very being who had set me up for the trespass, by forbidding behaviours he clearly expected me to commit, in the first place: the God of the gotcha, you might say.
Mairs broke a lot of those rules, felt constantly guilty, and then, in her words, “learned to thrive in the care of a God who asks for the single act that will make transgression impossible: love.”
I once read a story told by a qualified counsellor. A client had come to him with a problem. He had led an immoral life and now had fallen in love with a good woman who loved him and whom he wished to marry. However, he was worried that he might well fall into his old habits again and hurt the woman he truly loved. He wondered also whether he should tell his new friend about his past.
The counsellor told him about a man with a similar problem, who had shared the following story. This man had decided to share his past with his lady friend. When he did, she put her arms around him and said something like this: “Of course I don’t want you to go back to your old ways, and if you did I would be hurt. But if you do give in to temptation at any time, you may well be too ashamed to come back to me, or think that I would not accept you back. However, your home is here in my arms and I want you to know that I am now offering you forgiveness for anything you might do in the future.” As the counsellor told this story, his client had been sitting with his head in his hands. When he finished, the man looked up and said, “My God! If anything could keep a man straight, that would.”
The grace of God works like that. The more we grow in our awareness of it, the more we will love him in return and desire to please him, and the more contrite we will be when we let him (and ourselves) down. Paul, writing to the church in Thessalonica, commends them because they “love all the brothers and sisters throughout Macedonia”but urges them “to do so more and more” (1 Thessalonians 4:10). When he writes to them some time later, he commends them again because “the love all of you have for one another is increasing” (2 Thessalonians 1:3). In the same letter he says, “May the Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace[6] gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good word and work” (2:16, 17).
[6] Italics mine.
It is the undeserved nature of his love, in particular, that prompts us to love him in return, share that love with others, and gives encouragement and strength in word and work. How this grace works in providing us with the incentive to love and worship God is beautifully expressed by theologian James Packer, in his excellent and popular book Knowing God:
What matters supremely is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it—the fact that He knows me. I am graven on the palms of His hands, I am never out of His mind. All my knowledge of Him depends on His sustained initiative in knowing me. I know Him because He first knew me, and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend, one who loves me; and there is no moment when His eye is off me or His attention distracted from me, and no moment, therefore, when His care falters.
There is, certainly, a great cause for humility in the thought that He sees all the twisted things about me that my fellow humans do not see (and am I glad!), and that He sees more corruption in me than that which I see in myself (which, in all conscience, is enough). There is, however, equally great incentive to worship and love God in the thought that, for some unfathomable reason, He wants me as His friend, and desires to be my Friend, and has given His Son to die for me in order to realise this purpose.
It is not that God’s laws are unimportant, as we have seen, but it is only one who loves who can fulfil the law. Paul goes as far as to say, “Love does no harm to its neighbour. Therefore love is the fulfilment of the law” (Romans 13:10). All the dos and don’ts we find in the Bible are simply the way in which true love will express itself towards God and our neighbour.
Christianity is meant to be a religion of love relationships. It begins with God’s love for us. Terry Virgo puts it like this:
David said, “He rescued me because he delighted in me” (Psalm 18:19). That is one of the greatest truths in the whole Bible. God is delighted with you. When God whispers into your ear, “I am delighted with you”, it’s almost too much to bear.
I once looked up “delight” in the dictionary. It said “great pleasure and satisfaction” but I wasn’t too pleased or satisfied with that! So I searched for it in a thesaurus. This is what I found: “laugh, smile, get a kick out of, hug oneself, rave, bask in, enjoy, wallow, have fun, exhilarate, relish, elate, thrill, ravish, intoxicate, entrance, enrapture, purr.” Isn’t that wonderful? When God looks at you he purrs with delight!
Have you ever fallen in love? You are in a room full of people and suddenly you realise, “She saw me!” The Bible says, “You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride: you have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes” (Song of Songs 4:9). Or have you ever seen parents with their first baby? “Isn’t he wonderful? Doesn’t he look just like me? Did you see that? That was his first smile.” God purrs over his people just like that.
The New Testament has a good deal to say about thanksgiving and joy. Joy is sometimes specifically linked to the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives (Acts 13:52; Romans 14:17; Galatians 5:22; 1 Thessalonians 1:6).
I have a strong impression that it is those Christians who best understand the grace of God, and all that they have been freely given in Christ, who are the most grateful and the most joyful. Such people are also the most generous, as we shall see later. Karl Barth said, “Grace and gratitude belong together like heaven and earth. Grace evokes gratitude like the voice and echo. Gratitude follows grace as thunder follows lightning.”
C. S. Lewis, in The Four Loves, put the connection between grace and joy like this:
It is easy to acknowledge, but almost impossible to realise for long, that we are mirrors whose brightness, if we are bright, is wholly derived from the sun that shines upon us. Surely we must have a little—however little—native luminosity? Surely we can't be [mere] creatures.
He goes on:
Grace substitutes a full, childlike and delighted acceptance of our Need, a joy in total dependence. We become 'jolly beggars’.
In a similar vein, Robert Farrar Capon says, in Parables of Grace:
Grace is the celebration of life, relentlessly hounding all the non-celebrants in the world. It is a floating, cosmic bash shouting its way through the streets of the universe, flinging the sweetness of its cessations to every window, pounding at every door in a hilarity beyond all liking and happening, until the prodigals come out at last and dance, and the elder brothers finally take their fingers out of their ears.
In Philemon 7, the word normally translated “grace” is translated “joy”. They are closely related.
Without humility it is unlikely that we are going to exemplify many other truly Christian virtues. Humility is not a matter of denying what we are or what we may have achieved in life. It comes as a result of a clear understanding of all we owe to the grace of God. In 1868, Josiah Bull wrote of converted slave trader John Newton when he was Vicar of Olney:
Some men excel in one virtue more than another. But Newton’s character was beautiful in its entireness. It rested on a solid foundation—the initial Christian grace of humility, and of this grace he was a most striking example. He never for a moment forgot that by the grace of God he was what he was.
In Living Below with the Saints We Know Brian Hathaway wrote, “The doctrine of grace humbles people without degrading them and exalts them without inflating them.”
I don’t think I have read a better description of this relationship between grace and humility than noted theologian James Packer gave in an interview published in Decision magazine entitled ‘A Conversation with J. I. Packer: Really Knowing God’:
Understanding grace keeps us humble. It works the other way also. “God opposes the proud, but shows favour [or “gives grace”] to the humble” (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5). Deuteronomy 8 is a grim reminder of what happens to a people who forget God’s kindness, and who think that every success they have enjoyed is by their own merit.
There are two ways in which the grace of God can be misused. If not fully understood it can lead to legalism. This is an overemphasis on man-made rules, rather than on those qualities so often emphasised in the New Testament, which lead to loving relationships. It was one of the problems the Galatian Christians were facing. “Now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you” (Galatians 4:9-11).
The Christians in Colossae had a somewhat similar problem. “Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: ‘Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!’? These rules, which have to do with things that are destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence” (Colossians 2:20-23). Jesus also had something to say about this (Matthew 15:1-9). We should, however, adjust our behaviour in certain circumstances, so that we do not unnecessarily offend those who are stuck on some rules which we believe are not essential to our faith. Paul has good advice in such circumstances in Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8.
Legalistic churches tend to be those where the pastor, the elders, or maybe the congregation as a whole decide what behaviours are acceptable and what are not, rather than letting the New Testament be the guide. Such churches tend to make people judgemental rather than loving. They look too much to the pastor or other Christians for guidance on how to live, rather than building relationships with the Lord himself. Legalism feeds either our pride or despair. Any thought that God loves us because of our success in keeping his commands will make us either proud of our achievements or despondent because of our failure, and it will make us judgemental towards those whom we don’t think have done as well as we have.
Like the Pharisee in the story Jesus told about the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:9-14), legalistic people get their self-esteem by comparing themselves with others. As Dominic Smart puts it in Grace, Faith and Glory: Freedom in Christ,[7] “Legalism becomes the tool for spiritual oppression and abuse, for control over others and for the elevation of our own status.” Significantly, the legalistic Scribes and Pharisees were among those who put Christ to death. Legalism takes away love as a motivation. Paul reserved some of his strongest language for those who were legalistic. He calls them “hypocrites” and “agitators” and says they “will have to pay the penalty” (Galatians 2:13; 5:10, 12).
[7] Authentic Lifestyle, 2003, ©.
The grave of a certain worthy woman had the following epitaph, “She spent her life in serving others. Now she has rest, and so have they”.
Martin Luther put it like this:
No one can be good and do good unless God’s grace first makes him good; and no one becomes good by works, but good works are done only by him who is good. Just so the fruits do not make the tree, but the tree bears the fruit. …Therefore all works, no matter how good they are and how pretty they look, are in vain if they do not flow from grace.
The law by itself cannot change the heart and it is the heart that is our problem. Jeremiah says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure” (17:9). The words here translated “beyond cure” would be better translated “desperately sick”. The Hebrew word anash is a medical term. It is “out of [our] hearts” (Mark 7:21) that evil things come. We need the open heart surgery that grace provides. The law can make bad people behave better (see 1 Timothy 1:9) but it cannot make us good. And it denies God the glory that is rightfully his in forgiving and transforming us. It also robs God of that further glory which comes from enjoying him. As John Piper says, we glorify God by enjoying him forever.
A further problem caused by legalism is expressed by Dominic Smart:
The legalistic life of works is turned in upon itself in self-examination, self-doubt, self-castigation, self-satisfaction. But the life of faith, by which we depend on the grace of God and submit to the Lordship of Christ alone gives us a new focus: God himself. We are turned outward, upward, Godward.
Whereas legalistic people tend to be less open and honest about their failings, a true understanding of grace frees us to be more open with God and with others. We don’t have to rationalise and excuse our sins, as we are all equally dependent on grace. Any goodness we might have is solely the result of grace.
It may not always be easy to keep the balance between our experience of grace and our desire to please God out of gratitude by keeping his commands, without falling into the trap of legalism. Samuel Bolton, in The True Bounds of Christian Freedom, recognised this when he wrote:
It is a hard lesson to live above the law, and yet walk according to the law. But this is the lesson a Christian has to learn, to walk in the law in respect of duty, but to live above the law in respect of comfort, neither expecting favour from the law in respect of his obedience nor fearing harsh treatment from the law in respect of his failing.
A story that vividly underlines the difference between legalism and grace is told by James B. Torrance in Worship, Community & the Triune God of Grace. He was visiting a friend, Roland Walls, in the Community of the Transfiguration, in Roslin village, a few miles out of Edinburgh, and noticed a piece of sculpture in the garden. His friend told him the following story about it:
A young sculptor, brought up among the Exclusive Brethren, one day confessed to the fellowship that he was gay. As a result, he was asked to leave the Assembly. In his distress, he found his way to the Roslin Community, where Roland found him on his knees in prayer in the chapel. The young man poured out his story and unburdened his heart. At the end of their conversation, Roland simply put his arms around him and gave him a hug! That hug symbolised everything for the man. He knew he was loved, accepted, forgiven. He went back, found a block of sandstone and carved out a figure of the two Adams. They are kneeling, embracing one another. Christ lays his head on the right shoulder of fallen Adam, and fallen Adam lays his head on the right shoulder of Christ, the second Adam. The only way in which one can distinguish between the two Adams is by the nail prints in the hands of Christ. That sculptor saw himself in fallen Adam, and in that symbolic hug he saw himself accepted in Christ, the second Adam.
If we could catch just a brief glimpse of the awesome holiness of God, we would be forever cured of any idea that we could possibly win his acceptance by obedience to his laws.[8] There is only one way to live with God, and that is by faith in Jesus Christ, who is “our righteousness, holiness and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30). Nothing less than the blood of Christ, offered to us by grace, can cover the guilt and shame of sin.
[8] There are many passages in the Bible that speak of God’s holiness—e.g. Exodus 19:23-25; 1 Chronicles 16:29, 30; Isaiah 6:1-5; 29:23; Revelation 15:3, 4.
Those who are stuck in their legalistic and superior attitudes do not know how to react when confronted with grace. Walter Wink tells of a black South African woman who was walking on the street with her children when a white man spat in her face. She stopped and said, “Thank you, and now for the children.” Nonplussed, the man was unable to respond.
By his own example, Jesus challenged us to look at the world through what Irenaeus would call “grace-healed eyes”.
The other extreme is licence, believing that because I am accepted by God anyway, it doesn’t matter too much how I live. Jude speaks of “ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a licence for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord” (v. 4). Paul warns the Galatians, “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. Butdo not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘love your neighbour as yourself.’ If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other” (5:13-15). Legalism is sinful, but so is lawlessness—so much so, that the Bible declares that “sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4).
The antidote to both these extremes is greater understanding of grace, and particularly of the cost of that grace. As Jerry Bridges says in Transforming Grace:
Although grace is part of the essential nature of God, the extending of His grace to us cost Him the most expensive price ever paid, the death of His own dear Son. So grace is never cheap. It is absolutely free to us, but infinitely expensive to God.
If I have any appreciation at all of what the cross involved for God, then I would shun any thought whatever of descending into moral licence. And if I have any understanding of the undeserved nature of that grace, which now comes to me at such cost, I would never be a candidate for licence. Godliness matters. However, as we have seen, our reasons for seeking to live a life pleasing to our heavenly Father are important. Tom Wright, in his extremely thoughtful book Evil and the Justice of God,[9] puts a very good perspective on this:
Christian ethics does not consist of a list of ‘what we’re allowed to do’ and ‘what we’re not allowed to do’. It consists, rather, in the summons to live in God’s new world, on the basis that idolatry and sin have been defeated at the cross and that new creation has begun at Easter—and that the entire new world based on this achievement is guaranteed by the power of the Spirit. Romans 8:12-17 thus invites Christians to live as Exodus people, not to dream of going back to slavery in Egypt but to work hard at putting to death all that is in fact deadly, and at living the renewed life which the Spirit creates in and for those who are led by that Spirit. Among the clearest statements of this theme is Colossians 3:1-11: ‘if you are risen with the Messiah, seek the things that are above, where he is’—which means, in very practical terms, that all the things which deface human life here and now, particularly anger and bitterness on the one hand and sexual immorality on the other, must be done away with.
[9] SPCK, 2006, ©.
Christian freedom under grace is indeed a reality. Paul says, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1). Popular writer Charles Swindoll says, “Most Christians have been better trained to expect and handle their sin than to expect and enjoy their freedom.” However, it is not freedom to do as we please. Swindoll sums up the true nature of this freedom:
Free from what? Free from oneself. Free from guilt and shame. Free from the damnable impulses I couldn’t stop when I was in bondage to sin. Free from the tyranny of other’s opinions, expectations, demands. And free to what? Free to obey. Free to love. Free to forgive others as well as myself. Free to allow others to be who they are—different from me! Free to live beyond the limitations of human effort. Free to serve and glorify Christ.
As Yancey says, if we truly grasped God’s grace, then, “we would spend all our days trying to fathom, not exploit, God's grace.”
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The emphasis on grace in the New Testament
The Meaning Grace
Grace and Forgiveness
Growing by Grace
Grace and Law
Romans
Galations
The Purpose of Commands
Why our Own Effort Matters
Grace and Love
Grace, Gratitude, and Joy
Grace and Humility
The Misuse of Grace
Serving by Grace
Stewards of Grace
Gifts and Abilities
Grace and Ministry
Giving by Grace
Grace and Community
Two Stories
Appropriating Grace
Acknowledgement of Need
Faith
Submission
