Grace is not a Thing

Thanks to Josh Etter for the post at the Desiring God blog.  Read the full entry here.

In reviewing the "I am" sayings of Jesus in the gospel of John, it becomes clear that Jesus is not just a means to an end (e.g. Jesus saves us from the wrath of God, or Jesus gives us eternal life, etc). Instead, He both the means and the end. Think of John 6.  Jesus is not just the source of bread, although He clearly is that. He is also the bread itself. The same holds true for His being the Shepherd, the Resurrection, the Way, the Vine and the Door. It seems our fractured, fallen psyches can't get over somehow being autonomous both now and in heaven. But Jesus won't have any of it.

So, it was with great interest that I read the following excerpt from an interview with Sinclair Ferguson:

If I can highlight the thought here: there is no "thing" that Jesus takes from Himself and then, as it were, hands over to me. There is only Jesus Himself. Grasping that thought can make a significant difference to a Christian's life. So while some people might think this is just splitting hairs about different ways of saying the same thing, it can make a vital difference. It is not a thing that was crucified to give us a thing called grace. It was the person of the Lord Jesus that was crucified in order that He might give Himself to us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Each time I take enough effort to look intently at Jesus, the more I realize the scope and the breadth of what He accomplished on the cross.

To God Alone be the Glory

Did You Preach It With Tears?

"My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep your law." Ps 119:136

Periodically, I think that it is easy to gravitate to two extremes when reading, praying and processing God's Word. One extreme would be the rigid, dry, purely academic end. Jn 5:39-40 typifies this for me "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life." At the other extreme would be pure emotionalism. No rigor, no mental discipline, just "gut". 2 Tim 4:3 sums this up nicely: "For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions."

But knowing or seeing a problem is only half the battle. Yes these extremes are real. Yes they do occur in our churches and I would dare say in ourselves. What do we do with this? How do we proceed?

This may not answer the questions above, but, for me at least, it frames the question. This is a quote about Robert Murray M'Cheyne from a book by Sinclair Ferguson (thanks Justin Taylor).

"When Robert M’Cheyne met his dearest friend Andrew Bonar one Monday and inquired what Bonar had preached on the previous day, only to receive the answer “Hell,” he asked: “Did you preach it with tears?” "

Perhaps the balance is to know God's Word so well, that we begin to see things as God sees them. Then we will not get lost in the academia or the emotionalism, but rather get caught up in the holiness. Then the sin in our own lives and in the lives around us won't be simply broken rules, but heartbreaking actions. And the way back, whether for us or for others will not be some antiseptic application of truth, but rather a passionate application of grace.

In the end, as we preach the gospel to ourselves and to those the Spirit brings into our lives, I pray we "preach it with tears."

To God Alone be the Glory