We need a deeper understanding of Grace. Perhaps there is no more misunderstood concept in all of scripture than this. In fact, the general conception of grace that is maintained by most Christians is one that, if continued, will imprison them in a life of spiritual failure and dissatisfaction as well as the state of being lost.

Beliefs About Grace

Let me start with several of the ideas that are the foundation stones of the popular conception of grace. 

1. Grace is the unmerited favor of God--This is true. The only thing sinners merit is death according to Romans 6.

2. Grace is a characteristic of Jesus, but not the God of the Old Testament, and being a New Testament idea, and a reflection of a new approach on God's part, we are now free to live above and outside of the OT law.

3. Grace is freedom from any concern about personal conduct. All sin: past, present and future, is covered automatically by that grace and nothing can keep us out of the kingdom once we accept that grace from God. Even if we turn our backs on the faith and walk totally contrary to the word of God or reject it, we have salvation because of Grace.

4. The only way to be lost is to publicly, verbally renounce Jesus.  You cannot be lost because of action.

Fuzzy Views of Grace

There are companion beliefs associated with these, for example, grace is offered because God's law and his past relationship with man was weak and imperfect, in other words, God didn't quite get it right in the OT so Jesus and His love fixed the failure of God. The idea is that no one can keep a weak and imperfect law. God discovered his mistake and needed an attitude adjustment.  So Jesus came to do away with God's faulty law and expectations and usher in the NT dispensation of love and life without boundaries. Grace is, basically, freedom to live as you please with the assurance of salvation regardless of your choices. 

In other words, You're going to heaven whether you want to or not.  Once you say you accept Jesus, you no longer have a choice. According to that theory, Judas, Saul, Ananias, Sapphira, and a host of others who turned away from the Lord will have to endure eternity in the presence of God against their wills because of grace. That's not grace; that's torture! God does not force people even into good things if they choose not to follow him with all their hearts.

A Clearer View of Grace

Let me illustrate what grace is and also how God's holy law figures into the picture. Years ago my wife and I were trying to put our son into a private school. We were not happy with the way things were being done at our denomination's church school, so we decided that the best alternative was to put him in a private school with no religious affiliation. This way he would not be messed up by being indoctrinated into some other faith. The responsibility for his spiritual training would be on us not the school. All went well. On the Thursday before the new term began, we went to the parent teacher mixer where the new families met and socialized with the school faculty, staff and administration. We were excited and felt confident that we had made the right choice. That was until Friday. We received a call from our landlord who also happened to be like a second mother to us. She told us that she had not been able to sleep the night before and that the Lord had a message for us. Before I go on, I have to say that we knew that if this spiritual giant had a message we needed to listen. 

She indicated that we needed to stop the process of putting our son in the private school and put him in the church school. The Lord showed her that the damage from the private route would be far worse than any due to the inefficiencies of the church school. When she finished, we knew that God had spoken. But school started the following Monday, and we had made a $500.00, non-refundable deposit at the private school---WE WERE NOT RICH!!!!! We couldn't just  throw $500 to the wind. We contacted the private school and explained this crazy move the best we could. They wanted to know what they had done wrong, they asked if we needed more financial aid. They reminded us that our deposit was non-refundable. We said we knew but we felt that this is what the Lord would have us do.

We were able to get our kids quickly enrolled in the church school and later that week we received a letter from the private school. It stated that they had been looking forward to enjoying the school year with us as a part of their school family, but understood that circumstances did not allow that to happen.  They wished us good luck in our future endeavors and said, "please find enclosed a check for your non-refundable deposit of $500.00." 

Grace!

Playing by the Rules

You see, what made this grace was the rule. According to the rule, which everyone memorized, the deposit was not refundable. we had no reason to doubt that this was true. This school had nice people but they were very businesslike in their approach to finances. The school had such a solid reputation that people had no problem making the deposit because only a fool would give up a coveted acceptance to the premiere private school of the region. To reject this offer was to have wasted their time and caused them to lose another highly qualified candidate. In that respect, it is understandable that they would not give refunds. We thought long and hard about making that deposit and when we did we knew that we had made a solid commitment to that school. 

But after the call from the landlord,  we knew that our chances of seeing that $500 again were nil! The reason: The rule. We led the school to believe that on Monday our son would be at his desk ready for classes. They knew that we understood the terms of the agreement we signed. They had done all that they needed to do to fulfill their part of the bargain then we backed out. According to the rules that we accepted as fair, we deserved no refund. But simply as an act of graciousness, that school sent us a check for a full refund. No they didn't send a partial refund with a chastising letter to let us know what a serious breech of faith we had just committed. They wished us the best, recognized the importance of our spiritual decision, and showed us that what they were doing in giving us the refund was out of the ordinary. Grace!

We did not deserve it! They should have penalized us for wasting their time! Instead they blessed us as we made our crazy move.

What makes God's grace grace is when you know the rules. God's law is simple and straight forward. We have broken it, shattered it, bombed it with our sin. Then Jesus comes and offers to pay the penalty which we cannot pay. The rule says that the wages of sin is death. God would not bend the rule. There was no flexing here. Yet God's love for man is so deep and his devotion to the law (the very transcript of his character) so rigid that he chose to give his son to die our death to accomplish two magnificent goals:

1. To save man from the penalty for breaking God's law.

2. To preserve forever the foundation of life and order for all creation: his law.