For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. Ephesians 2:8-9

Purple Grace Geranium

Paula
Salvation—forgiveness of sins and right standing with God—cannot come to us by any other means than through grace by faith. It is a free gift, given to us by a loving God who desires nothing more than for us to live unshackled from the bonds of sin and experience life-changing, intimate fellowship with Him. So He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to Earth to shed his blood at the cross as the atoning sacrifice in our stead. But our human nature and the “voice of reason” often tells us that God’s plan is way too simple; surely we must do something to earn God’s pardon and favor.

Before my friend (I’ll call her Maura) accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior, she was one of the most active volunteers in our church. She set aside two Sundays a month to help out with the toddlers during church service. Whenever our pastor announced a call-out for help at church events, Maura was the first to raise her hand. She spent hours cleaning up the kitchen after church socials. She volunteered every week at our city’s rescue mission, serving hungry, homeless families and individuals nourishing meals and offering conversations of hope and encouragement. Twice a week she answered the phones at a local women’s crisis center. Maura volunteered her time and gifts to others so much, I wondered why she didn’t burn out. Watching her, I questioned my own Christian walk. Maybe I should be just like her, doing more in service to the Lord and to others. But I knew I could never in a million years keep up with her pace.

One Wednesday morning Maura showed up at my Bible study. This was unusual, and I could tell something heavy was going down with her the moment she took a seat among the circle of women gathered there. She seemed worried and on edge—so unlike the “normal” bubbly I-can’t-do-enough-for-Jesus Maura I knew and loved. When the study ended and we prepared to pray for one another, Maura burst into tears.

“What is it?” I asked gently. “Whatever it is, the Lord already knows and is here to help.”
Someone handed Maura a tissue, and for the next twenty minutes she poured out her story.

“I grew up in the church,” she began. “As a child my parents taught me that a life of service was the noblest gift I could give to the world and God. That the more I did for Him, the more they and He would love me. I believed them and have done my best to fulfill that mission. But for years I’ve felt empty inside, and guilty, like I’m still not doing enough. I’m so unhappy. The more I do, the farther away from God and His love and approval I feel.”

“Oh, Maura,” I said. “You’re trying to work for God’s love and acceptance, and that just isn’t God’s way. You don’t have to DO anything to earn His love. You CAN’T do anything to earn His love. He already loves you, unconditionally, just as you are. Paul wrote that ‘all have sinned and have come short of the glory of God’ (Romans 3:23). And in his letter to the Ephesians he said, ‘By grace are ye saved through faith...it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast’ (Ephesians 2: 8-9). Don’t you see? We’re ALL sinners. We can’t work our way to Heaven, nor can we earn God’s love and approval, because He already loves us and approves of us more than language can express. The only thing any of us have to DO to get right with God is accept His love and believe that Jesus paid the penalty for our sins when He died on the cross over 2,000 years ago. It’s that simple.”

“So simple,” a woman added, “that most people miss it.”

The ladies and I prayed for Maura, and that morning she accepted Jesus as her Savior and Lord. Amazingly, though she’d always believed God existed, she’d never had a born-again experience.

“Rest in Him. Rest in His mercy,” I’d urged Maura that day. “We serve a God of grace and peace and love. He delights in and approves of everything you’ve done over the years for Him in His name, but all that work was never a have to. We serve God because we love Him and because He lives in us and through us. Yes, we want to please Him because of our devotion and gratitude toward Him, but even if we didn’t do another thing, He would still love us and accept us just as we are.”

Maura left the Bible study that day free of the heavy burdens she’d carried for so long. And her story serves to remind me, whenever I am tempted to fall into satan’s trap of feeling guilty, inadequate, or unproductive for the Lord, that He is a God of immeasurable love and mercy, and that I am living in the marvelous age of His grace. Old Testament laws and legalism don’t apply anymore. Guilt and the compulsion to strive for God’s approval died at the cross. Jesus shed His atoning blood at Calvary in order to fulfill the law and legalism (Matthew 5:17). That means—glory to God—we no longer must strive to fulfill the law ourselves. Instead, we can confidently rest in His grace.

Rosa 'Grace'

Pam
A little over five years ago, when I first became a Christian, I read a lot of books on discipleship and the disciplines. I was comfortable with that. The study of the practice of spiritual disciplines seemed to reinforce my idea that I needed to be doing something to be found pleasing to God. Even though all the books I read warned that the disciplines should never be confused with law or viewed legalistically, I was too much of a baby Christian to understand what the authors were referring to. Here were lovely, articulate books, wonderfully filled with the lists of what I needed to do to be a "good" Christian. Whew, I didn't have to figure it out for myself.

There were, however, some problems to this approach to my walk with God. First, while similar, not all the books were in agreement on which disciplines were most important. Which should I practice and which could I let go? I always feel horrible when I try to fast. I wondered if God would be okay with it if I let that one slide as long as I doubled up on something else, say Bible reading or meditation. Also, there are only so many hours in a day. How did I know when I had done enough? Would I get some kind of sign? I just knew I wasn’t doing enough. It all started to seem very confusing, and I began to feel like a failure as a Christian. I had this idea that God had great plans for me but I was letting Him down.

I honestly had no concept of grace. When I read the word in my Bible I really didn’t know what it meant. I thought being a Christian was all about being obedient and good works. Why would someone else pay for my sins? They were mine, after all. How could I expect anyone else, even Jesus, to pay for them?  When I look back on it, I wonder how I was ever saved.

Thank you, Jesus, for the Holy Spirit. In His infinite patience, kindness, and love, He taught me, through scripture and different teachers, about grace. Talk about “I was blind and now I see.” When I finally got grace into my little brain, I understood what Jesus meant when he said “the truth shall set you free” (John 8:32). I was set free of “should and should nots.” I was free of guilt for falling short and feeling unworthy, because, guess what, we all fall short and we all are unworthy (Romans 3:23). No one deserves God’s blessing. Grace is unmerited favor. Being justified through faith alone (Galatians 2:16), Christians are entitled to all the blessings of Abraham (Galatians 3:14. Also, see Romans chapter 4). They are heirs to beautiful, perfect, empowering, enriching, abundant, healing blessing that they utterly and completely don’t deserve and in no way earned. It’s not just good news; it’s almost too good to be true news.

He really did pay for my sins—all of them, past, present and future. I have been washed clean of them. I no longer have to be squeamish about approaching God, fearful he might see all my many shortcomings and failures (as if anything is hidden from Him). Through Jesus’ finished work, I am righteous before God (Romans 3:22). I can boldly approach the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16). Feeling as though we are responsible for our own righteousness diminishes what Jesus did for us, but grace magnifies Jesus’ loveliness ten thousand fold.

Now that I am released from my own brand of self-manufactured legalism, the Holy Spirit is free to write His laws on my heart. Self-propelled self-improvement isn’t obfuscating where He wants to lead me. I am free to be of service. I can more fully love the Lord, not holding back for fear of my unworthiness being found out.

I don’t want to be misunderstood here. I am in no way dismissing the importance of spiritual disciplines or discipleship. If you read our first blog you know what Richard Foster’s Celebration of the Disciplines means to me. It’s just that it has been my experience that they need to be built on a strong foundation of the understanding of grace. Because as soon as I got a handle on grace and really saw how much God loved me and all that Jesus did for me, many of the spiritual disciplines I was struggling with became, not just easy, but a delight. I have a hunger for God like never before. Bible reading and study is no longer a task but a quenching of a deep thirst. Prayer is a joy and privilege. Worship is more natural and spontaneous. (I still don’t fast, however, but I know God is good with it). The best part is that God isn’t through with me. I know the Holy Spirit will continue to give me fresh revelation of the goodness, mercy and grace of God.

Grace should be the first thing any new Christian learns because it is not a subject or a concept, it is the gospel, it is the good news.  I think, too often in body of Christ, we think in terms of guidelines and works. To borrow a quote from Joseph Prince, “God isn’t interested in behavior modification. He wants heart transformation.”

But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. Isaiah 64:6

Paula

Henri J. M. Nouwen has written a wonderful little book called The Return of the Prodigal

Henri J.M. Nouwen

Son. In it, Nouwen describes his deeply personal journey toward finding God’s grace and forgiveness. He begins by meditating on Rembrandt’s famous painting, “The Return of the Prodigal Son.”

While studying the painting, Nouwen at first focuses on the image of the young prodigal,who, after squandering his inheritance on worldly pleasures, ended up an utterly broken man—at his lowest point, wallowing in a pigsty. Nouwen ponders several questions. Why, despite the son’s utter sinfulness and folly, had the father so readily received this son back into the bosom of his family? Why the lavish welcome feast and celebration when the boy deserved nothing but contempt and rejection? Most importantly, how could the father, without the merest hesitation, have extended his sinful son such complete and unconditional love and forgiveness?

After further meditation, Nouwen recognized that two other characters in Rembrandt’s painting deserved attention as well: the father and the jealous eldest son. The eldest son had been the dutiful child, always respectful and carrying out his father’s every wish with an obedient heart. So, when his scoundrel brother received their father’s open-armed welcome, replete with tears and preparations for a banquet to celebrate his homecoming, the elder brother seethed with anger and resentment. All his life he’d done everything right, while his brother had done everything wrong. So how could their father be so blind to his eldest son’s goodness and his youngest son’s wickedness? How could their father forgive his corrupt young brother so quickly and completely? How could the father divide his wealth—the brothers’ inheritance—equally between the two?

Nouwen subtly challenges the reader to put him or herself in the place of each of the parable’s characters. He asks us to honestly examine ourselves, then identify which character most describes us. Are we the broken prodigal who longs to put off his filthy garments and bathe in God’s forgiveness? Are we the eldest resentful son who glories in his own self-righteousness? Or do we most represent the father who extends grace, forgiveness, and acceptance to those who least deserve them?

I most identify with the eldest son. If I am honest, it is so easy for me to look at another’s faults and ignore my own. In other words, I am just as filthy, strutting around in my self-righteous garments, as the elder brother. Isaiah tells me that there are “none righteous, not one,” and that compared to God’s holiness and righteousness, “all my righteousness is as filthy rags.”  The prophet declares that compared to Holy God Almighty, all the good works I can ever do in this life will never measure up to God’s goodness and perfect righteousness. Talk about a prodigal! My often self-righteous attitude places me right smack inside that pigsty, floundering around in the muck right alongside that prodigal son.

The good news is that we have a loving Father God Who understands our shortcomings. None of us can lead perfect, sinless lives. That’s why He “gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him [Jesus] should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:16, 17). It’s hard to think of Jesus as a prodigal. But His work on the cross—His becoming sin and paying the price of atonement for our sinfulness—made him the ultimate prodigal Son, a forsake wretch unworthy of the Father’s love and acceptance. But when the work of defeating sin and satan was done, Father God Who is Love, prepared a banquet for Jesus in Heaven and welcomed Him home.

Every day, through prayer and meditation, I understand more and more how to enter into the secret place where God dwells. Focusing on Him, I am beginning to understand my own brokenness and how great is the unconditional love God has for me. Without Jesus Iam nothing; with Jesus I am everything. I am on my way home.

Pam                                        

During one of the snowy days we’ve had recently, I did something I rarely do. I watched TV

Ravi Zacharias

during the day, and, finally, caught up on the many Joyce Meyer programs filling up the DVR. In a particularly thought-provoking show, she interviewed Ravi Zacharias. 

Ravi is a Christian apologist and has written many books that focus predominantly on Christianity's answers to life's great existential questions. He stated in the interview that Christianity differs from all other world religions in that it offers a savior, a propitiation for our sins that is totally undeserved and has nothing to do with our own efforts. In every other world religion, the follower has to rely on his or her personal abilities to follow the dictates of religion. The level of success in following those dictates determines whether the follower is or isn’t righteous—i.e., right with God. Only Christianity offers justification by faith alone. 

If you read the above scripture out of context and without the benefit of the New Testament, you might be inclined to get depressed or discouraged. Most people try hard to be a good person, and to be told all those efforts are but “filthy rags” may seem rather harsh. Yet, when taken in context and against the perspective of the New Testament, Isaiah 64:6 is one of the most freeing biblical verses. We are justified by faith (Rom 3:28). Our relationship with God is not dependent on our own pitiful abilities. Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross has made us right with our heavenly Father. Because of Jesus, God sees believers as righteous (Eph.1:4). His love for us is neither diminished nor elevated by our performance or behavior. His grace, His unmerited favor, has nothing to do with our efforts and everything to do with Jesus. As the hymn says, He paid it all.

To me, this means being a Christian doesn’t have to become yet another self-improvement project. How great is that? I’m right with the Creator of the entire universe just as I am. In a world that relentlessly sends the message that we can never be good enough, rich enough, smart enough, thin enough, successful enough, etc., it is wonderfully freeing to realize that I am perfect and whole in the eyes of God. And His opinion is the only one that counts.