The Lord gave me this title to write about, but I’ll admit to you the reader that I’m actually fairly wary of speaking about this incredibly complex subject, for I don’t think there’s even be one person in the world (that I know of, at least) that to my mind has a truly well informed and totally balanced definition, opinion or even understanding of it.
Grace has many different facets to it according to the light it’s viewed in, and people tend towards a certain facet without considering the others as worthy, depending on their bias. For example, some people lean heavily towards either a ‘hyper-grace’ gospel, where there is literally no evil that one can do that can drown out the tidal wave of the grace of God, such is His all encompassing love for us all; so that anyone who thinks this seems to truly believe that all people will probably be saved in the end (unless they reeeeally don’t want to be, in which case God allows you to suffer for eternity according to your own weird free-will to actually want eternal hell over being with Him forever).
Or, on the opposite end of the spectrum, there’s the complete antithesis to that understanding of hyper-grace, which is basically that any one person is technically forgiven in the end provided they work very hard to maintain the relationship with the Lord by forsaking sin entirely out of their lives, never to trip up ever, for the remainder of their lives; otherwise, upon one’s failure, they will say that the grace no longer counts and you are doomed, even whilst you still breathe (despite the fact you believe whole-heartedly in God, and desperately want Him to save you, but you can’t seem to get out of the evil you are doing in your present life quickly enough, and are therefore left without hope). This is a kind of ‘grace/works combo’, and it certainly borderlines, if not totally crosses the line of legalism (ie. if works are imperative to anyone’s salvation, can we therefore take some kind of credit for our own salvation if the grace can be ‘earned’ with the good works? This insinuation is the danger of this particular outlook).
From my own research, both viewpoints can be backed by scripture satisfactorily by those with that particular agenda, in spite of the huge differences between (and the falsities of the extreme of either of) them.
I’m not sure I honestly want to publicly say where stand on this spectrum, but allow me to witness what I think I do know about it (in obedience to the Lord’s request for me to write about it), taking into account my own personal testimony of the grace of God in my own life; maybe it will encourage you and you’ll be thankful, or maybe you’ll even call me a heretic for it because you disagree so strongly… either reaction is entirely plausible in this strange world. However you react to it though, you’ll probably fall into somewhere between the above two trains of thought that I outlined in the above paragraph, according to the way you have been taught by those strongly opinionated public Christian leaders, who seem to think they have a mastery over (what I consider) a very sensitive and ‘grey’ subject, that they confidently publish it for all the world to see and learn from their ‘wisdom’. But to me, grace is deeper than simply intellectual understanding.
I would here like to point out that the intention of this blog is not to teach the reader anything so much of doctrine, but instead to outline several things I’ve noticed from my own walk with Jesus, and from my own general research, that hopefully may well be helpful for all of us.
To start with, then; it seems like right from the off, I was an unusual case compared to many other believers I know of, who are are currently strong in the Lord. Many people seem to come into a real relationship with God through an initial recognition of their sin and the subsequent fear that the conviction of the Holy Spirit brings to them, unto a genuine repentance and a complete turning away from sin, for good. Whilst I think this is totally an excellent and legitimate way to receive the Lord and come to know His Spirit personally, and therefore continuing on to mature in Him quickly, this was not actually the way I was personally lead into a relationship with Him at first; let me therefore explain what this has to do with grace as I understand it.
Anyone who has heard my conversion testimony will know that not only was I a completely debauched and wicked sinner seeking a Buddhist type of ‘enlightenment’ through the use of hard drugs (sorcery) and ‘shamanic’ dance through music (I was frequenting many types of festivals at that point of my life for the spiritual aspect to music specifically), but that I was also in a fornicating lust-based relationship with a girl at the time of my conversion, and was also heavily into playing tarot cards many times a day, working with an astrological understanding of human behaviour etc when meeting others; not to mention other forms of witchcraft I was involved with. I was doing all this evil when I found the Lord for the first time (or did He find me?). In fact, I had even astral projected for the first time in my life the moment I truly met His Spirit that day, and ‘saw’ the spirit realm very briefly with my own spiritual eyes.
I recommend you listen to the testimony (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZLBlUbdZJ4&t=6s) for more details (or ask me questions, you have my fb messenger), but what I’m actually trying to get across here is that in spite of huge evil and darkness in my life, Jesus Christ met with me, right in the middle of it, at a psychedelic trance festival whilst I was ‘high’. Let me emphasise that there was no condemnation upon me when in His presence that day, and no conviction or telling me to repent (not right away, anyway). He was incredibly gracious to me, and also very ‘warm’ to me even though I admit that the very first thing I experienced from Him was actually a kind of righteous anger for the astral projecting out of my body (listen to the testimony for a more detailed explanation; essentially the anger forced me back into my body, where He could deal with me in the grace that He ended up doing so). In fact, when He revealed Himself to me on that day (which happened to be my physical birthday!), His mighty presence completely bowled me over, and I was totally overwhelmed (in the best way possible) and was 100% certain that this was absolutely no illusion, and was in fact everything I was searching for, and more. I responded to His amazing love before anything else, for I knew in that moment that He was for me and wanted to know and help me, which caused me to respond affirmatively towards Him before anything like repentance unto salvation came into it.
Even though I had a very hard time for a few years after this happened, the Lord broke me down over that time, and took away much of my evil by actively humiliating and drastically humbling me (causing me to truly repent and be lead much deeper into His kingdom). So with that in mind, the initial meeting with His Spirit is a true picture of what real grace is, in my book. In my particular case, I realised much later (in the hindsight of repentance and forsaking sin) that ‘grace’ had forgiven me before I ever knew I even needed forgiveness. It had overwhelmed me with such an engulfing, real love, and had given me such a sought-after eternal blessing, before I ever realised that I truly was a sinful wretch that was lost in my trespasses. Grace spoke to me like a parent would with their wayward, long lost son with nothing to his name, coming from the gutter and who was looking to reconcile with them, without knowing the hurt and devastation he had caused them; they being only too glad to put the slippers and signet ring back on him, whilst in the meantime, not mentioning his evil for time being. Upon seeing his submissive acquiescence before their rightful authority when he was presented with the actual ‘truth’, they had favourable mercy on him (especially knowing that he has no other option but to return to the family, if he wants to live).
However, it should be noted that the initial grace had led me into an unforced and totally freely willed repentance, where I wanted to submit my spirit and devote myself to Him of my own accord, out of a desire and an appreciation, rather than of fear. It set me up for the relationship I have now with Him; I do still fear Him, but in the way a child fears the severe ‘over the knee with the wooden spoon’ punishment from a loving father, whom they actually entirely rely on for everything good in their life, and look up to for all provision and guidance. It was this initial love, and the absolute unfathomable depth of it, that still causes me to fear Him; for when I look at the cross of Jesus, I see such a profound love in that monumental sacrifice, that I know I cannot nor will ever reciprocate it within my own flesh, and that (rightly) terrifies me. Not only is God just so good, but I’m so evil, and incredibly weak. Yet, His grace shows me that He can and will be a role model for me in my own sphere of existence and the challenges of my own life, and that I can be empowered by His strength when my focus remains entirely on Him, whatever comes my way.
There is a different kind of grace I would like to mention here too, which is the kind of grace we have for each other. It is obviously directly inspired by the Lord’s Spirit, of course, but because of that, it allows huge tolerance for each other’s faults and even major sins, as we learn to simply forgive and move on, just as the Lord does with His own children. Once perpetrated, history is unchangeable, and remains like an immovable rock in our lives that we must come to terms with; but the future is changeable, and that is what the Lord is concerned about with us (as we should also be concerned with too), for ahead of us all lies the fork in the road, to either eternal life or eternal death.
That is why it is written, ‘today is the day of salvation’! That is why for a believer who still has breath in their body, however far they fall, the Lord will persevere in chastisement and rebuke with them when they are out of line, until that person either returns fully to Him, forsaking their evil, or totally rejects Him in favour of the world, and blasphemes His Spirit. In fact, the way we continue to learn about true grace when dealing with each other in real time is in fact a great insight into the Lord’s own way that He deals with us all personally, and that should give us all a measure of confidence when apologising or repenting to either brethren, or before the Lord Himself.
Jesus spoke a lot of forgiveness, not least in a heart wrenching cry from the cross for all of His murderers, which sums up the very essence of real grace… it’s completely unmerited, and totally free for the receiver (although it costs the giver a lot, if not everything). The true believer should never give up hope on someone else who is sinning yet who still confesses Christ, for no one can do such a thing without the direct inspiration from the Holy Spirit, which by inference means He is somewhere in their lives. It’s sometimes in the utter darkness of our depravity that we see then the light the clearest, which only serves to highlight the grace of the Lord with such an emphasis, that it’s out of a real desire never to hurt or offend Him further than we already have. In fact, that healthy fear of hurting Him further means that we actively want to give up our evil and turn from the flesh, without the need for that negative fear of a punishment. To offend the Lord is a punishment all in itself, something like the way ‘letting down’ a cherished parent feels when you do something drastically wrong as a child. And to me, this is the meaning of those good works we mentioned earlier, that accompany grace; they should (and do) come from the repentant heart that wants to do good and make things right, not so much for some reward, but purely out of a total respect for the truth. The works in themselves cannot save us, for they themselves are the very by-product of grace. Without that initial grace, to my mind, there are no truly good works at all. The main resulting work of grace in our lives, being the excellent by-product of ‘Loving the Lord our God with all our hearts, souls and minds’. The only way this can really happen is when they stem from submitted, thankful and redeemed hearts, which transformation is the function of grace upon the wicked and lost.
To finish up a subject that I could probably talk about for a long time, it’s worth noting that in many languages around the world, the word for ‘thanks’ or thank you’ comes as a derivative from the word for grace. In almost all Latin based languages, there is the obvious ‘gracias’ or ‘grazie’, or even ‘merci’ (mercy, a sister to grace). The Germanic languages have ‘danke’ or ‘thank you’, which I’m told are loosely based on the old Germanic word for grace. It doesn’t work for every language, but for especially those ancient cultures that grew up with Christianity in their infancy. Grace has permeated and is integral to their cultural understanding and social etiquette, and manifests in many ways without most people even being aware of it. I think this is very telling of just how much we take grace for granted generally, as the human family; but that is the very nature, and danger, of grace. It can be totally taken advantage of, and entirely abused. Never do we see this more clearly than with the way the Son of God is treated by the world; for He came to save, not to judge, yet the world treats His amazing name like dirt from their shoe. But, it should be noted that grace is available for a limited time only; judgement is coming, and in fact is nearly upon us; the hour of grace is late – very late.
Where will you be found on that coming great, yet terrifying day? The only two options are either in grace, or in judgement.
Grace holds out His pierced hand to you, even as I type. Will you take hold and never let go? I have, and I’m ever so thankful for it.