Is grace worth dying for? I have been doing a lot of reading and thinking about what grace really is, and how in the world am I supposed to give more of it that I take. To be honest, these thoughts aren't pretty and I do not have much to be proud of. Grace can eat your lunch when you sit down with it. But is it meant to cut us in such a way? Is there any part of grace that is supposed to make us hurt and feel hardship?When you hear the word grace, I believe your heart is supposed to smile. You mind is meant to go to places where people lend a hand to those in need, or other pretty places like the Cross... What about the Cross was pretty? Was it the man bloodied beyond recognition, was that pretty? Maybe it was the sin of the world that covered his body, was that pretty? While Christ walked the earth, His steps where grace filled. Even a mere touch of His robe caused grace spill onto those who touched it. It must have been a beautiful thing to behold...But that same grace caused Him the greatest pain imaginable. That same showing of grace caused hearts to be hardened when they saw it. It caused bitterness in the hearts of those who should have known enough to walk beside Him. I think I see some of those same bitter feeling bubbling inside of me.
So I ask again, "Is grace worth dying for?". Should it hurt? Should it cause us hardship? What I know for certain is that the grace that we are to freely give can cost us everything. So, why do I still have so much?
2 comments:
I think we are predominantly supposed to be recipients of (the Lord's) grace, not givers-out of grace. We can point people to the gracious One, and our speech can be seasoned with grace, and we can, by grace, be called and equipped for ministry, but it is "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ" that we seek for all persons.
True, but we are to be messengers and conduits of God's grace. It is never "our" grace, but God certainly uses us to administer His grace. That's why Ephesians 2:10 calls us God's "workmanship" and says that we were created for the "work" that He has already prepared for us. I submit that the "work" mentioned here is a mirror of the "work" of Christ in verses 4-9. We are to be gracious as He is gracious. We are to invite people, not based on their works, because Christ invited us based on His grace. There are far too many admonissions in the New Testament that call believers to participate in the "work" of Christ to simply dismiss our priority to be messengers of that grace in word and deed.
Just because it's not my grace to give doesn't mean that I can't be gracious. Recieving that grace now empowers me to live by it and give others what I have so beautifully been given.
I think Chad is really saying that being a mirror of Christ's grace will cost us something. He is correct. Grace is a beautiful gift, but it takes our pride and our control. In so doing it kills our old nature, and that hurts. It is, however, far better than the alternative!
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