AMAZING GRACE
A rather unpleasant aspect of the Bible is how often it calls upon us to sacrifice. The word “sacrifice” itself appears 284 times in the pages of Scripture. The words “give” and “giving” appear a whopping 2285 times. One might be led to believe that selfishness has no place in the Christian life. Yet still, one has to ask the question, “Why?” Why would one sacrifice – why would one give – when looking out for Number One is what most of us would really rather do?
I believe a man named Bill Moore from Asheville, North Carolina – not Bill Moore from Meadville, Pennsylvania, Bill Moore from Asheville, North Carolina – addresses this phenomenon. He tells a beautiful story as to why one might willingly choose to sacrifice one’s own self-interest for the sake of another. I may have told you this story before – you know me, I get my churches mixed up – but I’ve always believed that a really good story is worth a second telling. Listen closely just the same.
People who live in resort areas like ours rarely seem to lack for visitors, especially during the vacation season. Much of the time this parade of pilgrims to the mountains is a pleasant experience for the hosts. But recently, we had the visitor to end all visitors.
He couldn’t stay at our house unless we went out and bought a special kind of bed for him, we were told. So we did. He was accompanied by an entourage of no fewer than three people, whose mission in life was to wait on him hand and foot. We had to find places for them to stay, we were told. So we did.
He arrived with, of all things, an assortment of his own personal screwdrivers. In his spare moments he proceeded to disassemble just about everything in the house. Unfortunately, his skill at taking things apart was not nearly matched by his skill at putting them back together. Someone had to constantly follow him around and reassemble the things he took apart. So we did.
We like to take first-time visitors to Asheville to the lodge at Mount Pisgah for lunch. The scenery nearly bowls them over, but not this guy. We were barely over the bridge across the French Broad River when he went to sleep. And he didn’t wake up until we got to the lodge.
He made a scene at lunch, refused to eat what was ordered for him, and insisted on eating someone else’s meal. And before we could get him out of the place, I caught him kissing the waitress. He turned out to be a real conversation killer as well. While he slept, the rest of us walked around on tiptoe and spoke in hushed tones so as not to disturb him. While he was awake, he tended to monopolize any conversation, rattling on non-stop in a voice that demanded careful attention.
You might think we’d say, “Who needs a guest like that? We’ll be glad to see him go and we’ll never invite him back.” You might think that, but you’d be wrong. You see, he is just three years old and he calls me “Grandpa.” And he can come over and disassemble the house any time he wants.
Why would one sacrifice – why would one give – when looking out for Number One is what most of us would really rather do? I think Bill Moore from Asheville, North Carolina reveals the answer for us. The answer…is love. We sacrifice for love.
I believe this brings to mind the passage we read from the gospel according to Luke. Jesus makes his triumphal ride into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday on the back of a colt amid pomp and circumstance. People line the road, place their garments in the street, wave palm branches and shout, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
Now from our vantage point, nearly 2000 years on this side of the cross, we are well aware of the fate that lay in store for Jesus in Jerusalem. He would see the crowds turn against him and he would see his closest friends abandon him. He would suffer brutal beatings and he would suffer death by crucifixion. Yet the fact of the matter is, Jesus had a pretty good idea as to the fate that would befall him as well. We can’t help but ask the question, “Why? Why on earth would Jesus ride into Jerusalem in full knowledge of the suffering he would face? Why on earth would Jesus ride into Jerusalem in full knowledge of the sacrifice he would ultimately make?” There can be no other answer…but love. Jesus made his sacrifice out of his love for humanity. Jesus made his sacrifice out of his love for you and me.
The sacrifice Jesus made changed the course of history. For through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, God established a new covenant with humanity. The old covenant – the covenant of law – was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The new covenant he established is a covenant of grace and mercy.
As Christians, we are under this new covenant of grace and mercy. That does not mean that the old covenant is abolished – that the laws of God in the Old Testament are meaningless to us. But what it does mean is that because of the covenant established through Christ’s sacrifice, now there is forgiveness…thanks to the grace of God.
So what exactly is the grace of God? I recently came across an interesting analogy written by a minister who was trying to reach the younger generation. He says that grace is like the System Restore feature on the Windows Millennium Edition of your computer. How does it work? Let’s say you’ve had a crash on your computer today. You’re not a computer wizard – no one in your family works for the Geek Squad – so you don’t know how to recover the last week of financial information you entered, or the documents you’ve saved, or even your son’s English paper. What you need is a restoration of your system.
With the System Restore feature on your computer, all you have to do is specify the date to which you want your computer reset. Almost like a time machine, that’s exactly what your computer does. Your computer is returned to its previous stable state. It almost sounds theological doesn’t it? System Restore…now that’s grace!
When a person works an eight-hour day and receives a fair day’s pay for his or her time, that is a wage. When a person competes with an opponent and receives a trophy for his or her performance, that is a prize. When a person receives appropriate recognition for long service or high achievement, that is an award. But when a person is not capable of earning a wage, and can win no prize, and deserves no award – yet receives such a gift anyway – that is what we call grace.
Grace is defined as unmerited favor. Again, grace is defined as unmerited favor.
J.I. Packer is a retired professor of theology at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia. Kevin Dill says that if he’s a Canadian, he can’t be all bad! In his book Knowing God, he takes an interesting look at the concept of grace. Listen to what he has to say:
It is commonplace in all the churches to call Christianity a religion of grace. It is a truism of Christian scholarship that grace, far from being an impersonal force – a sort of celestial electricity received like a battery charge by plugging in to the sacraments – is a personal activity…God operating in love toward people.
It is repeatedly pointed out in books and sermons that the Greek New Testament word for grace (charis), like that for love (agape) , is a wholly Christian usage, expressing a notion of spontaneous, self-determined kindness which was previously quite unknown to Greco-Roman ethics and theology. It is a staple diet in the Sunday school that grace is God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. And yet, despite these facts, there do not seem to be many in our churches who actually believe in grace.
Did you catch that last line? “And yet, despite these facts, there do not seem to be many in our churches who actually believe in grace.” What on earth does that mean? How could anyone not believe in grace? The fact of the matter is, that question is not so shocking. For in order to believe in grace, one must necessarily accept a small progression of other facts as well.
For example, in order to believe in grace, one must first accept the fact that one is a sinner. Yet many modern men and women are convinced that, despite all their little peccadilloes – drunkenness, gambling, reckless driving, promiscuity, black and white lies, unscrupulous business practices, pornography, what have you – in spite of these things, people still believe they are, at heart, thoroughly good folks. The thought of themselves as creatures fallen from God’s image, rebels against God’s rule, guilty and unclean in God’s sight, fit only for God’s condemnation…never even enters their heads. Yet in order to believe in grace, that’s the first thing we have to believe. To believe in grace, we must first believe we need it.
In order to believe in grace, one must also believe in the retributive justice of God. We often times say, “If God is really a God of love, how could he punish anyone?” Of course, that’s not scriptural, but that’s the way we try to rationalize our way around things. Yet God would not be true to himself unless he did punish sin. We must come to realize that sinners – like us – deserve God’s condemnation before we can begin to believe in grace.
In order to believe in grace, one must believe in what we might call the spiritual impotence of humanity. Ancient pagans thought they could appease God by offering tremendous gifts and sacrifices. Perhaps we think we can appease God as well through churchmanship or morality. For example, back in the 1930s, one man paid to build the massive East Liberty Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh all by himself. Some call that church “Mellon’s Fire Escape.” Yet in order to believe in grace, we must first believe that mending our relationship with God – that regaining God’s favor after having once lost it – is beyond the capacity of any one of us. Restoring our relationship with God is only possible through Jesus Christ.
And finally, in order to believe in grace, one must first accept the sovereign freedom of God. The point is that God owes us nothing. Grace is only grace if it comes from a God who is free to choose otherwise.
So I ask you now: “Do you believe in grace?” If you believe that you are a sinner, that you deserve God’s condemnation, that you can do nothing to merit God’s favor, and that God is free to do with you as he chooses, then perhaps you do believe in grace. If you believe otherwise, then perhaps what you believe in is what Dietrich Bonhoeffer referred to as cheap grace. The grace of God in Christ is anything but cheap. The grace of God in Christ…is nothing short of amazing.
Yet one more thing still needs to be said. Christians are often criticized as being hypocritical. Outsiders see Christian foibles and imperfections and think to themselves, “Hah! Christians are no better than anyone else! And that’s why I don’t want to be one.” They see our imperfections and criticize the Christian faith in general. To that, I say this. Christians are not perfect. Christians, too, are in need of the grace of God. Being a Christian is a process of growth that takes a lifetime to complete. The question is, “Who can really change?” Who can really be transformed by the grace of God? Our pride has a tendency to get in the way. With that in mind, I want you to listen to part of an article that was written by Phillip Yancey in Christianity Today in October of 2001. He writes:
I have never been especially patriotic. I’ve travelled too much overseas, I guess, and have seen from afar the arrogance and insensitivity of too many Americans. September 11th changed my attitude. I choked up when Congress sang “God Bless America,” and when the Buckingham Palace guard played “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and when firemen told corny stories about their fallen comrades, and when a solitary bagpiper played “Amazing Grace” in Union Square, and when hundreds of New Yorkers walked around dazed with photos of their missing loved ones…I felt a sudden surge of loyalty and unity with my country that was new to me. Scot Simon put words to it in a National Public Radio editorial after the World Trade Center attacks. He said, “Patriotism is not based on a blind belief that the United States has no need to change. God knows we need to change in many ways. Our love for America rests on the belief that the changes needed are more likely to occur here than anywhere else in the world.”
Perhaps we could say the very same thing about people who encounter the amazing grace of God. They are not perfect; they still need to change. It’s just that the changes needed are more likely to occur in them than they are in anyone else in the world. Amen.
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