According to CS Lewis the one unique thing about Christianity is ‘grace’, so perhaps there is nothing more important in living a Christ-like life than getting a really good firm grip on grace.
And Terry Virgo’s God’s Lavish Grace is one of the best books available on grace. If I can illustrate it this way, I think Philip Yancey’s What’s So Amazing about Grace? is the best book that illustrates grace, the stories demonstrate grace beautifully. Just a wonderful book.
Virgo’s book on the other hand teaches you about grace, it equips you with a more thorough biblical grasp of grace in the life of a believer, the difference between grace and law, (the treatment of Romans 7 being first rate) and how to both give of ourselves fully without drifting back into a functional works based faith.
As a church we’re going to spend the autumn looking at grace and this book provides a superb foundation. Highly recommended. Essential reading in fact.
“The price we are having to pay today in the shape of the collapse of the organised church is only the inevitable consequence of our policy of making grace available to all at too low a cost.”
and
“We gave away the word and the sacraments wholesale, we baptised, confirmed and absolved a whole nation unasked and without condition. Our humanitarian sentiment made us give that which was holy to the scornful and unbelieving. We poured forth unending streams of grace. But the call to follow Jesus in the narrow way was hardly ever heard.”
I think a case can be made for those words applying to Britain in 2009.
The highlight of the day was the evening meeting – hundreds healed, hundreds giving their life to Jesus and hundreds more recommitting themselves to His lead. Three of our young people responded in some way to the Gospel and one that God had healed her back.
Please pray that this would be the start of something lasting and transforming in their lives and not simply a summer festival high. More details to follow (if I remember).
“It takes God’s grace to release you to give extravagantly, to liberate you from a natural tendency to cling to money and put your own needs first. Grace has to break through and set you free.”
Miroslav Volf’s Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace is an excellent book.
Forgiveness is such a tough issue to both understand and more importantly to practice. There are so many emotional barriers that we struggle with and as a pastor I see people still bound to the hurt that they have received, still trapped by their offender because forgiveness hasn’t yet been found.
Volf does not shirk the difficult issues, his examples are as heart rending as any – a father forgiving the sniper who shot his 3 year old daughter while she was playing – a mother forgiving the man who was with her son when his head was crushed in an accident – real stories of pain and hurt. Our lofty ideas of forgiveness need to be earthed in the reality of human pain and misery.
His main influences in this book is Paul and Luther and so Volf draws on the riches of their thought. Volf argues that we give because God is a giver and He gives to us so that we can pass on to others, we forgive because God forgives and our forgiveness needs passing on.
It has helped me think about how I explain forgiveness, by describing how forgiveness includes accusation. By saying I forgive, is to say ‘you have wronged me’ so forgiveness does not ignore the wrong. It has helped me in seeing how repentance is essential in making forgiveness complete. If I repent, I see the accusation of wrong as correct and I do something about it. If I refuse to accept the accusation I also refuse to receive the forgiveness offered. While the forgiver has forgiven the one in need of forgiveness remains unforgiven because repentance has not followed.
Volf describes well for me how Christ takes my place and seems to me to do an excellent job of describing the importance of our union with Christ, and balancing wrath, justice, satisfaction and God’s love. As he says: “You can sum up where we’ve landed in four simple sentences. The world is sinful. That’s why God doesn’t affirm it indiscriminately. God loves the world. That’s why God doesn’t punish it in justice. What does God do with this double bind? God forgives.”
It is both spiritual and theological, it is neither dry nor academic. It isn’t a straight forward read in that it does demand thoughtful engagement, how else can you think about forgiving others and being forgiven by God? But I would heartily recommend this book.
“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a person must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs us our life, and it is grace because it gives us the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all it is costly because it cost God the life of God’s Son: ‘you were bought at a price,’ and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon God’s Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”
Anyway, in his sermon he said:
“You know, whatever you think makes you unworthy, I don’t think God wants to hear it any more. All you have to do is turn up and open up your heart.”
Today I read this from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, it seemed remarkably apt:
“Is the price that we are paying today with the collapse of the organized churches anything else but an inevitable consequence of grace acquired too cheaply; we performed baptisms and confirmations; we absolved an entire people, unquestioned and unconditionally; out of human love we handed over what was holy to the scornful and unbelievers. We poured out rivers of grace without end, but the call to rigourously follow Christ was seldom heard. What happened to the insights of the ancient church, which in the baptismal teaching watched so carefully over the boundary between the church and the world, over costly grace? What happened to Luther’s warnings against a proclamation of the gospel which made people secure in their godless lives?… Cheap grace was very unmerciful to our Protestant church.”
So whatever makes you unworthy doesn’t matter? Have we absolved ourselves from the responsibility to repent for sin before a holy God?
For those who want application: what does a life of grace look like? What differences would more grace in my life make?
So it’s a great privilege to have a few of those people around our church (and of course we’re praying for more). One of them seems to have caught the blogging bug and is writing on grace and forgiveness, which is itself, hugely encouraging to me. So encourage her by stopping by and having a read, and perhaps seeing our truly wonderful Saviour through fresh eyes.
Here’s her blog and I’ve added it to my blogroll
I believe Jesus when he said 'life does not consist in the abundance of our possessions'. I believe he offers something better. This blog is mostly about that search.
I'm also a husband, a father, church planter, keen runner, reader, and motorcyclist. These and a few other things make guest appearances from time to time.
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