GROWING IN GOD'S GRACE

"But grow in grace (undeserved favor, spiritual strength) and recognition and knowledge and understanding of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (the Messiah). To Him [be] glory (honor, majesty, and splendor) both now and to the day of eternity. Amen (so be it)! " 2 Peter 3:18 Amplified Bible

Recently, a friend and I were talking about what we consider to be one of the biggest challenges that the church faces when it comes to the Gospel: not really understanding the Gospel's message of grace and the fact that God's grace is not just something that gets us into His kingdom, but also something that accounts for every aspect of our lives. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:10, "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me." (emphasis added)

Too often, there is the not too subtle implication that we are "saved" (or brought into God's family) by His grace, but we grow by doing good deeds (or by our works). I have heard it put this way:- God is responsible for saving us, but we are responsible for "staying saved". From my understanding of the Gospel, nothing could be further from the truth. If I could save myself, grow by myself and do it all by myself, why would I need God? This is the height of hubris, and probably explains why there is such a struggle with self-righteousness amongst, us, Jesus' followers.

If we are ever going to be vessels of Jesus' love, we are going to have to grow in the knowledge of His grace and love that He has so generously bestowed on us.

After recently reading one of the best books I have read all year, Philip Yancey's, "What Good Is God?", I could not help but wonder why the message of God's grace is so hard to accept and comprehend. I can't list all the reasons in one blog entry, but I know for sure that one of the reasons why grace is so scandalous is because we are raised to believe that "if-something-sounds-too-good-to-be-true, it-probably-is". Grace just sounds too good to be true. There is no way that God could love us that much; forgive us of that much, and give us a new spot-free identity, no strings attached.
When I think of God's grace, I think of this story that Jesus told in Matthew 20:1-16 (New Living Translation):

“For the Kingdom of Heaven is like the landowner who went out early one morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay the normal daily wage and sent them out to work. “At nine o’clock in the morning he was passing through the marketplace and saw some people standing around doing nothing. So he hired them, telling them he would pay them whatever was right at the end of the day. So they went to work in the vineyard. At noon and again at three o’clock he did the same thing. “At five o’clock that afternoon he was in town again and saw some more people standing around. He asked them, ‘Why haven’t you been working today?’ “They replied, ‘Because no one hired us.’ “The landowner told them, ‘Then go out and join the others in my vineyard.’ 

“That evening he told the foreman to call the workers in and pay them, beginning with the last workers first. When those hired at five o’clock were paid, each received a full day’s wage. When those hired first came to get their pay, they assumed they would receive more. But they, too, were paid a day’s wage. When they received their pay, they protested to the owner, ‘Those people worked only one hour, and yet you’ve paid them just as much as you paid us who worked all day in the scorching heat.’ “He answered one of them, ‘Friend, I haven’t been unfair! Didn’t you agree to work all day for the usual wage? Take your money and go. I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you. Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money? Should you be jealous because I am kind to others?’

“So those who are last now will be first then, and those who are first will be last.”

The reason why grace is so offensive and why many of the workers in this parable were ticked off stems from the word "deserve". In the story Jesus told, the workers who worked all day were furious that those who worked only a few hours got the same pay as they did. This is a perfect example of how grace flies in the face of our logic of who deserves great things and who doesn't. We are used to a world where, for the most part, top performers get the rewards and those who don't perform well get shelved, ignored or scorned. Grace puts a hole into this line of thinking, for as Philip Yancey says in his book, "What Good is God?", "Into that world Jesus spoke a radically different message. We get not what we deserve but the very opposite. We deserve punishment and get forgiveness. We deserve God's wrath and get God's love. In a world divided by race, culture, class, language, and religion, Jesus set loose the most powerful force in the universe, the force of grace. That counter force brings a new message of hope to a world marked by violence and division."

Just last week there was a national outrage over singer Brandy Norwood being voted off of the #1 show in America, "Dancing with the stars". She was voted off before Bristol Palin and in the eyes of Brandy's fans, she was a much better dancer than Bristol and deserved to be in the finals. I agreed, but the voting public thought otherwise and showed Bristol grace. Either that, or many of Brandy's fans just forgot to vote for her en-masse like Bristol's fans did. There were conspiracy theories and the like, but who knows what really happened?

The biggest argument against grace is that it is not fair, or that it may promote laziness, but my question would then be, "not fair by whose standard?" If you are comparing one's character to that of another person, then maybe so, but if we compare our human character to God's holiness, then we have a different picture. The human heart than pleads not for justice, but for mercy and grace. Our inherent problem is that too often we think that other people are the standard, when God is the standard; even a casual reading of the Bible will expose the degree of human frailty and fallibility.

 We don't like the idea that those who don't deserve it will get what we have worked so hard to obtain, In politics for instance, is there any label that politicians hate more than being called "liberal"? Liberals are assumed to be people who want to take from the hard working and give to those who don't "deserve" it.

I hope and pray that during this holiday season you will grow in the love that Jesus has for you and be able to share that love with family, friends and yes, even someone who may not deserve it. After all, if we all deserved God's love, it would not be called Amazing Grace.

Peace and love,
Stephen O. Akinduro