The Dominion of Grace

Ephesians 2:8-9 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast Last month we tackled a very important issue: How to bring Jesus into a culture or group without the trappings of our culture, bias, traditions and the sort. While also, not delving into some sort of relativism that says all roads lead to God and that there are no absolutes. This is a tough balance and one needs to do some deep questioning and thinking to avoid both extremes. I hope to provoke some discussion about why we believe what we believe? The question posed was: What are the essentials of the faith? In other words, what is the minimal I can believe and still call myself a born-again saved follower of Jesus? The assumption being challenged is: Is what I think is essential really essential and is what I think is non-essential really essential? The first essential I will examine is salvation by grace. It clearly says above that salvation is by grace alone. There are many other scriptures that validate this. But what does this mean? I have chosen to title this month’s letter The Dominion of Grace. Dominion means rule and implies a kingdom. I am not going to get into a long discussion of the Kingdom of God but I do want to point out two different spiritual kingdoms that a person can live under. The first is the Dominion of Grace and the second is the Dominion of Law. When it comes to salvation we can choose to live under either one or the other. Romans 6:14 states: For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. The KJV translates master as dominion. The word under, in this context, means to position oneself under something or someone. When law is our master and has dominion over us sin is our master as well. The only way to break away from the law of sin and death is to live under grace. Other verses in Romans 6 refer to dying to sin and being freed from it. It says that if we have died then we will live with Christ. This refers to being a new creation. It talks about being born-again. Born-again means is being re-connected with God. But what does it mean to live under the dominion of grace? Well we have to see what grace actually means. Grace means a kindness or favor given to someone who does not deserve it. Law, in Romans 6:14, means the Mosaic Law which is found in the first five books of the Bible. This is where people get nervous and it was the reason that Paul wrote Romans 6. When someone begins to talk about grace and not living under the law people hear, “Just do what you want there is grace.” That is not what Jesus taught and that is not what Paul was teaching. He was teaching that the law could not save us. Galatians 3:11 states, 11Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, "The righteous will live by faith." Life here means eternal life. Eternal life is obtained when we are justified before God. This is a legal term that means to be right legally with God. In other words, God gave of all these laws and we can never live up to them. We are by nature objects of wrath it says earlier in Ephesians 2. It says that we are all born dead. This means that we are born separated from God and dead in spirit. We have no personal connection with God. Why? Because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God according to Romans 3:23. We are condemned at birth under the law. Why? The Bible says that the wages of sin is death. In other words, because we have sinned we must be separated from God. The question then is if we are born disconnected from God how can we reconnect or reconcile the relationship? Is it by following all the dictates of the legal system and making ourselves righteous before God or is there another way? Another question could be why does God give us the law if we can not use it to get re-connected with Him? Romans 3:20 states, 20Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. This clearly shows us the purpose of the law. It is to show us our sin and its consequences. It should show us our need of Christ. James says that if you have broken one commandment you have broken them all. Let’s look at grace now. If we cannot live under the law and its consequences what is God’s provision to re-connect us with Him? The Bible says that the kindness of God leads us to repentance. What does this mean? Repentance is a change of mind about who God is that shows us who we are separated from Him that causes us to seek to be reconciled with Him. Many times a change of action is preached as repentance. This is short-sighted and teaches people to seek to change themselves before they can come to God. God wants us to come to Him as we are. Although a balanced approach to the subject dictates that a loving God does not want us to stay that way. Nonetheless, clearly the change of heart is more important to God than the change of action. If the heart is not changed then the actions mean nothing. Proverbs 21:2 states that, All a man's ways seem right to him, but the LORD weighs the heart. Repentance is a change of mind and heart. We all have in our minds who God is and it is based on many things in our life experience. But only God gets to say who He is. As we see a true picture of who He is the Bible says that we should change our mind and our heart as we see His kindness. That takes us back to the meaning of grace which is undeserved kindness or favor. Why does God give us something we do not deserve? He is kind. His whole purpose for this life is to change our hearts by persuading all of humanity that He is kind. This seems to fall into sharp contrast with all the fire and brimstone preaching. This is where some will say, “This is the love gospel that will never produce repentance. We have to show people they are sinners and going to hell.” Yes, God is kind but He is also just. He will punish the wrong doer. That is all of us. So what is the point of even bringing up the law or the wrath of God? Is it to show people that they are pieces of crap and that God hates them? No it is to show them that they, and us, can never measure up in our own strength and that we need to be re-connected to God to have meaning in life. The best example of true repentance in the Bible is Isaiah. In chapter 6 He sees four things: 1. God in all His glory (which is described in Ex 34:5-7) 2. His disconnect with God and the resulting brokenness caused by sin 3. His forgiveness freely given by God 4. His new found ability to run into the hands of God and be sent out with a mission. All these are important but as a Church we spend much more time than warranted on number 2. Most of our study, thoughts, and prayer should focus on number 1. As we see God as He truly is in all His kindness we will see that we are need to be forgiven and run to Him to heal all our brokenness. Then we will be sent out whole to a dying world. So what does this grace look like? The best story in the Bible about grace in my opinion is Hosea. He is asked to take back a woman and re-connect with her even though she had spurned his love over and over. How many of us would take back our wives if she went out and was a prostitute? How many would actually go and pay something to get this type of woman back? Not many of us. This is the story of grace: Undeserved kindness. This is true love: The kind of love that hopes for the best but expects nothing in return. The love is there and if someone wants to receive it then it is up to them. True love does not force itself on anyone. It loves whether is it loved back or not. I was reading an article a while back about being in love alone. I watched a movie called "The Holiday" that brought this to mind again the other night. The girl was in love with someone who did not love her back and was miserable. Society tells us today that we need to know we are loved before we can love. Have it simple and easy. Make sure the person will never hurt you before you give your heart away. This may be healthy in many cases but when the decision is made, “This is the one I choose, this is the one I want to love the rest of my life,” then we cannot hold back. There are no guarantees as I have found out. We can get hurt. This is the type of risk God takes with us. Will we take this risk with others? That is the nature of true unconditional love that does not give to get. It gives and expects nothing in return. This is where people will ask: Does not God expect anything out of us in return for this love? He does desire our highest good which is agape love but will not force us to do anything. It is all persuasion by love and commitment. He loves the person He has to allow to go to Hell just as much as the person who is devoted to Him. The difference is that the love for the former is wasted love. It is not reciprocated. But God chooses to love anyway. I think this is more of what is means to be chosen. It means as John states, 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. This type of love is what sent Jesus to the cross. God desired relationship with us so much that He paid for us sins knowing that we could not. This love was not because we loved Him. He died the same for those who chose to accept His love as for those who reject it. Hosea went to pursue an unfaithful woman with no guarantee she would come back to him. I think I have a Hosea call and used to think that it meant that I would marry a prostitute or girl with a past. I think it means more to love someone long before I know that they love me. This is hard to think about and I have tried to run from it for a while now. I want to know someone will not reject me before I decide to love. It seems wise. Especially after what I went through in my last marriage. But I think I am learning in my heart what I have known in my head about God’s grace for years through this experience of waiting for the right one. Anyone can say that they understand a free gift and spell it out in the Bible. But who can really understand the heart of God as He waits on people He loves to respond and they go after other things? To say salvation is through doing works under the law cheapens the character of God and destroys the message of the cross. It is easy to say that Jesus paid for our sins just as Hosea paid for His wife back. But what does it really mean? That is why God made righteousness apart from the law. Apart from anything that we could do for Him to make Him loves us. This would be the gospel of a God who loved humanity because humanity first loved Him. It is a sham. The Father sent Jesus as the Word of God. Word implies message. What is His message to mankind through the death and resurrection of Jesus? Is it, “just do better and I will accept you?” Or is it, “I love you so much that I was willing to suffer for you before I ever knew whether you would reciprocate my love or not. I was willing to risk total rejection just for you.” Romans states very clearly that we can never earn God’s love. It is a free gift. Romans 4 describes a free gift that is opposed to earning wages, “Now when a man works his wages are not credited to him as a gift but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.” This simply means that if we have to work for God’s kindness and favor He is obligated to us in some way that nullifies unconditional love. But if we trust in a God who can make us right under the law through that faith or trust, then it is a free gift credited to us. This can all be summed up in one verse. Ephesians 2:8-9 which is the text verse above is preceded by verses 6-7. They state, “6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” Two words here are mentioned again: grace and kindness. His grace is shown to us by the kindness of sending Jesus in order to re-connect with us and expecting nothing in return except that we receive the gift. Love does us no good if it is not received. God does not demand that we love Him back. He loves us and hopes when we see this undeserved kindness that it will touch our hearts so that we will become love slaves. The word slave in Romans 6 is not the same as in Galatians. It is a love slave: A slave that stays with the master not under compulsion but because he loves him. True love demands nothing but loves whether someone deserves it or not. God raised up Jesus to a place of dominion and us with Him if we accept His grace. This is what it means to live under the dominion of grace. The second that I have to do something to merit salvation it is no longer unmerited. A gift is only a gift if it is free. If someone comes to me and says I will give you a house but you have to wash my car it is not a gift. It is now a wage and the giver of the house is under obligation now. A gift is a gift. A loan is a loan. A sale is a sale. If I expect anything in return it is not a gift. This may strike some as “antinomianism” which is preaching against the law and telling people to whatever they want. It is not in my opinion. It is painting a picture of a God who loves us unconditionally and let’s us decide what are response to this love will be. He does not tell people to do whatever they want. He knows certain things are not in our best interests but He gives us free will to choose how we will respond to what He says is best. One last thing I need to say that will lead into the next month’s discussion of salvation by faith. It is by grace and through faith. Grace is the dominion we want to live under but faith is the vehicle to get us there. It states above that we are saved by grace through faith. Faith is what connects us to the grace. Just as the car can take us to the place we desire to go. It is not a work it is a vehicle. Jesus is driving it and we just have to jump in trusting that it will get us to where we want to go. I want to live in the dominion of grace and love God because He chose me and continues to choose me. I trust in the vehicle that He has chosen to take me there: Faith in the payment of my sins through the death and resurrection of Jesus. The death and resurrection of Jesus points me to the kindness of God and helps me see His true character. Much like Isaiah at some point in my heart I knew I was disconnected to God and needed to reconcile. I accepted His forgiveness and now I choose to reciprocate His love. Even if I did not He still would have died to be with me. That is God’s grace as I understand it. Grace is worthless without faith and faith is worthless without grace. They go hand in hand. One is God’s favor toward me and the other is my response. Next, we will discuss what saving faith is. What response to grace allows us to re-connect with God?