Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Grace misunderstood

Grace is defined as an "unmerited favor." This is the same kind of grace that God bestowed on us when we, the "unlovable" because of our sins, became recipients of the benefits of His truly remarkable show of love. Grace is what agape love is... loving unconditionally. We cannot ever love like God for it takes a character like God's to be able to love a wretched humanity as ours.

But sadly, this grace has been misunderstood a lot of times. There are people who have become very comfortable with sin, having no fear anymore of the eternal consequence of their preoccupation with it because they think that God's grace will still bring them to Heaven. You will hear them say something like this when shown that they are bound for Hell because of their sins, "I thought the Bible said something about God paying for the sins of the world?" I guess we've sung "Amazing Grace" too much in funerals that's why they came to the conclusion that God's grace saves everyone, even those who are unrepentant of their sins.

The unbelievers are not the only ones that have misunderstood the nature of God's grace. There are also some Christians in the group. These Christians believe that we, as recipients of God's grace, should also exercise grace to others. Well, I agree with that. But what I don't agree with is how they wrongly exercise grace. There are Christians that believe that they are using grace correctly when they just shut up when a person misbehaves or commits a sin, not making the effort to show to that person what wrong he/she has done. They believe that grace applied means just letting the person continue on with what they're doing (even if it's wrong), hoping that his inaction for the inappropriate action will make the person see his love and later decide not to do the act anymore.

I don't think that is correct. If what they believe is correct and that my stand is wrong, then we've totally disregarded the verse that said "...open rebuke is better than secret love... (Prov. 27:5)" and verses that give importance to correction. Many have failed to understand that God's grace is NOT a consenting grace.

We must understand that in God giving us grace, it never meant that He closed His eyes to our sins. The reason why He gave grace was because He saw our sins. The reason why there is the much-loved John 3:16 was because we are destined to perish for our sins. The reason why God had to demonstrate His love toward us was because of our sins. Now, the Father is able to give us grace because His Son, Jesus, paid for our sins. He did not just give grace without any payment for the sins we have committed. Actually, He demanded payment. If He just forgave without someone making the payment for the penalty of sin, then He will be an evil God for He tolerated sin. Forgiveness is now possible because a payment has been made through the shed blood of Jesus.

Now understand this, in order for us to receive that grace, there is a decision required from us. We have to decide to repent of our sins and to put our total trust on Jesus for our salvation. It is wrong to think that because Jesus has already suffered on the cross, God's grace is already for us. The only time we can receive that grace is when we humble ourselves in front of God in repentance and faith. Remember, "God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble (1 Pet. 5:5)." Only in a humble recognition of our sinfulness can God give us grace. It was only after Zaccheus declared that he will restore fourfold whatever he has cheated on people that Jesus said, "Today salvation has come into this home." It was only after the sinful woman's decision to forsake the world in favor of Jesus as shown in her act of breaking a bottle of expensive perfume on Jesus' feet that Jesus declared, "Her sins which are many are now forgiven." God's grace is only to the humble.

This is also how we must exercise grace to others as Christians. We must point to others (using the Bible as much as we can) what they are doing wrongly. This, I believe, is part of giving grace. You love a person enough to show him his wrongdoing so that he will not continue doing it and amass for himself more consequences. Now if the person is humble enough to acknowledge that, yes, he is wrong, and he shows a willingness to surrender to God with this in his life, you again give him grace by being patient in waiting for God to complete His transforming work in him. But then, of course, in pointing to others what wrong they have done, we must be sure that we ourselves are not guilty of the same for the Scriptures have commanded us not to point to the mote of others if we likewise have mote in our eyes (Matt. 7:1-5).

God's grace is truly amazing! He saved wretched people like us. As recipient of that great love let us now exalt His grace by not using it wrongly and making it appear as if it's a consenting grace. Let's not cheapen it. The price for God's grace is Jesus' life. God's grace, although offered to everyone, can only be enjoyed by those who are humble enough to acknowledge that he is so undeserving of it. Humility was the key to Jesus' sacrifice for us. He left the splendor of Heaven and humbled himself, even to death at the cross. We must respond to his act of love in the same manner... with humility.

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