Who’s Afraid of Grace?

 Why would anyone fear grace? It is comforting to know salvation comes by grace alone through faith alone. Salvation is a free gift (Romans 3:23–24), to humanity (Titus 2:11), from God (John 3:16), through Christ (Romans 5:1–2, 6:4), received by faith (Ephesians 2:8–9), evidenced by repentance (11 Corinthians 7:10) and obedience (Ezekiel 36:25–27). In fact, the Gospel message of salvation by grace alone is the absolute pivot point of the Christian faith - if we get this wrong, everything collapses. But it is a catastrophic mistake to treat grace merely as the border crossing into the Christian life, assuming once inside, it is up to personal willpower to live it out. In the words of Martin Lloyd-Jones: “It is grace at the beginning, and grace at the end. So that when you and I come to lie upon our death beds, the one thing that should comfort and help and strengthen us there is the thing that helped us in the beginning. Not what we have been, not what we have done, but the Grace of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. The Christian life starts with grace, it must continue with grace, it ends with grace. Grace wondrous grace. By the grace of God, I am what I am. Yet not I, but the Grace of God which was with me.” The same grace that shatters self-righteousness to save is the same grace that empowers to obey. The moment we try to separate the grace that saves from the grace that transforms, we lose them both. To realize we are just as dependent on sheer, unmerited grace for our daily obedience as we were for our salvation can be deeply destabilizing to our pride - and frankly, terrifying to our desire for control. Grace provides all and therefore demands all. It forces an absolute surrender for salvation and for life. Grace is the only thing that actually empowers us to live the life we have been called to live. God does not just punch our ticket to heaven and then leave us to clean ourselves up. We need God’s grace not only for salvation, but also for our sanctification; for as Martin Luther famously stated, "A Christian is righteous and a sinner at the same time, holy and profane, an enemy of God and a child of God.” On this side of heaven, through salvation, we are in Christ: righteous (11 Corinthians 5:21), spotless and blameless (1 Peter 3:14), holy (Colossians 1:22; 3:12), and sanctified (1 Corinthians 1:30). At the same time, we remain in our sinful nature (body or flesh). Galatians 5:16-17 “So I say, walk by the Spirit (who we are in Christ), and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh (who we are in our body or human nature). For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want” (cf. Romans 7:15,19; 8:5-8; 8:12-13). This is exactly what we find in Hebrews 11, in the lives of the Faith Hall of Famers! They did some amazing things. They conquered giants, built arks, ruled as kings, and rescued spies; the accomplishments could go on. But they also had sinful moments as well. In those moments we see drunkards and liars, murderers and adulterers. Faith existed with all the Old Testament saints; but so, did sin. When we see these great examples, we see people like “us.” We see God working out their salvation, past their sins and flaws; calling them to follow, saving them, entrusting them to do His will, despite themselves. We see them righteous and yet sinners at the same time. They were righteous, but they were righteous only because God declared it so, not because of anything they did; just like us.

The flesh (human nature or body) is not just physical or lustful desires; it is also our default operating system. It is our fallen nature trying to generate its own worth, security, and happiness apart from God. This was the sin of Adam, and what it means to be born “in the likeness of Adam” (Genesis 5:3). Like an incurable disease that passes from generation to generation, sin entered and entrenched itself in Adam through the gateway of his “flesh” (body, nature) and has reigned in Adam and all his descendants to this very day (Romans 5:12, Psalm 51:5). Thus, we find within our fallen human nature (body, flesh) a complex web of thoughts, desires, values, and actions that are in opposition to God’s intended pattern for us. Our fallen human nature says, “I need this relationship, this object, this substance, this success, or the approval to be somebody, or to have peace, and if I do not get it, I have the right to rage." Against this stands the Spirit of Christ who whispers something profoundly different into our soul: "You are complete, you are loved, and you are accepted in Christ. So, freely and joyfully put the deeds of the flesh to death” (Romans 8:13).

The tragedy - and the comfort - of the Christian life is these two forces are locked in a constant conflict. Before coming to Christ for salvation, we had a single engine driving our life: “The desires of the flesh” (fallen human nature - the body or flesh). The sinful human nature is like a petri dish, it is a warm, moist breeding ground hospitable to all kinds of fleshly desires. This is the essence of the flesh which subjugates the whole person. J.I. Packer explains the fallen human nature or flesh and the sin it nurtures when he says the essence of sin is: “Playing God; and, as a means to this, refusing to allow the Creator to be God as far as you are concerned. Living, not for him, but for yourself; loving and serving and pleasing yourself without reference to the Creator; trying to be as far as possible independent of Him, taking yourself out of His hands, holding Him at arm’s length, keeping the reins of life in your own hands; acting as if you and your pleasure, were the end to which all things else, God included, must be made to function as a means - that is the attitude in which sin essentially entails. Sin is exalting oneself against the Creator, withholding the homage due to Him, and putting yourself in His place as the ultimate standard of reference in all life’s decisions.” This perfectly defines what Abam did in the Graden. Before salvation we might have been moral or immoral, religious or rebellious, but we were in charge. There was no conflict because there was only our fallen human nature. In this conflict Jesus does not just want to advise us; He claims the throne. Suddenly, a battle begins between the Spirit – who we are in Christ – and who we are in the flesh - human nature. Many Christians are deeply alarmed by this. They think, “If I were truly saved, I would not feel this tension, this darkness, this selfishness, this pull toward anger or lust or pride.” The very fact we feel the tension - the agonizing drag of the flesh against the promptings of the Spirit - is proof we are alive in Christ. Corpses do not fight currents. Only a swimmer fighting the undertow knows the water is moving. In this conflict between the flesh and the Spirit the Bible never teaches we are saved by grace only to be left to deal with the flesh and live the Christian life through personal willpower (Galatians 3:2-3: “Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?”).

Grace is not merely a past-tense pardon from eternal judgment or a future ticket to heaven. It is the explosive, present-tense power of God that breaks into our lives and gives a new standing before God (1 Corinthians 5:21), which fundamentally changes us from the inside out (Ezekiel 36:25-27). This gives a new supernatural, supercharged capacity for living the Christian life (1 Corinthians 15:10: “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them - yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me” (cf. 11 Corinthians 9:8 &12:9), the engine that empowers and drives every righteous impulse to deal with disruptive behavioral patterns (Titus 2:11-12), and to repent when we fail to do so (Romans 2:4). It is the oxygen we breathe every hour we stay alive. Every single day, every word we say, every good thing we do, every victory we experience, every truth we believe, every move we make, everything we have, every bit of rest, every effort is by God’s grace. The moment we move beyond God’s grace and think our daily bread, our health, or our day-to-day strength are earned by our own effort, we have reduced the infinite, relentless, scandalous grace of God to something that can be earned and deserved. It is not an add-on or makeover that enhances our lives. It causes a radical transformation from being sin-enslaved to being righteously liberated. So, we need grace to enable us – as regenerated, saved, justified, sanctified, holy, and beloved children of God – “to work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12), to beat our bodes (1 Corinthians 9:27), run the race and fight the good fight (1 Timothy 4:7). This is the genius and power of grace by which we are saved and by which we live out all we are in Christ in our daily lives.

Having received the righteousness of Christ by grace and faith alone, through the means of grace – prayer, Bible study, worship, the sacraments, confession and repentance – enabled by the Holy Spirit we become more and more of who and what we already are in Christ: spotless, blameless, righteous, and holy. Hebrews 10:10 and14: give insight into this process: “And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all…For by one sacrifice he has made holy forever those who are being made holy." Through the doctrine of imputation, Jesus’ absolute perfect holiness, righteousness, and obedience are reckoned, counted, computed, charged, applied to us, as if they are ours. Steve Brown illustrates this with a story about a banquet he once attended where no one told him ties were required. He said, “A friend of mine saw me outside the banquet hall and said, ‘Steve, you don’t have a tie. I have an extra one in my room. I’ll be right back.’ Two minutes later he handed me a tie. I put it on and was acceptable. The interesting thing about the tie my friend gave me is that it was his best tie. All evening people said to me, ‘Nice tie!’ Not only was I dressed properly with a tie, but I was also dressed extravagantly with the best tie in the house. That’s what God has done to make us ‘acceptable.’ He’s given us the best clothes in the house, the righteousness of Christ.” Through imputation a great exchange takes place: Jesus takes our sin and wrath, and we take His righteousness, holiness, and obedience. This means in Christ we are already obedient, righteous, and redeemed (1 Corinthians 1:30: “It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God - that is, our righteousness, holiness (sanctification - obedience) and redemption”). God so unites us to Christ that in His eyes we are already raised with Him and seated “in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6). We stand before God as if we are Christ, because Christ stands before God as if He were us (Colossians 3:3). Our obedience cannot make us more righteous, and our disobedience cannot make us less righteous; because Christ is our righteousness. 11 Corinthians 5:21: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Philippians 3:9: “and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ - the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.” Isaiah 61:10: “I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” 

Think of it this way: If I said the reason for being late to an appointment with you was, “I had a flat tire on the interstate. When I got out to replace the tire I was hit, head on by a Mack Truck. It hurt, but I got up, replaced the tire, got back in the car, and here I am.” If I told this story to you, you would know I am either lying or deceived. You know this because when someone is hit head on by a Mack Truck, they look different than they did before this happened. When God in the flesh - Jesus, the Savior, and Sovereign King - reaches down into our heart and saves us from the clutches of sin and self. Grace does not just change our standing before God; it rewrites our inner software. It breaks the power of sin (Romans 6:4, 6). As a result, we are going to look different. We are not going to be the same (11 Corinthians 5:17). Everything changes when we submit to and follow this King – Jesus Christ. When we grasp what Jesus has done for us, it creates a radical, practical energy inside us. We do not work hard to earn God’s favor; we work hard because His grace has fundamentally changed the “want-to” of our heart (new nature: Ezekiel 36:26; Ephesians 4:22-24; Romans 7:22). Religion says, if we obey, God will love us. The Gospel says, because God loves us and has given us a new heart/nature, we can and want to obey. Religion claims sanctification justifies us. The Gospel claims justification enables and produces sanctification. Religion says we obey God to get things from Him. The Gospel says we obey God to get God – to delight in and resemble Him. The Gospel says "done" - pointing to Jesus' finished work on the cross (John 19:30). Religion says "do"- relying on human performance, rules, and moral effort to earn favor. Without the finished work of Christ, any system of belief becomes just another set of rules or rituals. The grace without the finished work of Christ is religion. Religion comes without Christ and Christ comes without religion. In the words of one pastor, “Christ plus nothing equals everything.”

For me, the late Brennan Manning (1934-2013) provides a wonderful example of the outrageousness of God’s scandalous grace. A lifelong alcoholic who spent his entire life ferociously battling addiction, he was uncomfortably transparent about his weaknesses and failures which made him a prime candidate to teach us something of God’s grace. Every addict, every person who has crashed and burned and, as a result, come to terms with their own helplessness – can teach us about God’s grace. Severely flawed and broken, Brennan was a man committed to remind us of the truth we can never out-sin the coverage of God’s grace and forgiveness. He desperately wanted stumbling, bumbling, and fumbling Christians (like himself) to recover a sense of God’s “furious love” for them. We should be greatly encouraged by the way he described what it means to live under grace: “To live by grace means to acknowledge my whole life story, the light side and the dark. In admitting my shadow side, I learn who I am and what God’s grace means. As Thomas Merton put it, ‘A saint is not someone who is good, but who experiences the goodness of God.’ The gospel of grace nullifies our adulation of televangelists, charismatic superstars, and local church heroes. It obliterates the two-class citizenship theory operative in many American churches. For grace proclaims the awesome truth that all is a gift. All that is good is ours, not by right but by the sheer bounty of a gracious God. While there is much, we may have earned - our degree and our salary, our home and garden, a Miller Lite, and a good night’s sleep; all this is possible only because we have been given so much: life itself, eyes to see and hands to touch, a mind to shape ideas, and a heart to beat with love. We have been given God in our souls and Christ in our flesh. We have the power to believe where others deny, to hope where others despair, to love where others hurt. This and so much more is sheer gift; it is not reward for our faithfulness, our generous disposition, or our heroic life of prayer. Even our fidelity is a gift, ‘If we but turn to God,’ said St. Augustine, ‘that itself is a gift of God.’ My deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ and I have done nothing to earn it or deserve it’…. My life is a witness to vulgar grace - a grace that amazes as it offends. A grace that pays the eager beaver who works all day long the same wage as the grinning drunk who shows up at ten till five. A grace that hikes up the robe and runs breakneck toward the prodigal reeking of sin and wraps him up and decides to throw a party, no ifs, ands, or buts. A grace that raises bloodshot eyes to a dying thief’s request – ‘Please, remember me’ - and assures him, ‘You bet!’…This vulgar grace is indiscriminate compassion. It’s not cheap. It’s free, and as such will always be a banana peel for the orthodox foot and a fairy tale for the grown-up sensibility. Grace is sufficient even though we huff and puff with all our might to try and find something or someone it cannot cover. Grace is enough.”

Manning’s message - the radicality of grace - is so shocking and scary, unnatural and undomesticated, it makes us afraid and at best uneasy. Grace is scary because it tells us we cannot do anything to earn or deserve it! Grace is an extravagant, ridiculous, over-the-top gift God continually lavishes upon us. We are afraid if we dip our toes in God’s scandalous and amazing grace, we will suddenly become irreparably sinful. The thought we can be so freely forgiven and accepted nothing could ever change God’s love for us feels scary and dangerous. Grace is not afraid of our sin. Grace is not sloppy, but it is not afraid of our sloppiness – our sin, our weakness, our goofiness, our brokenness, our struggles. It is not irresponsible; it is not careless. While we may struggle with condemnation, fear, and shame regarding our sins and struggles; we can rest assure, grace is not struggling with these things. In fact, grace is the opposite of fear and shame and condemnation. Grace gives us the freedom, motive, and power to lay down the weight of condemnation that comes with effort and willpower alone. Grace empowers us to put aside any idea we cannot measure up; that we are not worthy (11 Corinthians 5:17, 21). Grace gives the desire and the power to put aside sin, not that we will never sin again, but we put aside the idea God is looking to immediately banish us the moment we sin or mess up. We do not know how to receive unconditional grace - grace with no expiration date, no fine print, no penalties, just unconditional acceptance and love. We need to discover God’s grace is the only thing that can set us free, give us hope, and heal our broken lives.

When Paul finishes describing our agonizing, losing battle with indwelling sin in Romans 7, he does not conclude with a warning or a checklist. He lands on the bedrock of Romans 8:1: “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Grace is not a prize for the disciplined; it is a rescue for the broken. It is a gift received, not achieved. We see this clearly from the very beginning. In Genesis, when Adam and Eve sinned, they hide in fear from God’s judgment and stitch together fig leaves to cover their shame. God did not wait for them to clean themselves up or come to Him apologizing. He comes walking into the garden, calling out, “Where are you?” God sought them because they were deceived by the Devil and committed to gratifying their own desires and thoughts, there was simply no way they could seek God. There was no hope for them unless God Himself sought them and showed grace and mercy where His own justice demanded wrath. Paul echoes this centuries later when he said, Christ did not die for us once we got our act together; He died for us while we were still breaking His heart (Romans 5:8: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”). God’s grace always seeks and finds us. We do not find God’s grace; it hunts us down and always finds us. In the words of the last verse of the Bible – Revelation 22:21: “May the unyielding, boundless (unlimited, infinite, ceaseless, too much, over the top, never ending, vast) grace of our Lord Jesus Christ rest upon every single one of you...now, and for all eternity. Amen."

 -Tom Anderson