Missing the Boat

Let me start by saying that I have not been completely wrong. I'm starting to see that I have been wrong nonetheless.

God's grace is free. Completely free. There isn't a thing we can do to earn it. God's love for us is completely conditioned upon the finished work of Calvary. There never has been any amount of lawkeeping that will merit God's favor and never will be. But here's the deal; God's grace is no excuse for sin.

The sermon of a friend helped me to realize that I have been coddling sin in my own life and the lives of others in the name of grace. After all, if my relationship to God is not conditioned on my actions, what's a little indescretion here and there? God will forgive me for Christ's sake, right?

First of all, sin is not a little indescretion. Sin, as James says, is lawlessness. Sin is the enemy of grace. Grace is not meant to make it easier for me to accept my sin. Grace is meant to kill my sin. Dead. Gone. To use God's grace as an excuse to continue in my sin as every bit as foolish as trying to use the law to attain righteousness. To do so is itself sin. If being saved to me is nothing more than accepting God's gift of forgiveness and continuing as a saved mess then I am gutting the gospel.

Hearing this would have raised my hackles two weeks ago. In fact it did. But it left me confused as well, because I came under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Yes, the Holy Spirit whom I've tried to ignore in both my teaching and my personal life. The helper who gives us the power over sin. The Spirit of Christ who dwells within us. The teeth of the gospel.

God expects us to obey. God expects us to be putting to death the sin within our lives. God's grace is the agent of the death of sin, and He has not left us alone to figure out what is and isn't sin and he's not left us without help in using His grace to combat sin and the enemy. He has given us the Spirit as a pusher. He drives us to hate our sin, to want to expose it to the light - to want to douse it with the good news of Christ's victory.

I owe an apology to my students. I fear I have lead many of you to believe that you are what you are and that's all you'll ever be. I have lead some of you to accept defeat to sin as a way of life. It's not, and that's not what God intends for us. He wants us to become pure, righteous and holy like Christ.  Not in a frustrating law-keeping way, but by His Spirit and His grace. Paul put it best in Philippians 2:12-13:

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

We have work to do. Work that involves fear and trembling, but work that is empowered by our God.

Forgive me for being a close-minded smarty-pants. A new day is dawning and we must be holy if we are to see God.

More to come... God Bless