Glory and Grace

"Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You!"

Psalm 119:11

God's word lights our path to walk uprightly.  Jesus said if the light in a man's heart is darkness, how great is that darkness.  This illustrates the importance, not only to know God's word and practice it, but as much as we can to remember it accurately.  Reading God's word for ourselves is incredibly important to illuminate our hearts and minds, for God is faithful to open our eyes to truth we previously missed.

This reminder came to me recently as I read the familiar passage in Romans 3:23 that says, "...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."  As I read it with my own eyes I realised my tendency to say it, "...for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."  This tense change from "fall" to "fallen" has a whole new meaning to it.  It is true we have all sinned and thus fallen short of God's glory, but the words of Paul emphasise we still do fall short even though we believe in Christ and have received the Gospel.  Our failure to live up to God's holy, perfect standard is a past and present reality.

This magnifies the grace of God spoken of in the following verse in Romans 3:24:  "...being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus..."  Because God has justified Christians by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus received by faith, we are able to begin to comprehend and walk in righteousness as God intended from the beginning.  He has washed us clean of the eternal punishment and power of sin, and God empowers us to walk uprightly.  We fall short, and God knows this.  How good it is we we also know this, praise God for His grace and extend it freely to others too!

God's grace is amazing, and amazingly we can fall short of it.  Hebrews 12:14-16 says, "Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: ¹⁵ looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; ¹⁶ lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright."  Knowing God's love, His word and salvation extended to us by grace enables us to pursue peace and holiness.  It is by God's grace our strength is renewed and we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to put off bitterness and walk uprightly.  The grace of God, instead of enabling sin, guards steadfastly against sin and provides godly perspective and instruction.

See how grace teaches us in Titus 2:11-14:  "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, ¹² teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, ¹³ looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, ¹⁴ who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works."  Having received God's grace we are called to walk righteously with eyes looking to Jesus.  He has redeemed and purified us that we might reject ungodliness and do what pleases Him.  Praise the LORD for His glorious grace, even when we mistakenly misquote His word!

A Life of Thanksgiving to God

When I read through lyrics printed on the insert in cassettes or CDs years ago, I also read the tribute of thanks written by the band or individual members.  I was always pleased when I saw God or Jesus being thanked because it suggested these were Christian artists I supported and listened to.  Looking back, it was more of a legalistic tick box than anything.  Even if God or biblical truth was completely absent from the lyrics, at least they acknowledged God and thus could be justified as believers.  Hmmm.

This realisation came to me when I recently unwrapped a CD purchased online of a Christian artist I enjoy thoroughly.  For whatever reason I turned to the thanks section and was surprised not to see a mention of God anywhere.  But then I considered how every single song on the album was from a godly perspective, even at times directly quoting the words of Jesus.  Wasn't it better to include God and His truth in every song rather than a cliche "thank God" at the end?  Instead of tacking on a mention of God in closing, lumped in with acknowledging sound technicians, studios, contributing artists, guitar and amp companies, to honour God throughout every song is actually a more fitting way to approach writing an album.

It struck me we can live life similar to albums that have no mention of God in their songs or content at all except on the back page in the fine print that requires a magnifying glass and bright light to read.  We can go through our days or even our lives concluding with a brief prayer of thanks to God when He ought to have been our main focus at all times.  Since Christians have been bought with the blood of Jesus and are not our own, it is our reasonable service to present ourselves as living sacrifices unto God in giving thanks to Him.  Giving thanks or acknowledging God is more than words but can be demonstrated by how we live, what we say and the God-honouring choices we make.

Many Christians kick themselves for being slack with prayer or Bible reading for a few minutes in the morning or evening, but perhaps a better perspective is to live with God in mind all day long:  praying and thanking Him when you are not reading your Bible during devotions or before a meal.  We're like, "Oh no, I forgot to pray before eating!" when we ought to pray with gratitude during and after the meal as well.  We can seek the LORD, be content with what He has given us, put off grumbling and complaining, and proclaim how good God is to others as a holy act of service to Him.  I am not suggesting reading the Bible and praying is of no benefit, but let us not think "I'm good" because we embraced spiritual disciplines for a moment and left undone the larger part about living our lives every day to glorify Him.

Impromptu Christianity

I was blessed recently to baptise fellow believers in obedience to the command of Jesus Christ.  I was encouraged and pleased, not only by the joy of seeing Christians enthusiastic to identify with Christ, but with the response of an observer:  "Well, that was easy."  How true it is that we can complicate what God made easy and create lengthy processes, ceremonies or rituals that become more than a chore than a delightful duty as God intended.

In contrast to modern churches that have embraced scheduled meetings and events, the scripture is filled with seemingly impromptu moments orchestrated by the Holy Spirit as members of the body of Christ spread the Good News.  Many are recorded in the book of Acts, like when the Holy Spirit led Philip into the desert where he met an Ethiopian eunuch who had departed Jerusalem with a scroll of Isaiah.  Acts 8:35-38 says, "Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him. ³⁶  Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, "See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?" ³⁷ Then Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may." And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." ³⁸ So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him."  This is profoundly simple.

Now there is nothing at all wrong with having plans and scheduling events like baptisms.  But I confess I have at times wrongly avoided the impromptu immediacy demonstrated by Philip.  The believing Ethiopian eunuch asked, "Here is water:  what hinders me from being baptised?"  Faith in Jesus was the only requirement Philip cited before baptising him.  There was no need to make a public announcement to make the gathering as efficient as possible so all who might be interested could attend or be baptised as well; there was no class to attend or tests to pass.  There was no "cooling off" period to ensure his profession of faith was demonstrably genuine.  There were no formal vestments to wear, water temperature to manage or potluck to organise.  A sense of urgency of the eunuch to profess publicly his belief in Christ was before God alone, and a horn was not blown to gather witnesses.  It is easy to allow traditional practices and a desire for efficiency to hinder people from being baptised--and more requirements can be placed upon people to be baptised than God does to save them!

Baptism should be easy because the payment to provide the opportunity for the baptism of born again Christians was most difficult, impossible for any but Christ to supply.  The price Jesus paid on Calvary to atone for lost sinners is sufficient to save souls, and thus there should be no hindrance to a believer receiving communion or being baptised.  It is entirely responsible and legitimate those who submit to these ordinances have a grasp of the spiritual significance, and that is where biblical teaching and pastoral guidance is useful and helpful.  In the end God holds each person accountable, and all will answer to Him Who knows intimately the hearts of man.  If Philip did not hinder the Ethiopian enuch from being baptised, we should be mindful not to hinder others in their desire to follow Christ's example and be baptised too.

Faith in Action Together

God's word has an incredible power to impact our minds and hearts.  Even narratives are instructive to provide examples good and bad that challenge our attitudes and approaches to life and ministry.  The passage in Mark 2 when the paralytic was lowered to Jesus as He preached the word is a passage God has recently impressed upon me.

Mark 2:1-5 says of Jesus, "And again He entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that He was in the house. ² Immediately many gathered together, so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door. And He preached the word to them. ³ Then they came to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men. ⁴ And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying. ⁵ When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven you."  When Jesus arrived in Capernaum, word spread quickly through the city and region.  People dropped what they were doing and headed to see and hear Jesus for themselves.  It could have been people saw a group gathering and came to see out of curiosity.

Mark tells us there were four men who heard Jesus had come and carried their paralysed friend to Jesus to be healed by Him.  The problem was, there was no way to move through the dense crowd.  Even if those on the outside of the group made way, the house itself was completely full and there was no way for them to disperse.  So these men hatched a plan:  they scrabbled up on the roof of the house, lugged their friend on his bed up there, broke through the roof material and let him down to Jesus.  One thing which struck me was the united faith and efforts of these men:  their breakthrough to Jesus came together as they got their hands dirty to bring a friend to Jesus.  There was a desperation, a spontaneity as they communicated to overcome obstacles as a united team which would have turned others away disappointed who said, "Oh well, I guess we can't bring our friend to Jesus today after all."

These men sourced ropes and perhaps tools; they made it work.  Their faith in Jesus moved them to break through the roof together and lower their paralysed friend to the LORD Jesus.  When He saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven you."  He said this knowing full well there were bystanders who imagined Jesus was a blasphemer to claim to have ability to forgive sins, since only God can forgive sins.  To demonstrate Jesus has the power to forgive sins--and thus is God--He healed the man physically as well as forgiving his sins.  Jesus did the healing and forgiving, yet there was also an important role fulfilled by those four men who were united in faith and ministry to bring him to Jesus.  I view this as an example of how the church can operate, many people working together as one united by faith in Christ to bring people to Him.

It occurred to me that I was brought to Jesus by others, and we can even bring a paralysed church or ministry to Jesus to set us right.  If we are not bringing people to Jesus, we need look no further than ourselves:  does my faith in Jesus prompt me to bring people to Him?  Do I allow different interpretations or doctrinal emphasis to divide me from serving with brothers and sisters?  Have I been doing my own thing without consulting and joining together with fellow believers in united effort?  Am I afraid or unwilling to embrace new roles or challenges, waiting for a path to miraculously clear when there is a way to break through the roof right now?  The fear of heights, a longstanding back problem, fatigue from a long day in the fields or the inherent danger of the work did not hinder those men with faith in Jesus from teaming up, discussing, communicating with one another, sourcing what was needed and working together to bring one person to Jesus.

Even as the bodies of those four men worked together to lower the paralysed man to Jesus, the paralysed man was willing to be lowered.  He demonstrated faith in obedience to Jesus when at His command he rose, took up his bed and walked.  This is how the body of Christ the church is to operate as led by the Holy Spirit together:  not one person doing what they have prayed about and doing what is right in their own eyes, but all the members joined together by faith in Jesus to bring people to Him.  We are all individual members of the body of Christ, yet we are also all joined together with one another and Jesus Christ who is our Head.  This passage illustrates how breakthroughs are not just for individuals but for groups of people who unite to seek Jesus together.