Extreme Grace, Part 4: Abuses of Grace
Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently, but watch yourself or you too may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
Galatians 6:1–2
Mutual accountability under Christ, yes.
Judgmental prying, no (1 Tim. 5:13). Spiritual despotism or dictatorial leadership, no (Acts 6:1–7). Disrespect of leadership, no (1 Tim. 5:17–20).
One of the problems with the doctrine of grace is that it tends to be interpreted as meaning that all matters of faith are completely private and personal. If God forgives me, then who are you to judge me? There is some biblical thinking behind this in Romans 14:4, that asks, “Who are you to judge another man’s servant?” There are some proper limitations of how much information we should have about another person’s life, and to snoop and pry into someone’s private life creates another set of problems — even if that person is found to be at fault.
The first problem is hypocrisy. None of us could pass the test if every detail of our lives were exposed to the public. Each of us would have some weakness — too much sugar or salt in our food, perhaps our eyes lingered too long on a swim suit ad, failure to pray or read our Bible, etc. We may call these “acceptable sins” and therein lies the danger, for this type of practice makes the Christian life all about trying to please people rather than trying to please God. The truth is that no sin is acceptable, and that we are all works in progress. Church leadership should be “above reproach” but this does not mean perfection — for none of us attain that — but rather humility, a good reputation, and a willingness to do what needs to be done to restore confidence.
Christ’s words, “Judge not lest you be judged” (Matt 7:1), should warn us off of this behavior. Only God can judge someone. We simply lack to knowledge and perspective to be able to evaluate someone’s true condition. But more to the point, judging is done to put someone down, to damage them, to possibly destroy them, and we are not to destroy our brother and sister for whom Christ died (Rom. 14:15).
We are called to lift one another up, to restore those who fall, to encourage one another, and if we have cause to warn or rebuke, we should do so in love. “Preach the word. Be instant, in season, out of season; correct, rebuke, encourage, with great patience and careful instruction” (2 Tim 4:2). The sense of the need to judge and pry into people’s lives is a reflection of the lack of faith in God’s Spirit and His work to bring transformation. We, with rules and legalities, try to do what only the Spirit can do. But if we will be used of God we must humbly come alongside of our brothers and sisters and encourage them toward maturity as the Spirit guides them.
Another problem, however, is our own pride that does not want to admit our weaknesses. We may imagine that grace means that these failings are not important. Grace, however, means forgiveness, not that sin is insignificant. In order for Holy God to forgive us a payment must have been made for our sins, and Christ made that payment. He did not simply say that sin is unimportant, rather He bore on the cross the sin and shame of us all. We have forgiveness but it is costly forgiveness, and it calls us to serious discipleship. Part of our spiritual growth is personal and private, yet part of it does need the help and encouragement, and maybe even the loving rebuke, of the family of faith.
A popular novelist described her creative process as not creating the perfect story so much as sitting up with a sick friend, trying to nurse a storyline into better and more readable condition. I thought her honesty and humility was refreshing. But this also depicts what we do with one another — we do not find perfect Christians in the church, rather we find the sin-scarred, battle-weary, oft-discouraged, spiritually-sickened saints of grace. And we help one another, under the empowering and guiding hand of God’s Spirit, to gain strength, to get over our sins and hurts, to grow in grace, and to stand strong for Christ.
A popular preacher’s wife — from a church known as a radical grace church — said that we should obey God not for Him but for ourselves, because God is really only concerned with our happiness. While I believe that obedience to Christ does bring great and deep joy, God calls us to holiness, not happiness. We can get into a circular argument on this issue of happiness and holiness — “Which comes first, our happiness or our holiness?” — but the clear emphasis of scripture is on holiness first, that we must lose our life to find it, we must die to live, we must surrender to win, and in that surrender to Christ we find His resurrection life within us.
I do not believe we have improved on the Prayer of Francis of Assisi:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. Where there is sadness, joy. O, divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned. It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
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A quick introspective note on 1 Tim. 5:24–25: “The sins of some men are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them; the sins of others train behind them. In the same way, good deeds are obvious, and even those that are not cannot be hidden.”
I doubt that there has ever been a Christian leader who has not shuddered a bit (perhaps a lot) at the statement of verse 24, that the unknown sins in our lives trail behind us. At the Judgment Seat of Christ, all of the hidden sins of our lives will be made known. But since this is true for all of us, none of us dares to judge another, and each of us through this experience will be more profoundly aware than ever before of the grace of God in Christ that covers our sins.
But notice the emphasis of Scripture — it is on the positive, not the negative. Though the unknown sins will be mentioned, so will also the unknown good deeds be made known. God’s intent in His grace is to save us from our sin and to establish us in His righteousness by grace. He does not reveal our sins without also revealing the times that by His grace and power we did the right thing. Our failings will be removed from us. Our faithfulness will be affirmed. And we will cast our crowns before the Savior and say, “Thou art worthy!” It was Christ in us, working through us, that achieved the good deeds, not us.
