Dangerous Grace

Amazing grace. We know all about it.

Sweet. Melodious. Enchanting. In a word ... amazing.

But is grace simply amazing? Is that all there is to grace? What if I said grace was dangerous?

Our attitude toward grace will only reflect God's, when we recognize just how dangerous grace was and is. We begin to lose grace when we fence it in, instead of acknowledging how wild it can be.

God made grace dangerous. It's His plan.

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Grace is absolutely amazing. It is inconceivable that the Father would love us in such a way as to send the Son to redeem us, who in turn would send the Spirit to seal us.

There is nothing we did or could have done to earn grace because that's exactly what it is – unmerited favor. God has turned his face toward His children simply out of His love. In fact, He has transformed us from rebels and traitors into children and joint heirs with Christ.

Grace frees us to choose Christ, where as that option was never available to us before. That is nothing if not amazing, but there is more and this is where grace gets dangerous.

God has openly poured out His grace for us, but He has done so on such fickle creatures who often choose poorly. As Screwtape tells Wormood in C.S. Lewis' classic Screwtape Letters, "He cannot ravish; He can only woo."

God's wooing leaves us open to reject Him and choose our own path that leads away. Grace gives options and this is dangerous.

We can choose to worship and obey God in His power, reject and turn away from Him in our own power, or attempt to worship and obey Him in our own power.

The most subtle temptation is to do the right thing outwardly, while relying solely on ourselves to accomplish it. We do this through legalism. It's what Jesus constantly condemned the Pharisees over.

Legalism recognizes the dangerous nature of grace, so it seeks to place protective fences all around to keep us in line. We don't want to use our grace as an excuse to sin, so let's add all of these rules to help us avoid temptation.

If legalism were the best way to grow us into worshippers of Him, God would have used it. If the risk of grace and freedom were too much for God in the long term, He never would have given them to us. If He could have used safe grace, He would have do so.

None of those things, however, are the case. God, in His infinite wisdom, chose dangerous grace. He chose to grant us freedom in our relationship with Him.

Grace brings freedom and freedom is dangerous. It has been since Adam and Eve and it continues to be today.

In his summation of the Christian faith, Mere Christianity, Lewis wrote, "Of course God knew what would happen if they used their freedom the wrong way: apparently He thought it worth the risk."

The proper response to this is nothing short of complete and absolute devotion to a God who went the dangerous route, the route that cost Him Jesus.

He didn't send down a list of rules to stay "safe" in heaven. He sent down His Son to a dangerous world to display dangerous grace.

Grace is amazing, but it is also dangerous. Dangerous to our way of thinking. Dangerous to our legalistic solutions. Dangerous to our ordinary lives.

This dangerous grace that saved you is calling on you to step outside of average and easy to exceptional and dangerous. Grace would have it no other way.

Insulting God

What did you think of when you read those words – "insulting God"?

For most of us, it conjures up someone screaming out curses at God or maybe someone forcing out wrathful words as they deal with a hurt in their life.

That's not quite what I'm talking about here. You may not have ever yelled angrily at God, but you've still probably insulted Him. Here's how.

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When you give a gift to someone, what do you expect from them in return?

If it's actually a gift, you really shouldn't expect anything, unless it is a "thank you" and their enjoyment of it. How would you feel if, part of the time, they constantly followed you around doing things for you because they had to repay you, while, the other part of the time, they ignored the gift and treated it carelessly?

They never screamed at you or cursed you, but more than likely you would feel insulted and offended.

Either they are treating you as if you were requiring them to work for the gift or they see the gift as something essentially useless to them.

How do we treat salvation? The same way those in the church at Rome did when Paul wrote to them.

In Romans, Paul is writing to a mixed audience of Jews and Gentiles, who have differing religious tendencies. The Jews misunderstood the Old Testament to teach that salvation was earned through outwardly moral actions.

The Greek influenced Gentiles saw the gods as essentially unconcerned with our moral behavior as long as we observed the right holidays and made the right sacrifices. Often times, when both groups were present, there was a mix of both.

In Romans 4:22-25, Paul tells the Roman believers that God has credited their belief as righteousness. God's gift of Jesus' death for our sins and resurrection mean that we can enter into a relationship with Him. We have been granted justification. Unworthy sinners are made right before a holy God.

You didn't earn it. You can't earn it. It is a free gift from God and can only be given by God, who does so as we follow Him in believing in the sacrifice of Jesus.

When you behave as if your salvation as something you earned because of your works, you insult God. You are telling Him that you can buy His gift with your behavior. You are telling God that He's wrong and salvation is not as special as He believes it to be, after all, you worked to get it.

That's only part of the message to the Romans, and us. In Romans 6, particularly Romans 6:1-4, Paul confronts those who have lied about his message. When he teaches salvation through grace, he is not teaching cheap grace that requires no behavioral change. He is teaching free grace that results in a new life.

Simply because you didn't pay for your gift doesn't mean it was cheap. Our spiritual freedom cost God the Father the death of His Son.

When you live your life as if if your salvation matters so little to you that you refuse to allow God to make changes, you insult God. You are telling God that you'll take His gift, but you don't really care about it. It is essentially worthless to you, unless you feel like using it.

Sure, people verbally insult God with things they say, but the more immediate temptation for those who claim to follow Him is insulting His gift of salvation through treating it as something to earn or ignore.

Are you insulting God with your life?

What prayer have you forgotten?

Have you ever stopped praying for something because there was no answer from God for so long?

If you are like me and you are honest, you have to admit that sometimes some prayers seem too heavy to reach God.

You pray and you wait. You pray and you wait. It goes on until you've almost forgot what you were praying about and why it really mattered.

Acceptance. That's what it's all about, right?

Clearly, God is not going to answer this prayer, so I might as well accept the situation as it is and forget this request.

Maybe not.

Zechariah and Elizabeth provide an example of receiving an answer to a long forgotten prayer.

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How long do you think it had it been since Zechariah and Elizabeth had stopped praying for a child when he heard the news from the angel Gabriel?

Luke describes them as "well along in years." I guess that was Luke's euphemism for "old," or at the very least, too old to have children.

Elizabeth is barren, unable to become pregnant. Both of them were getting the senior citizen discount at the local Matzah King or Olive Hunt. Having a child was the last thing on their mind right now.

But that wasn't always the case.

"Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer had been heard."

Zechariah is, to use a modern colloquialism, freaking out. He was just selected from among the priest to go into the sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense. He goes in and sees an angel that tells him his prayer has been heard.

What prayer? The prayers the priests offered up for the forgiveness of their sins and the sins of the people. A prayer for comfort for his wife because she feels disgraced since she is unable to have ... children?

It couldn't be that prayer. Could it?

I mean, he's too old. She's too old. They're both too old and haven't been able to have children. They've already moved past those tears and that pain, or at least they've tried to. They had to stop praying for that a long time ago. It was too difficult for them to even think about.

It couldn't be that one.

"Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John."

What? It was almost too hard to even hear what this angel was telling him. It sounded like the angel said he was going to have a son.

The angel kept talking. He was saying how the boy was going to become a great man and prepare the way for the Messiah. But Zechariah couldn't get past that first part. He's having a son? This can't be right.

"How can I know this? I'm an old man and my wife is well along in years."

Can you hear it in his question?This one can't happen, not now. It's been too long. That prayer was long since forgotten.

That's just it. Zechariah and Elizabeth may have forgotten that prayer, but God hadn't. He was waiting for the perfect time to answer it in accordance with His will.

How often do we give up on prayer requests? Often.

How soon do we give up on prayer requests? Too soon.

Jesus tells us the same thing. We are to keep asking and keep knocking with our requests to the Father (Matthew 7:7 HCSB). In a parable, He praises a widow who pesters a wicked judge until he gives her justice.

Those prayers that seem so heavy to us, the ones that feel like they fall from our lips as soon as we speak them, often times, those are the ones that God delights in answering, but in His perfect timing.

We do not have all the answers. We cannot know exactly when and how God will respond to our prayer requests. But we can know and trust and He is a good God who does respond in a way that is for our good and His glory.

That prayer that you have forgotten may very well be the one that God is about to act on. Don't give up. Trust.

Not in a specific answer that may or may not come, but in a God who is the answer to all of our problems.