- Amazing grace! how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, Was blind, but now I see. --John Newton, former slave trader
John Newton, who wrote the song was a former slave trader, a vile man, having no love for God nor his fellow man. By his own words, he was a wretch. Yet, amazingly, he responded to the Holy Spirit's wooing him. Not only did he embrace Jesus as his Savior, he embraced a call to pastoral ministry. He considered himself "Evangelical," when that label was wretched among the supposed classy church folk of the day.
What is amazing about the grace that saved Newton is that it not only saved him from an eternal hell ... it also saved him from the wretched lifestyle he was currently living ... it also saved him for Gospel ministry in the here-and-now of his day.
We see this pattern in Paul's epistle to the Romans. In chapters 9-11 Paul discusses his anguish over many of his fellow countrymen (the Jewish people) rejecting God's messiah to them, Jesus. He discusses how God had elected them by his grace as his people, but they at the current time have rejected his messiah they sent to him. By grace God is now bringing those who we're his people, the gentiles, into his remnant/elect status. The vulgar grace we know today is that which we trumpet, quite arrogantly, that we are now going to heaven and can simply hang out in our holy ghettos, isolated from the world, until we make heaven.
However, a particular point needs to be emphasized. Paul, speaking of the Jewish people rejecting Jesus and the Gentiles accepting Jesus, carefully warns:
- They (those Jewish people rejecting Jesus) were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did no spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you (those gentiles accepting Jesus), provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. (Romans 11:20-23, ESV)
God grace saves, but it is our perseverance that propels us to "stand fast through faith" and to "continue in his kindness." God's grace is an unmerited gift of extravagant proportions ... but we must unwrap his gift.
Lastly, following Paul's discussion in Romans 9-11 on God's saving grace, he writes in:
- I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. (12:1, ESV)
Having been saved by his grace we are to "present (our) bodies as a living sacrifice ... which is (our) ... worship." Grace was never intended to save us from the world ... just so we can hide out in our churchy-ghettos and watch the world go to hell in a hand basket. Rather Grace that saves us was intended to fit us for Holy Spirit ministry in the church to fellow believers (vs. 3-8), live holy out in the world (vs. 9-21), as well as serve the world (13:1-14).
Any type of grace that doesn't transform and fuel one's passion for God and his world is far from amazing ... it is amusing and rather pathetic.
4 comments:
Well put...
When did we ever get the idea that grace was to take us to heaven when we die. I guess we in popular Evangelical circles assume "eternal life" = heaven. The "just hang on until heaven" mentality is nowhere found in the New Testament or in the Early Church. And certainly not in the preaching of Wesley.
"The goal of religion," writes Wesley, "is to renew our hearts in the image of God, to repair that total loss of righteousness and true holiness which we sustained by the sin of our first parent."
http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umhistory/wesley/sermons/44/
Now that is the amazing grace about which I was writing. Yet, the false grace which both you and I are combatting is found all over the place in our churches.
My biggest problem being in the "traditional" church is combatting the very idea that God wants us to get saved ... simply to hold out and make heaven ... all others can rot in hell. We certainly can't have contact with people in sin, lest we be tainted and deformed by that sin. When it comes to giving a check, people are usually on board. When, it comes to actually having personal contact/involvement then ... well ... preacher ... that's what we pay you to do.
Yeah, I have an uphill battle. However, I have some really awesome people that don't believe that, as well.
Yeah, I can remember saying on many occasions concerning certain moral issues with the UM that Wesley is certainly rolling over in his grave. Many of our folks have that very same attitude. However, I think this attitude of simply-waiting-it-out-until-we-make-heaven tops the list of ants-in-the-grave-pants-grave-rolling.
What I see so amazing about God grace is he has saved us. We don't "get saved" as much as God saves us.
He chose us.
He pursued us.
He convicted us.
He died, was buried, and rose for us. Not that we earned it or deserved it, but out of his great love he has saved us.
If I choose to "get saved" then it is easier to give God the terms and our definition of salvation. In popular evangelicalism, particularly in the South, that means...I want to go to heaven.
God's salvation is bigger and greater than going to heaven when I die.
God's salvation is making us fully human and fully alive. It is his new creation project, making us a new creation and ultimately restoring all creation.
This beings now...yet too many evangelicals are content to hold on until heaven.
And so the work of pastoral ministry continues...
Derek
I so much appreciate your heart! What I hear about contemporary Evangelicalism is that Arminian thought has poisoned it ... which leads to much of what you wrote about. Yet, if you read Arminius and Wesley, you can hardly arrive at a sympathetic view from them of what we see in some of pop-Christianity.
The problem I see is from secular humanism pouring into the church. With such an over-emphasis on human rights and the pursuit of happiness (which in today's terms is far from what Papa Jefferson had in mind), a vomit-inducing sense of entitlement is bred. (ie. God is now on my time-frame)
Grace is certianly about offering up to God honor and glory about what he has done for us/me/myself/I. However, Grace also goes deeper ... I think ... to where I am able to worship God for who he is ... simply because he is. Now we're back at the burning bush.
For example it takes great faith to believe that God is good and has great things for me and will deliver my pink cadillac on the day I expect it. Yet, it takes greater and deeper faith to believe God is good when I find out that the pink cadillac was blown up on the Interstate on the way to my house.
Now I know that to speak of God is mostly to speak of God in relationship with us. Afterall God is actually a community of persons in relationship and desiring us equip us for participation in that Holy Triune Community. Yet, our problem is too much of us and not enough of the majesty of God.
One more thought, when I read Romans I read of 3 stages/levels/places/whatever-word-works-for-you-here. There is certainly the grace that saves us from death/hell/God's wrath. Yet the same grace is meant to transform us into the righteousness of God (level 2/stage2/place 2). This is what I believe you have been refering to. Lastly, the same grace is also meant to equip us for risky Holy-Spirit minsitry to God's people & God's world. This is the place I'm hoping to take my churches. I know you have that heart for Cornerstone too. We'll certainly need grace for our ministries. It's a great thing that as, John says, "From him we have all received grace upon grace."
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