November
6, 2018
I
cannot help but be very excited to be reading the book of Romans. And it’s quite mind blowing to me to try to
wrap my head around God’s grace. I have
to admit, it’s difficult to believe because I struggle with it – giving it and
receiving it.
You
see, not only do we live in a world full of rules to follow, but the Bible
seems to be chocked full of rules as well.
I mean, just read Leviticus! Then
throw in all the distractions of this world and you cannot help but toss out
the question of why this person does this or that. The scope of what we perceive as normal makes
it difficult to comprehend how or why some people do things so incredibly
different.
The
grace of God runs counter to every impulse in me. I have a desire to earn or receive merit and
purchase God’s grace. I instinctively
try to push my way into God’s presence by keeping His law. Yes, I know I’m saved by grace, but I seem to
go into salvation-maintenance mode, which according to my thinking, hinges on
my good works.
Once
you become a Christian, your head and your heart align with Jesus Christ and
you realize how undeserved you are for the forgiveness of your sins. Over time, you take seriously the
righteousness of God and the heinousness of your sin every day. You may even ask God, “Do you still love me?”
or “Why are you so patient with me?” or “Why
haven’t you killed me for what I’ve done?”
This is why God’s grace is so baffling to me. God doesn’t give me grace because I’ve earned it. He gives me grace because He is gracious. This is why it’s so mind-blowing – God’s grace has absolutely ZERO correlation with earning. And if this is really true, I may take advantage of God’s grace. I might start backsliding. I might go all apostate on God. Surely a little bit of earning is good, right? WRONG!
Jesus
makes it crystal clear in His parable about the workers in the vineyard. Those who worked from the beginning of the
day assumed they would receive higher pay than those who worked only one hour
at the end of the day. They assumed the
master operated according to the principles of “fairness”. They had worked harder than those who only
worked an hour, therefore the “fair” thing to do would be for the master to pay
them more.
But
the master paid everyone the same amount, which caused a fair amount of
grumbling among the workers.
“Is it against the law for
me to do what I want with my money?
Should you be angry because I am kind?
And so it is, that many
who are first now will be last then; and those who are last now will be first
then.” Matthew 20:15-16
Everyone
was quite surprised by the master’s pay scale.
Those who had worked all day were surprised that they only received one
denarius. Those who had worked one hour
were surprised that they had received one denarius.
Grace
is wonderfully, surprisingly, delightfully not fair!!!! Fairness has nothing to do with God’s
grace.
God
is not ignorant of all the ways we have sinned against Him. He knows everything we have ever done and is
still able to stomach it. His knowledge
of who we really are will never hinder His love for us. He is even aware of the evil behind our
righteous deeds. The intimacy by which
the Lord knows us but is able to lovingly embrace us as His children is
supernatural. God’s grace is just
mind-blowing. Every time I think of this
reality, I’m brought to tears because I serve a God whose love and grace
baffles me.
As our hatred for and awareness of our sin increases, we desperately need a biblical view of the grace of God. We need Scripture to paint a clear picture of who God is and how much He loves us in Christ Jesus. We need to see the God of the Scriptures who is so gracious it just blows our minds and brings us to tears and repentance.
