What
is Grace?
Our
congregation has been identified at the “Grace Church” for a number of
years. What is grace? My Webster’s dictionary defines “grace” as a
noun “beauty or charm of form, movement, or expression; good will; favour; a delay
granted for payment of an obligation; a short prayer of thanks for a meal” and
as a verb “to decorate; to dignify”.
These definitions are not entirely helpful. Which definition are we referring to and who
is it that is defined by “grace”? The
dictionary definition of “grace” does not really express the full Christian
meaning of the term. When I lived in
Why
do we need (want) anything from God? An
honest and careful search of one’s heart will reveal the same thing for all humans:
guilt, shame, hopelessness and emptiness.
We do not need to debate this appraisal of my heart or your heart – we
both know it to be true. What is the
remedy? Party till you drop? Drink alcohol and do drugs until the guilt
becomes numb? Have an “expert” tell you
that you have no self-confidence and try to deceive your own heart into finding
self-esteem? Blame someone else for your
guilt? Seek sexual satisfaction in an
ever escalating requirement for gratification? Leave a legacy so others, who
cannot see your heart, think you are great though you still come up empty in
your own heart? Or do you deal with your
guilt and shame, gain hope from outside yourself and fill the void in your
heart with that which it was meant to be filled?
Humans
were created to commune with God. This
is why we cannot be neutral with respect to God. If we are not communing with Him, we are in
rebellion to Him because we are not doing what we were created to do. As we broke that communion we have become
guilty, shameful, hopeless and empty.
God is Holy; He will not turn a blind eye to rebellion. In his Holiness, He must be true to holy love
as well as holy justice.
Let
me illustrate it this way: You create a
creature and you make a deal (covenant) with it. The deal is that you will take care of its
every need and all it has to do is give you every penny it ever earns. If your creature breaks the deal you will
punish it by withdrawing all good things you previously gave from that
creature. You maintain your end of the
bargain perfectly. It never has want for
any good thing. Then one day your
creature decides to take one penny that it made and go and buy a treat for
itself. It consumes the treat so it is
gone. It broke the agreement. There is no level of giving you money after
that point that can pay that debt for every penny it made was already supposed
to go to you – there is nothing that your creature can do to cover the
debt. That is how it is with us – we
were created to worship God and Him only and He would bless us with many good
things (communion with Him, life, food, etc.).
We have not kept our end of the deal, though. We have seen other things as worthy of our
attention and obedience. Thus, our
hearts are full of shame and guilt for breaking the deal (covenant). This guilt and shame, contrary to modern
psychoanalysis, is a good thing if it drives us to repentance. God, in His holy love and mercy, paid our
debt – that is what Jesus’ dying on the cross was all about: paying our debt
for our rebellion. We are as hopeless as
our fictional creature is. We have no
more ability to pay our debt that it does its debt. Thus, if we try to solve our guilt on our own
it will only lead to more guilt and ultimately death and hell but if we turn to
Jesus for our help and salvation (saving from the debt) we can lose our
hopelessness. When we return God to His
rightful place in our hearts then, believe me, our hearts are no longer
empty. This is GRACE – God giving us all
the bounty we lost (and more) and the debt is paid by none other than Himself (Jesus).
That
is why those who named the congregation gave it that name. Not only do we appreciate grace – we depend
on it.
If
your heart is in turmoil with guilt and shame I would invite you to make peace
with God as that will be the only remedy that will truly cure the problem. Then you will find hope in abundance and will
be filled not just for the time being but for eternity. Please contact anyone
on the contact page if you have any questions or wish
to have a guide or mentor on this journey.
“Why are you cast down, O
my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again
praise him, my salvation and my God.” Psalm 42:11 (ESV)
“My soul finds no rest
until it rests in Thee [God].” St. Augustine of Hippo
“But the tax collector,
standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his
breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man
went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts
himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be
exalted." Luke 18:13-14 (ESV)