What is Grace?

“And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” Colossians 2:13&14

If I had a pound for every time a non-believer made a judgement on what I as a Christian should do or think or say I would be a very rich man by now! Christian stereotypes abound across society, which range from the naïve to the downright offensive. We’re either gullible or foolish for believing in a God that is “not real”; the boring-no fun prudish and inhibited introverts or the ‘Bible bashing’ extremists who are dangerous and a threat to a tolerant society. Our misrepresentation is astonishing but the door swings both ways – it is not only our secular society that paints a distorted picture of us; there are some in the Church itself who are equally guilty of such uninformed misjudgements.

I heard it said once that all other of God’s characteristics we can comprehend because we have experience of them – love, justice, forgiveness, mercy etc. However, holiness is beyond our comprehension because as human beings we are not holy, nor can we experience holiness without first being reborn in the Spirit as we are spiritually dead in our sin. Thus our understanding of holiness is based on our interpretation of Scripture rather than personal experience. This has caused so much controversy throughout the ages and led to so much division in the Church.

Firstly let me defend that statement against those who may counter with the argument we can be sure of our interpretation of Scripture precisely because we now have the indwelling Holy Spirit – the Corinthians were perhaps the most charismatic church in the New Testament, moving in the myriad gifts of the Holy Spirit and yet Paul described them as ‘carnal’ because of their acceptance of sin within their congregation. So it is possible, paradoxically, to have the Holy Spirit at yet be ‘unspiritual’ in certain matters.

Returning to my point, what constitutes a holy and righteous living is a matter of delicate interpretation. This is evident in Paul’s teaching in Romans 14 about causing a brother or sister in Christ to stumble. A generation ago there were denominations that condemned dancing and going to the cinema and women were not meant to attend church with their heads uncovered. Historically the Puritans balked at the degeneration they saw in the moral fabric of society. Famously Oliver Cromwell who became Lord Protector after Charles I’s execution banned ball games on a Sunday and enforced that everyone fast on Christmas day! While many Christians today are well-meaning they can also fail to understand what grace truly means and how it works in practice.

Whether it is views on the death penalty, vegetarianism, animal rights, war, consumerism, alcohol, smoking, tattoos, heavy-metal, swearing there are many subjects and issues that are a grey area Biblically speaking and we as Christians must tread carefully before pronouncing judgement and falling into the trap of legalism and Pharisaicalism. Self-righteousness and pride are two of the most pervasive sins in the Church. Of course in many Christians, especially of the evangelical persuasion alarm bells ring whenever they believe they have detected licentiousness, particularly when it comes to ‘doctrine’. But there is a difference between licentiousness and grace.

Licentiousness is when one flies in the face of Scripture where there is clear instruction and doctrine such as homosexuality, adultery, greed, murder, lying, covetousness, idolatry etc. Pauls warns of such people in 1 Corinthians who he proclaims will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Particularly when it comes to sexual morality Christians are meant to be above reproach and therefore any justification used to condone such behaviour and lifestyles are wholly wrong. Similarly, idolatry is abominable because it is only by God’s grace and mercy that we are saved and therefore if our priority and first love is not for God, or if we believe there are other things or beings in this world that deserve our worship or time as much as God, we are acting offensively to the very Creator who has given us life.

Grace on the other hand is the reality of complete and utter trust in Jesus’ sacrifice for our salvation and righteousness. The Bible teaches that all our self-righteousness is but filthy rags to God. One of the things that offends non-believers the most about the Gospel is that ‘good’ people go to hell while vile and wicked people who are repentant go to heaven. And yet there are many in the church that fundamentally misunderstands grace. I’ve heard people quoting from Leviticus regarding Christians and tattoos, claiming that it is sinful when as Christians fulfilling the Law is not a requirement of our salvation. To begin with the Law in effect saved no-one as the Chief Priest each year would have to offer up animal sacrifices for the atonement of the nation of Israel; secondly the Day of Atonement and the Covenant God made with Moses on Mount Sinai has been superseded by the new Covenant made through Jesus Christ – as the book of Hebrews explains; and thirdly as Paul says in Romans as Christians we have died to the Law, for Christ is the fulfilment of the Law to do what the Law could not do, namely to make us righteous.

Again if you insist on keeping one part of the Law then you are required to keep all of it – including circumcision! But as the New Testament teaches circumcision of the flesh will not help us as we can be circumcised in the flesh but uncircumcised in the heart. If we remain uncircumcised in the heart then our physical circumcision is rendered null and void. Indeed Jesus said “whoever looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in your heart” and again “anyone who calls his brother a fool is worthy of Hell”. It is not enough to remain faithful to your wife while being addicted to pornography; it is not enough to restrain from committing murder while harbouring anger and malice against someone. The greatest deception of self-righteousness is the lie that we can become good enough through our own efforts. We deceive ourselves by believing our intentions and motivations are honourable and God-pleasing but we allow ourselves to then become filled with pride. As Paul says he had more reason than any other to boast in his own righteousness but counted it all as nothing compared to gaining Christ.

What Jesus calls for is disciples who will pick up their cross and follow Him, denying their flesh and dying to their sinful nature that is in perpetual conflict with the Holy Spirit. We must identify ourselves with Christ’s crucifixion and walk by faith and trust that in Christ we have died to our sin and have arisen with Him in His resurrection. Paul describes Jesus as the first-fruit of the new creation. Our bodily resurrection will come on the Day of Judgement but in baptism and following Jesus we believe that the spiritual reality of the resurrection and the salvation into eternal life has already begun.

What is my point? I am driving at the fact that grace is the acceptance of our insignificance and inability to atone for our sin by our own means – even following the Law itself right down to the Letter. Grace is living in a new reality – the reality of the circumcision of the heart, the reality of the spirit of the Law; the reality of knowing the true heart of God for the lost, the vulnerable and the weak. James teaches that true religion is to care for the orphaned and the widow and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. Isaiah teaches that true fasting is justice for the poor and the exploited. What does this mean in practice? It means we must be humble at all times. It means we must recognize our state of spiritual poverty and rest in God’s all-encompassing grace.

When we come across a grey area think which covenant are you living under? Where does your faith and trust lay? What is the state of your own heart before you pronounce judgement? This is not an excuse or ticket for some Christians to flaunt what they deem to be acceptable behaviour, which others take issue with. As I mentioned earlier, Paul teaches we should not cause our brothers or sisters to stumble. Getting drunk and justifying your actions on “well even Christ drunk wine” is sinful because the New Testament clearly teaches that drunkenness and debauchery are wrong and that we should be filled not with wine but the Spirit. Watching graphically sexual TV programmes with the excuse “I don’t condone that or do it myself” may cause another to stumble and is not honouring to the Lord whose standard of morality is much greater than that of the worlds’. Moreover, such programmes lead inevitably to temptation and temptation gives birth to sin and the wages of sin is death!

However, giving someone a hard time for smoking when the New Testament says nothing explicitly on it or condemning tattoos when again the New Testament is silent on the issue (although it makes its views on placing trust in the body i.e. circumcision very clear) is something which reveals a short coming in your own understanding of the covenantal relationship we have with God and the grace that comes through Jesus Christ. Thus a careful balance needs to be struck – on the one hand ‘mature’ Christians (for want of a better word) should be mindful of ‘weaker’ Christians seeking to edify their faith, while ‘weaker’ Christians or ‘immature’ Christians should seek to grow in spiritual maturity having a deeper grasp and understanding of the interpretation and application of Scripture and the true nature of Grace.