’Tis Grace: A Story of God’s Redemption

This man had decided to share his past with his lady friend. When he did, she put her arms around him and said something like this: But if you do give in to temptation at any time, you may well be too ashamed to come back to me, or think that I would not accept you back. However, your home is here in my arms and I want you to know that I am now offering you forgiveness for anything you might do in the future. If anything could keep a man straight, that would.

The grace of God works like that. The more we grow in our awareness of it, the more we will love him in return and desire to please him, and the more contrite we will be when we let him and ourselves down. It is the undeserved nature of his love, in particular, that prompts us to love him in return, share that love with others, and gives encouragement and strength in word and work. How this grace works in providing us with the incentive to love and worship God is beautifully expressed by theologian James Packer, in his excellent and popular book Knowing God: What matters supremely is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it—the fact that He knows me.

I am graven on the palms of His hands, I am never out of His mind. All my knowledge of Him depends on His sustained initiative in knowing me. I know Him because He first knew me, and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend, one who loves me; and there is no moment when His eye is off me or His attention distracted from me, and no moment, therefore, when His care falters.

There is, certainly, a great cause for humility in the thought that He sees all the twisted things about me that my fellow humans do not see and am I glad!

‘tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home

There is, however, equally great incentive to worship and love God in the thought that, for some unfathomable reason, He wants me as His friend, and desires to be my Friend, and has given His Son to die for me in order to realise this purpose. Christianity is meant to be a religion of love relationships. Terry Virgo puts it like this:. That is one of the greatest truths in the whole Bible. God is delighted with you. So I searched for it in a thesaurus. This is what I found: When God looks at you he purrs with delight!

Have you ever fallen in love? Or have you ever seen parents with their first baby? Did you see that? That was his first smile. Grace, gratitude and joy. The New Testament has a good deal to say about thanksgiving and joy.

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Joy is sometimes specifically linked to the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives Acts I have a strong impression that it is those Christians who best understand the grace of God, and all that they have been freely given in Christ, who are the most grateful and the most joyful. Such people are also the most generous, as we shall see later.

Grace evokes gratitude like the voice and echo. Gratitude follows grace as thunder follows lightning. It is easy to acknowledge , but almost impossible to realise for long, that we are mirrors whose brightness, if we are bright, is wholly derived from the sun that shines upon us. Surely we must have a little—however little—native luminosity?

Grace substitutes a full, childlike and delighted acceptance of our Need, a joy in total dependence. Grace is the celebration of life, relentlessly hounding all the non-celebrants in the world. It is a floating, cosmic bash shouting its way through the streets of the universe, flinging the sweetness of its cessations to every window, pounding at every door in a hilarity beyond all liking and happening, until the prodigals come out at last and dance, and the elder brothers finally take their fingers out of their ears.

They are closely related. Without humility it is unlikely that we are going to exemplify many other truly Christian virtues. Humility is not a matter of denying what we are or what we may have achieved in life. It comes as a result of a clear understanding of all we owe to the grace of God. Some men excel in one virtue more than another. It rested on a solid foundation—the initial Christian grace of humility, and of this grace he was a most striking example.

He never for a moment forgot that by the grace of God he was what he was. I realize that all of my Christian life from beginning to end is His gift of grace. That has become a bigger and bigger thought for me. If God gives achievement and success, those are His gifts and we should be thankful. But, if we are going to talk about growing in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ that all of us are called to pursue, the thing to grasp is that growing in grace, growing in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, is growing downward into humility in which one claims less and less for oneself.

Understanding grace keeps us humble. It works the other way also. The misuse of grace. There are two ways in which the grace of God can be misused. If not fully understood it can lead to legalism. This is an overemphasis on man-made rules, rather than on those qualities so often emphasised in the New Testament, which lead to loving relationships.

It was one of the problems the Galatian Christians were facing. Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! The Christians in Colossae had a somewhat similar problem. These rules, which have to do with things that are destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. Jesus also had something to say about this Matthew We should, however, adjust our behaviour in certain circumstances, so that we do not unnecessarily offend those who are stuck on some rules which we believe are not essential to our faith.

Paul has good advice in such circumstances in Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8. Legalistic churches tend to be those where the pastor, the elders, or maybe the congregation as a whole decide what behaviours are acceptable and what are not, rather than letting the New Testament be the guide. Such churches tend to make people judgemental rather than loving. They look too much to the pastor or other Christians for guidance on how to live, rather than building relationships with the Lord himself.

Legalism feeds either our pride or despair. Like the Pharisee in the story Jesus told about the Pharisee and the tax collector Luke Legalism takes away love as a motivation. Paul reserved some of his strongest language for those who were legalistic. Just so the fruits do not make the tree, but the tree bears the fruit.

The law by itself cannot change the heart and it is the heart that is our problem. The Hebrew word anash is a medical term. We need the open heart surgery that grace provides. The law can make bad people behave better see 1 Timothy 1: And it denies God the glory that is rightfully his in forgiving and transforming us. It also robs God of that further glory which comes from enjoying him.

As John Piper says, we glorify God by enjoying him forever. The legalistic life of works is turned in upon itself in self-examination, self-doubt, self-castigation, self-satisfaction. But the life of faith, by which we depend on the grace of God and submit to the Lordship of Christ alone gives us a new focus: We are turned outward, upward, Godward.

Whereas legalistic people tend to be less open and honest about their failings, a true understanding of grace frees us to be more open with God and with others. Any goodness we might have is solely the result of grace. It may not always be easy to keep the balance between our experience of grace and our desire to please God out of gratitude by keeping his commands, without falling into the trap of legalism. It is a hard lesson to live above the law, and yet walk according to the law.

But this is the lesson a Christian has to learn, to walk in the law in respect of duty, but to live above the law in respect of comfort, neither expecting favour from the law in respect of his obedience nor fearing harsh treatment from the law in respect of his failing.

A story that vividly underlines the difference between legalism and grace is told by James B. He was visiting a friend, Roland Walls, in the Community of the Transfiguration, in Roslin village, a few miles out of Edinburgh, and noticed a piece of sculpture in the garden. His friend told him the following story about it:. A young sculptor, brought up among the Exclusive Brethren, one day confessed to the fellowship that he was gay.

As a result, he was asked to leave the Assembly. In his distress, he found his way to the Roslin Community, where Roland found him on his knees in prayer in the chapel. The young man poured out his story and unburdened his heart. At the end of their conversation, Roland simply put his arms around him and gave him a hug!

That hug symbolised everything for the man. He knew he was loved, accepted, forgiven. He went back, found a block of sandstone and carved out a figure of the two Adams. They are kneeling, embracing one another. Christ lays his head on the right shoulder of fallen Adam, and fallen Adam lays his head on the right shoulder of Christ, the second Adam.

The only way in which one can distinguish between the two Adams is by the nail prints in the hands of Christ. That sculptor saw himself in fallen Adam, and in that symbolic hug he saw himself accepted in Christ, the second Adam. If we could catch just a brief glimpse of the awesome holiness of God, we would be forever cured of any idea that we could possibly win his acceptance by obedience to his laws.

Nothing less than the blood of Christ, offered to us by grace, can cover the guilt and shame of sin. Those who are stuck in their legalistic and superior attitudes do not know how to react when confronted with grace. Walter Wink tells of a black South African woman who was walking on the street with her children when a white man spat in her face.

But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: The antidote to both these extremes is greater understanding of grace, and particularly of the cost of that grace. As Jerry Bridges says in Transforming Grace:.

Although grace is part of the essential nature of God, the extending of His grace to us cost Him the most expensive price ever paid, the death of His own dear Son. So grace is never cheap. It is absolutely free to us, but infinitely expensive to God. If I have any appreciation at all of what the cross involved for God, then I would shun any thought whatever of descending into moral licence. And if I have any understanding of the undeserved nature of that grace, which now comes to me at such cost, I would never be a candidate for licence. However, as we have seen, our reasons for seeking to live a life pleasing to our heavenly Father are important.

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Tom Wright, in his extremely thoughtful book Evil and the Justice of God , [9] puts a very good perspective on this:. Among the clearest statements of this theme is Colossians 3: Christian freedom under grace is indeed a reality. Swindoll sums up the true nature of this freedom:.

Free from guilt and shame. And free to what? Free to forgive others as well as myself. Free to allow others to be who they are—different from me! Free to live beyond the limitations of human effort. Free to serve and glorify Christ. Another strong emphasis in the New Testament concerning the blessings we receive from grace is the ability to cope with the pressures and trials that life so often brings our way.

Whether it be the supplying of our daily needs or the giving of sufficient strength in times of unusual pressure, we are constantly told that the grace of God is adequate for the situation. In his letter to the Philippians, he expresses his appreciation for the concern they have shown for him in his imprisonment. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

I can do all this through him who gives me strength. The emphasis is not so much on Christ giving strength to achieve anything, but Christ enabling us to cope in any situation. Whether dealing with the stresses of ordinary daily living or enduring extraordinary pressures, he knew the secret of contentment.

Made blind accidentally in infancy, she was only eight years old when she wrote:. Second Corinthians is a great letter on the subject of facing suffering and trials. Whether this was some chronic infirmity or not, we cannot be sure. It may have been the infirmity he mentions in his letter to the Galatians where he refers to an illness that apparently severely affected his eyes 4: Three times he prayed for deliverance.

Here we see a most important principle. Our weaknesses and difficulties can give us a positive advantage if, through them, we learn to depend on the grace of God. Indeed, the abject weakness of the human instrument serves to magnify and throw into relief the perfection of the divine power in a way that any suggestion of human adequacy could never do. And this is not an easy lesson to learn. So often we fail to experience the contentment with all the experiences of life that Paul had found, no doubt either because of our unwillingness to face up to our own weaknesses, or because of our lack of trust in the goodness of God and the availability and sufficiency of his grace.

It is trust and submission and the awareness that whatever God allows in our lives, he is fulfilling his loving purpose of transforming our characters and building his kingdom, that enable us to experience the peace and contentment of which the New Testament speaks see Romans 8: God has thoughts of love in all He does to his people. The ground of his dealings with us is love though the occasion may be sin , the manner of his dealings is love, and the purpose of His dealings is love.

He has regard, in all, to our good here, to make us partakers of his holiness, and to our glory hereafter, to make us partakers of His glory. His methods have not changed. This understanding of the need to face our own weaknesses and realise that the permanent victories in life come only from grace is a lesson that has been well learned by many in Alcoholics Anonymous and the Recovery Movement. He wrote to his fellow strugglers:.

How privileged we are to understand so well the divine paradox that strength rises from weakness, that humiliation goes before resurrection: The availability of this grace to all believers is wonderfully expressed by the writer of Hebrews. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. In my book Why Did Jesus Die? The truth is, He not only can be touched [with our weaknesses], but cannot but be touched.

The assertion is not, It is possible that He may sympathise; but, it is impossible that He should not. Notice that the throne of God, which was once the throne of wrath and judgement Revelation 6: Like a loving father who enjoys the presence of his children, God longs for our company. Paul often seems to use these two words interchangeably. Dagg, in Manual of Theology , says they are usually distinguished as follows: Irmhild is the editor of Entscheidung , their German edition. In November she had a fall which injured her spine and left her unable to use her legs and arms.

She describes her physical situation as follows:. I was always a swift person—quickly moving, thinking, acting, helping. Now others have become my hands and feet. For every small task, I have to ask for help: The Lord gives many opportunities to share her faith and give encouragement to others. She tells how much the prayers of others have meant to her and shares the following secret of her wonderfully positive spirit:. Only God knows how He talks to any one of us. That has to be sufficient for me. In the Bible there are three words that have come to mean a lot to me: Grace is my keyword.

Even though I cannot use my fingers and hands, God uses me. That is my great joy! Annie Johnson Flint, author of some of our well-known hymns, was another who learned to draw on this supply of grace. As a young adult she suffered from rheumatoid arthritis that left her progressively crippled and eventually unable to rise from her bed.

To alleviate pain and discomfort, she rested and slept on soft pillows. Her body developed serious bedsores and finally she suffered the ravages of cancer. Yet her attitude through all the struggles with pain and confinement was that of submission, faith and trust in God to give her the grace and strength she needed. With pen pushed through gnarled fingers and held by swollen joints, she continued to write her verses, which provided solace and comfort for herself, her friends, and the world.

The following are two of her verses:. So he [God] supplies perfectly measured grace to meet the needs of the godly. For daily needs there is daily grace; for sudden needs, sudden grace; for overwhelming need, overwhelming grace. And there is more to come in the future. Fundamental to New Testament Christianity is this ambiguity of the church. In the meantime, there is nothing better we can do to please him than to trust him fully to supply whatever we need for all that he expects of us.

And we must never forget the undeserving nature of this grace. The Jewish elders pleaded earnestly with Jesus: Their emphasis is on deserving. However, the centurion himself had a different attitude: Even so, his request was granted. It could even be said that it is given to us for the very purpose of benefiting others. In his excellent and challenging book Free of Charge: The same double blessing is given to us. If we just enjoy good things without passing them on, if we are blessed without being a blessing, then we fail in our purpose as channels.

A debtor is someone who has received something, by whatever means, that really belongs to someone else. What Paul had been given by God he regarded as belonging to all, and therefore he was obliged to pass it on. If you speak, you should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If you serve, you should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.

To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Note the following significant points about this passage. A steward is entrusted with something that does not belong to him and it is his responsibility to faithfully use it for the benefit of others. Third, it is only God who can enable us to use whatever gifts we have been entrusted with in the manner that he desires. Fourth, the ultimate purpose for doing so is not that we should be honoured, but that God should receive glory and praise.

Paul has several passages in his letters where he lists various gifts that God gives to believers e. These are no doubt only sample lists of all the diverse gifts we may receive. They may be natural abilities, inherent in our DNA, or they may be gifts developed within us by the more direct operation of the Spirit of God 1 Corinthians In fact, for Paul, the giving of grace and the giving of gifts are the same thing Romans Jerry Bridges goes as far as to say:.

To the extent you are clinging to any vestiges of self-righteousness or are putting any confidence in your own spiritual attainments, to that degree you are not living by the grace of God in your life. You will note the strong emphasis in these passages on using these gifts for the benefit of others and for building up the family of God. There is, indeed, just one gift amongst all those that Paul mentions which benefits only the person who uses the gift—the gift of speaking in tongues.

This is why Paul regards it as a lesser gift 1 Corinthians He urges the user of the gift to pray for the added gift of interpretation, so that it may benefit others vv. There is a great deal in the New Testament letters linking grace with our ministry to others, whatever form that ministry might take. Paul, who blazed a trail for Christ across a major part of the Roman empire and who could be said to be the most effective evangelist and church planter of all time, was very conscious of the fact that he owed his gifts and effectiveness solely to the grace of God.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. You will note in this last passage that Paul attributes both what he was and what he was able to achieve to the grace of God. Warren Myers, who had a very fruitful ministry with the Navigators in South East Asia, wrote about this last passage early in his life:. We realise that this is the secret of a fulfilled and successful time, a fulfilled and successful family, and a fulfilled and successful ministry.

For having said that something was applicable to himself, he corrects that and transfers it entirely to God; entirely, I insist, and not just a part of it; for he affirms that whatever he may have seemed to do was in fact totally the work of grace. This is indeed a remarkable verse, not only for bringing down human pride to the dust, but also for making clear to us the way that the grace of God works in us. For, as though he were wrong in making himself the source of anything good, Paul corrects what he had said, and declares that the grace of God is the efficient cause of everything.

We should not imagine that Paul is merely simulating humility here. He is speaking as he does from his heart, and because he knows that it is the truth. We should therefore learn that the only good we do is what He does in us; that it is not that we do nothing ourselves, but that we act only when we have been acted upon, in other words under the direction and influence of the Holy Spirit.

God calls into his service those who are neither worthy nor adequate and he makes them so. Paul considers the matter of giving to be such an important subject that in his second letter to the Corinthian church he gives two chapters to it—chapters 8 and 9. It is significant that he mentions grace seven times in these chapters 8: First, he describes the generosity of the Christians in Macedonia. As in the case of the grace of God supplying strength to face trials, grace here encompasses the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in moulding our characters and prompting our motivations.

The sacred writers constantly recognise the fact that the freest and most spontaneous acts of men, their inward states and the outward manifestations of those states, when good, are due to the secret influence of the Spirit of God, which eludes our consciousness. And they considered it a privilege to do so. Paul then points to the example of Jesus: Jesus demonstrated his undeserved love for us by choosing a life of poverty.

As far as we know, all he owned when he died was the clothes he wore. James Dunn, in Christology in the Making , suggests that the comparison is between the richness of his communion with God, expressed in his abba prayer in the garden, and the poverty of his desolation on the cross. I expect Paul intends it to encompass all meanings. God provides for our need in order that we may be generous. And if generous, God can enable us to be more generous.

And if we do not share generously, there is little point in God giving generously! And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

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If God should bless us in the matter of material possessions, we must always recognise that this is due to his grace and for a purpose. Miroslav Volf emphasises how true fulfilment in life can only come as we learn this secret of drawing on the resources that the grace of God provides, and sharing them with others:. The self will lose itself if it simply lives in and for itself. It will seek only its own benefits, and the more it seeks its own benefits, the less satisfied it will become. The more you fill the self, the more it echoes with the emptiness of unfulfilment.

Living in itself and for itself, the self remains mysteriously unsatisfied and insatiable. Perhaps another way we could put it is this: Understanding and acceptance of the grace of God is the best possible foundation for developing intimate relationships, whether it be in the closest of all relationships, that of marriage, in ordinary family relationships, in friendships, in church fellowships, in the relationships between communities, or even in the relationships between races and nations. And where relationships have failed, it is still grace that can provide healing and hope for future relationships.

Rubel Shelley says in Divorce and Remarriage: By grace, people who have failed at marriage and who have divorced for the worst or most trivial reasons may be redeemed from guilt. People who have destroyed marriages through their adulteries can be pardoned. People whose hearts and behaviours have been cold, hard, and unfeeling can be made whole. And this is by forgiveness and renewal from above—not through another divorce, not by the penance of celibacy, and not by unringing the bell of harm already done.

What law cannot do, grace accomplishes. What our legalistic interpretations have confused, the redemptive presence of the Holy Spirit can sanctify. The gospel story, which emphasises that we are all flawed human beings and all potential recipients of his grace, puts us all on the same level. The canyon averages about nine miles in width from rim to rim.

Suppose one person could leap out about thirty feet from the edge while another can leap only six feet. What difference does it make? Sure, one person can leap five times as far as the other, but relative to nine miles 47, feet! He built the bridge all the way. If there is any place where the grace of God should be manifest, it is in the local Christian fellowship.

Churches where the grace of God is proclaimed and practised, where loving, forgiving relationships are the order of the day, are likely to be growing churches where visitors feel welcome and at home. One organisation from which we can learn something is Alcoholics Anonymous. When I show up, it proves that my desperate need for them won over my desperate need for alcohol.

In his book Grace Choices: Walking in Step with the God of Grace, [2] Jeff Lucas tells two delightful stories that wonderfully illustrate the transforming power of a community where the grace of God is proclaimed and practised. Are we building church where real humans—and thoroughly proficient sinners—are genuinely welcomed, and allowed to journey rather than instantly being fed into an ever churning discipleship machine? The church that I am privileged to be part of in Colorado had two opportunities to extend such a welcome.

Nicky was a stripper, a bright pre-law student who had discovered that men can be stupid enough—her words—to pay large sums of money to watch women undress. Larry, the hairdresser, gently let her know that he was a Christian and that his motives were honourable: Apparently she thought that the speaker had been given advance notice that she was going to attend, seeing as he seemed to be speaking directly to her. How else was he to know what was going on in her life, and be able to speak so clearly into her situation?

Larry whispered that it was probably God working overtime: At the end of the meeting she made a public response to Jesus Christ. She read the New Testament twice through that week, and eventually called the pastor, who was somewhat surprised to be getting a call from a stripper. She was about to change career. The pastor assured Nicky that God would indeed honour her for making obedient choices, and God did: Her baptism was interesting, in that around thirty of her friends from the club, including bra-less strippers in micro-skirts and some rather beefy bouncers walked down the centre aisle and parked themselves on the front row.

Twelve of them came to Christ that night. Will you help me to sort this all out? But notice that both sinners and saints—on their different journeys—were allowed space to grow and travel. Then there was George, a huge, hard man who loved to fight. He had a well-earned reputation for foul language and mean behaviour, and so tattooed his life message on his knuckles: He wore his message to the world, straight from the heart, on his hands.

For some reason he decided to come to a church meeting, and sat with his fists under his chin, glowering at everybody. May I give you a hug? A new Christian, he still had his unfortunate message on those gnarled knuckles, which usually only created an issue when he raised his hands in worship. But he was unable to find a job—no employer wanted to hire a man with those words scrawled in crude black ink upon his body. Finally George asked for help, and an offering was taken so that he could have laser surgery to eradicate that old message for good.

During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world were discussing whether any one belief was unique to the Christian faith. They began eliminating possibilities. Other religions had different versions of gods appearing in human form. Again, other religions had accounts of return from death. The debate went on for some time, until C.

Lewis wandered into the room. It seems that most religions have a mixture of ungrace and grace, with the emphasis too often on ungrace. I have heard eyewitness accounts of the recently revived Sun Dance ritual, in which young Lakota warriors fasten eagles claws to their nipples and, straining against a rope attached to a sacred pole, fling themselves outward until the claws rip through their flesh.

For there is no distinction: But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. He had been waiting his whole life for Jesus. Sitting in his jail cell, he needed to know: Are you the one I have been waiting for my whole life, the one for whom I prepared the way? We might at this point start to wonder if we have seen or heard any of the things Jesus mentions in his answer to whether or not he is the one the world has been waiting for.

Perhaps more subtle than we would like is the quite faith of millions of people who have had their lives touched or transformed by Jesus. John lived in the 18 th century and was from England. He spent a number of years on ships and tried to desert one of the ships he was on one time.

‘tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home – Heart River Lutheran Church

He got caught and suffered 8 dozen lashes of the whip. He continued sailing on ships and found himself on a slave ship and saw even more atrocities. In May of he was on a ship in a severe storm and believed he would die. He started to pray and the ship eventually made it safe to land. It was the beginning of his life of faith. I once was lost, but now and found; was blind, but now I see.

How God works in our lives can be more subtle like a baby in a manager, or the steady presence of community, and persistent love. There is an example of this in our own community. The following is a poem written this week by a person in this congregation. In the season of Advent we are reminded again and again of the hope we have in Christ.