Part Eleven

We have been talking a lot about law, and obedience to the law.  Today, I want to talk about grace and how it interacts with the law.

How should God react to our sin when we break his law? Is there to be no consequence? Is He just supposed to say, “Aw shucks, it’s ok, don’t worry about it. Try and do better next time.” Is that just?  Is that holy? Is that righteous? Imagine someone broke into your house, stole your grandmother’s jewelry sold it all and got caught. The day of court comes and the judge says, “Aw shucks, it’s ok, don’t worry about it. Try and do better next time.” How would you feel? I would hope you would feel outraged! That’s not just! No just judge will let a criminal go no matter how miniscule the crime is.

The next logical thought in the world of Christianity is, “Yeah but Jesus paid the price for my sins, so God will not judge me for my sins.” Now this is very true, but this is also where grace gets sticky. So let me ask a logical question. Does forgiveness make one sin more?

Consider this scenario.

 Someone breaks into your house, steals your grandmother’s jewelry sells it all and gets caught. They go to court and you are there to hear the sentence.  The judge pronounces the thief guilty, the gavel falls, and the penalty is announced “Ten years in jail.” Just then the perpetrator’s father walks in and says, “I will take that penalty for him.” It turns out the man who broke into your house has 5 kids and a wife with a drug addiction and he is doing all he can to provide for them. He works two jobs. He used to be a thief and quit ten years ago but came out of retirement to provide for his family. His dad hears about his problem and steps in to take his place so he can continue to care for his family. Now what do you do? Well you still want justice, as you should. Someone has to pay for the wrong someone has to pay the price for stealing your grandmother’s jewelry which can’t be replaced. A price has to be paid for justice to be served.

The sentence has been passed.

Judgment has been made.

The righteous judge then allows the father to do the ten years and lets the son go free. We have quite a few questions don’t we.

First why should someone else be able to pay the price? Second, why should the guy’s story be taken into account? And finally how could a just judge let a guilty man walk free? One word. . . grace. There is no other explanation but grace. Grace allows someone else to pay the price, grace allows the story to be taken into consideration and grace lets the guilty man walk free. Grace. But you could say, “That’s not fair!” BINGO! It is not fair, it is grace! It is not fair, it is unmerited favor.

But now let’s deal with another problem, what if the guy walks out of the courtroom, goes down the street and breaks into another house and steals another grandmother’s jewelry? Now it’s getting really bad right? Why? Why would that outrage you so much? Because his dad is sitting in jail paying for his crime and he is out doing it again! The father does not deserve that. The first time this happened we could possibly understand, even if we didn’t like it, why a “stand in” was necessary, but now, now we say, “But you went and did the same thing again. The sacrifice was for nothing!” The dad sacrificed his life for the son but the son went right back and committed the crime again.

If the son would have felt the weight of the gift he had been given there is no way he would ever walk out the door and rob again. He would have been transformed by the power of forgiving grace, instead of feeling like he got away with it and could go do it again.

This is deep.

This is the making the eighteen inch journey from the head to the heart.

Check out this scary verse that has been translated a million different ways, “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of truth, there no longer remains sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of the judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.” (Hebrews 10:26-27) I have heard people say this is not saying what we think it is saying, but I think it is straightforward because of one word in there, “knowledge”. If we keep going into sin deliberately after we know what has been done for us there is nothing else that can be done for us. Knowledge creates belief and belief changes behavior.  If you truly believe Christ died for your sins, stood in your place and took the penalty, then you will not keep doing the same things over and over.

I realize this may bring even more difficulty. Paul said himself “For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. . . For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.” I get it, I truly do, (more than you know) but here comes the question, does “that” break your heart? Do you say what Paul said, “Wretched man I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Does the fact you keep doing what you are doing break your heart to the point you feel the weight of the sacrifice Jesus made for you? If you cannot feel that weight, then I am not sure you have fully understood grace.

I don’t think Jesus is as worried about what we do as much as he is worried about why we do what we do. If we keep doing what we do and it breaks our hearts when we do it then we are being transformed. If we keep doing what we do with no regrets then we have not understood exactly what Jesus did.

The simple truth is we all “steal grandmother’s jewelry”, we have all, as Christians, walked out of the courtroom with our penalty paid by our father, but the problem is we are prone to steal again. Is there progression though? Is there movement toward leaving the “old life”? Does that proneness bring you to tears at night? Does your ability to keep on sinning in spite of what Jesus did drive you toward him or away from him? That’s the issue. The life transforming power of Jesus is in the grace he has given us in spite of our guilt. It should drive us to Him.

I realize no matter what metaphor I try and use it will break down at some level. We are dealing with a mystery of God. He forgives over and over and over no matter how much we sin. But on the other hand we cannot just keep sinning as if we have a license to do so. There comes a point where the sacrifice of Jesus breaks us to the point of obedience. And obedience starts to bring blessing. I will save that for the next post.