10th November, 2008

LLOYD HARKNESS

Living in a society, which in recent times has been more willing to talk about forgiveness and the need to ‘say sorry’, particularly in respect to some of our indigenous Australian history, gives cause to reflect on the bigger concept of grace.

GRACIOUS BOUNTY: Grace is seen in such things as harvests. We don’t earn the bounty but rather God gives them to us. PICTURE: Paul Grant (www.sxc.hu) "Grace, interestingly, was not originally bound to the idea of forgiveness and acceptance, although the idea of being favoured is foundational. At its core grace means to receive or experience that which brings joy and delight."

God’s grace, in our life, has always had the capacity to radically reshape us through salvation and the outworking of that experience over the remainder of our days on this green and blue globe.

Equally, God’s grace in our hands has been distorted and rendered impotent when used as an escape clause for pursuing our ‘fallen’ interests or agenda. The New Testament church had problems in this area when people took licence in matters ranging from sex to money to misuse of the communal Lord’s Supper.

Grace, interestingly, was not originally bound to the idea of forgiveness and acceptance, although the idea of being favoured is foundational. At its core grace means to receive or experience that which brings joy and delight. Both the Hebrew word hen and the Greek word charis have this foundational meaning.

Hen grace is about receiving what is pleasant and agreeable. With hen you recognise you are being favoured, liked or loved.

Likewise, charis grace is about what brings delight and pleasure for the receiver. This delight is coupled to gratitude and a sense of favour for what has been given. It recognises the loving-kindness and generosity of the giver.

Hence, in a general way, grace is seen in rains and harvests, material blessings and relational blessings given to all peoples in all lands. We don’t earn these things but rather God gives them to us.

God’s favour and God’s kindness bring joy and delight. In his sovereignty He has chosen to extend salvation to mankind through Christ’s substitutionary death. This was his choice. God chose to be gracious, to extend his hand of goodwill in this way.

No-one is worthy of God’s grace. No-one can earn God’s grace either through good works or self flagellation or some form of penance for sin.

Grace is mercy. Grace is love. Grace is God. And grace is uniquely given through Jesus Christ.

Grace is about the joy and delight which comes from blotting out sin. We may attempt to appease our conscience in some other way when dealing with sin but conscience appeasement is a poor substitute for delight.

I am sure those matters of licence, mentioned earlier, in the New Testament church, were justified in various ways; perhaps even with the tag line of God will forgive me if I am wrong anyhow. But they short changed themselves when they didn’t allow grace to impact their lives and flood them with its pleasure.

Sometimes grace is portrayed as soft or ineffective but God’s grace and God’s righteousness are intertwined. His integrity is not compromised by his grace. Grace, on no level, equates to weakness or feebleness. Grace doesn’t go soft on sin. It crushes sin and removes its venom.

Sin cannot be strangled off in our lives by an ever constricting set of rules or laws or code of behaviour. But sin is rendered powerless by grace, by knowing God who is gracious.

Grace is strength personified, especially in the face of what we can do to it when we get our hands on it and try to squeeze out some sort of personal licence. That is part of the reason why grace is amazing.

Grace is amazing because it sets captives free from sin and renews the heart. We are not just released from prison and with $20 in our pocket told to make our own way in society again. God gives us the tools through his renewing work of grace in our spirit to ensure we never return to prison again. God’s work of love and grace enables us to step away from recidivism.

Grace is all the more amazing because it is about life and death. A life is given so we don’t die. In the Old Testament it was an animal sacrifice. Under the new covenant Jesus fully reveals the Father’s grace through his crucifixion and the wages of our sin, death, is paid in full.

Grace is sacrifice. Grace is putting another first. Grace is taking a loving and kind stance to the wayward.

God’s grace is for all humanity. It’s limitless. It abounds.

His grace produces peace. It bridges the gap between the Holy Lord God Almighty and an unholy misdirected humanity. In achieving peace between us it then establishes God’s peace in our lives. Alongside peace there is comfort, hope, an abundant life and eternal life. Grace is the fountainhead of all that flows from God into our lives.

Grace is never about merit and it seems to have little to do with what we would often view as fairness. It’s about cancelling out rather than balancing up.

Grace is a gift given and gifts are free. But the only reason it is free is because the giver has already paid the price.

God paid the price because he loves us and nothing we do, either positive or negative, can inflate or deflate his infinite love. The gift has been given and is a given.

It is sure. It is certain.

But while the gift has been given we still have to accept it. In accepting the gift of grace we acknowledge the giver and his thoughtfulness. In opening the gift we receive all that grace offers.

And grace offers joy, delight, acceptance, unmerited favour, peace, comfort, hope, sacrifice, loving-kindness and the way to deal with our misguided lives.

When we recognise the value of the present we are being offered repentance floods our hearts. In fact, to put it another way, we only accept the gift and rip off the wrapping paper and packaging when we have repented.

Grace is amazing.

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