GRACE CHANGES EVERYTHING

Romans 6:14 “For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.”

In his book "What’s So Amazing About Grace," Christian author Philip Yancey writes about a friend who invited him out for a cup of coffee one night. This friend, it turns out, is contemplating leaving his wife after 15 years of marriage because he’s found someone younger and prettier, someone he says makes him feel alive. As a Christian, Yancey’s friend knows his decision will devastate his wife and permanently damage his three kids. He also knows that his relationship with God will never be the same again. Even so, the force pulling him toward this other woman was like a powerful magnet. So finally he asks Philip Yancey, "Do you think God can forgive something as awful as I’m about to do?’

Yancey’s friend was looking for assurance that he’d still be accepted by God, still under the cover of God’s grace. I’ve had lots of people ask me the very same question as they contemplate doing things that are clearly wrong and destructive.

Because of this way of thinking, many people have been critical of the Christian idea of God’s grace. Somehow we’ve domesticated the idea of grace into a generic prayer we pray before a meal, but when you really think about it the Bible’s concept of grace is very radical. Grace of course means that we can’t earn or merit acceptance with God no matter how hard we might try. Grace means that God offers restoration on the basis of a free, undeserved gift, that there’s nothing we can do to earn it, buy it, perform for it, or merit it. Grace means no amount of trying will make God love us more and no amount of sinning will make God love us less.

Every other religion of the world rejects the idea of grace, and insists that we must contribute something to our salvation. We must try harder, we must be better; we must live morally, and so forth. All the various religions of the world offer a self-help way to merit restoration with God, whether it’s the eightfold path of Buddhism, the karma and reincarnation cycle of Hinduism, the laws and ordinances of the Mormon Church, or the four pillars of Islam. Only the Christian faith dares to suggest that God offers a relationship to people on the basis of pure grace.

Because of this scandalous idea of grace, many people through the years have felt that the Christian faith actually encourages people to live sinful, immoral lives. That’s exactly what Philip Yancey’s friend was looking for. The reasoning goes like this: Why try to be good if you already know in advance you will be forgiven? Why not live like the devil, enjoying every minute of it, and then ask for forgiveness in the eleventh hour? The French philosopher Voltaire captured this idea when he said, "God will always forgive…that’s his job." The idea of grace is scandalous to common sense.

Our scripture tells us how grace changes everything. When we encounter God’s grace, we offer ourselves to a new master. The new reality of grace, where Jesus is king and where sin and death are defeated foes, this new reality places us under the lordship of a new master, Jesus Christ. But we must continually choose to yield ourselves to the lordship of this new master. How does God’s grace change us for the better? Well it doesn’t give us an excuse to sin or a license to live any old way we want to. If that’s what we think then we’ve entirely misunderstood what grace means. We’ve not understood how we’ve passed from one reality to another, from one kingdom to another, from one master to another. God’s grace changes us, because when we encounter it, we die to our old way of life, we are introduced to a new way of living in Jesus, and we offer ourselves to a new master. You see, God’s grace doesn’t just change us for the better, but God’s grace changes everything, absolutely everything.

Philip Yancey says he sat across the table from his friend for quite a while before answering his friend’s question. He says the question lay on the table like a live snake, and only after three cups of coffee did he dare answer it. His answer went something like this: "Can God forgive you? Of course. You know the Bible. Forgiveness is our problem, not God’s. But what we have to go through to commit sin distances us from God…and there’s no guarantee we will ever come back. You ask me about forgiveness now, but will you even want it later, especially if it involves repentance? Can God forgive? Yes. Will you be the kind of person who wants God’s forgiveness? That’s another question entirely."

God’s grace doesn’t give us an excuse to sin more, but it changes everything