God’s Grace…or Our’s?
Exactly whose grace are we selling?
We (those claiming to follow Jesus) tend to sell a God whose love and grace are infinite — and for good reason.
God is infinite and so are each of His attributes (which includes His grace).
However, my issue isn’t with God.
God is even greater than the masterpiece we are peddling.
No, my issue isn’t God grace…it’s ours.
It time to recognize the “grace” bait and switch religion pulls on would be converts, and ultimately on ourselves.
(And yes, advertising a place where grace abounds, but where oftentimes there isn’t even enough grace for our own brothers and sisters with slightly different views — is a bait and switch.)
Christian church history is littered with examples of how we love and respect the people we “go to church with” — right up until they think differently about things such as baptism, the Lord’s Supper, women in leadership, political issues, etc, etc, etc…
Then it’s not good enough to say we simply disagree. No, our picture of infinite grace forces us to no longer associate with them on Sunday too.
And while I agree with the “we’re imperfect people this side of heaven” group — I want to point out a couple things.
- I’m not (and don’t think that anyone really is) looking for perfection.
- I’m not talking about the average member of the church.
These criticisms are leveled at church leadership on the local, regional, and sometimes worldwide level.
Pastors, priests, elders, etc…, who have been vetted and who are (purportedly) in possession of the Holy Spirit.
The same Holy Spirit that Jesus said was more valuable to us than even himself!!
Yes, John 16:7 says that we are better off with the Holy Spirit in-side of us than we would be with Jesus himself physically be-side us!!
In my relatively small community there is a non-denominational church that we attended for some time.
At some point, the long-standing youth pastor left and came back to the area a little later — only to plant another non-denominational church just 1.3 miles away from the one he left??
Either implicitly or explicitly this pastor is saying that the church he left is incapable of properly “reaching this community for Jesus” (whatever that even means).
Worse yet, it shows that the grace we advertise to extend to others — we don’t even attempt with our own brothers and sisters!!
Our grace is different.
It’s circumstantial.
It keeps score.
It falls short.
Look, I’m also not picking on him.
There are a seemingly infinite number of churches (with similar doctrinal views) that meet in every school for miles and miles.
This added to the vast number who are already financially strapped with their permanent building in the very same “market”.
We don’t need anymore church planting!!
We need church consolidation!!
Putting aside those things that divide and at least attempting to live out that thing we call “the good news”.
The good news is (pun intended) that the “good news” available to us all — is bigger than this problem.
It’s bigger than any problem.
In fact, it is the answer to any problem.
Why don’t we apply it?
I pray we apply it.
