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As I've continued to consider the biblical concept of grace, I've been
amazed at its simplicity. Is this idea of grace really as simple as we've
been told?
We are inculcated with attitudes that influence our concept of God. So
often we've been told "there's no such thing as a free lunch" and "God
helps those who help themselves." Admittedly, there's a kernel of truth in
those cliches, but when it comes to the free gift of grace, forgiveness of
our sins and acceptance by God, we can't earn it, can't buy it, can't
bargain for it. It's there. And we either accept it or we don't.
Our society is based on achievement and recognition for an individual's
worth. We all know those who are impressed by achievement; after all,
this is a success-oriented society. It goes like this: who you are depends
on what you do, or what you have managed to acquire through what you do or
what you have because of who you are. Rarely do we value individuals
simply on who they are.
So no wonder Christians knock themselves out trying to be good enough to
deserve God's favor. Gays and lesbians often add to the burden by
believing that they have to shed this "sin" of homosexuality in order for
God to love them and forgive them. I contend that God's love and
forgiveness wrapped up in grace doesn't require any such overhaul. God has
already loved us even before we realized it was possible. We have
salvation (and, with that, a right standing with God) through the gift of
God's grace. Period. I consider this an amazing truth: God loves me just
the way God made me, and I just happened to be made gay.
I like to consider a biblical character, Abraham. Let me paraphrase Romans
4:1-5 "What can we say about Abraham? If works can justify someone,
Abraham had something to brag about. But not before God. Look what the
scripture says: 'Abraham believed God. God justified Abraham'." That's it.
Nothing about what Abraham had done or acquired. Wages are given to
someone who works. Wages are not gifts, but something due a worker. We
aren't in a wage relationship with God. God's grace is a gift to those who
trust. It's faith, simple faith in God that gets the gift of grace.
We can have peace with God because Jesus paid for our sins on the cross.
God gives us salvation as a free gift to all who believe. John 3:16 is the
anthem: "For God so loved the world that God gave the only begotten Son
that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."
Grace is two-dimensional:
The first dimension of grace is what we've been considering here. The
second is the result of the first. Once fuller understanding comes about
God's grace, we then grow into a better understanding of the grace that we
can (and must) give each other.
Romans 5:18-19 gives the equation of God's act of grace: "Just as Adam's
act of disobedience condemned us all, so Christ's act of grace redeems us
all."
And yet those who want to try to do it themselves argue that:
There's quite a psychology at work
here. Consider what emotional reactions many of us have to "don't" signs:
Don't touch, wet paint; Don't walk on grass. Many people touch to see if
it really is wet, or cut across the grass because it is quicker. A sign
doesn't have the power to keep us from doing something. Neither does a
list of do's and don'ts have the power to keep us from sinning.
Grace, authentic grace, takes the pressure off the human effort to do it
all ourselves. All who come are accepted by God. It's like Abraham. I
believed in God; God justified me.
Ephesians 2:8-9 clearly says it for me: "For it is by grace you have been
saved though faith -- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God
-- not by works, so that no one can boast."
Grace cuts to the chase, no more "do it yourself." Grace is the free gift
of forgiveness, and then we are given the power to give up, put on, quit,
or start doing whatever. But salvation is FREE. Grace frees us to serve.
And once this relationship with God is established, then we can see more
clearly the value of each of us just as God sees us -- as a loved member of
the family of God.
One of the many things I like about grace is the way it is the great
leveler. No one can get big headed about being a Christian because we are
all who we are only through grace. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:9-11 that he was
the least of the apostles, but that (v.10) "But by the grace of God I am
what I am." Paul wasn't just being Mr. Humble Pie here. He was
demonstrating the attitude we all need to have in regard to our service to
God.
There are three truths here:
Grace is not to be hoarded or simply claimed. It is to be demonstrated,
shared, used as a basis for fellowship, friendship, and drawn upon for
sustained relationships. Those authentically in grace relate to others
better. Instead of finding any and every flaw, failure or weakness in
others, graced people affirm the positive and praise instead of pounce,
contribute instead of unjustly criticize, look for things to bless instead
of blame.
This is where I believe the religious righters go horribly wrong. In
fact, I'm not sure they are graced people as evidenced in their actions.
Their legalisms (rigid rules of conduct imposed on anyone who wants to be a
part of their particular religious club) short-circuit their ability to
portray the love of Christ. Instead these rules demand and perpetuate
conditional love. The danger of conditional love in churches is the
message being conveyed: "This is what non-believers must do to join our
circle of conditional love and be sanctioned as a believer in our midst."
This is a message contrary to grace.
For centuries would-be believers have gotten tripped up with the idea of
legalism. This is a list of actual rules given for Christians of the first
century:
Awful attitudes, right? Yet the religious righters of the first century
wanted to impose their rules of conduct on those desiring to be included in
the fold.
Legalisms stunt Christians. Without grace, there are pseudo-Christians
who don't think, who can't make decisions, who operate in fear instead of
joy because they don't know anything except someone else's demands and
expectations.
Legalism is a trap of actions: "If I do this, don't do that, I'm pleasing
to God." It is a religion based on works. Legalisms are not derived from
scripture. They are human-made dictums laboriously passed down as rigid,
grim, exacting, law-like codes. Several negatives work hand in hand with
legalisms: pride, guilt, fear, shame.
Instead of a positive faith, legalism becomes an obsessive emphasis on
what not to do, what not to be. And the Christian experience becomes a
life of negativism. Instead of living in joy, exploring all of life's
experiences, including, incidentally, pain as well as joy, fulfillment as
well as frustration, the Christian experience becomes hobbled to an
artificial list of do's and mostly don'ts. How vividly I remember in my
fundamentalist past when I was asked what my church believed in, I listed a
whole catalog of "we don'ts"; my questioner asked, but what DO you
believe? My faith was boxed in by the legalisms regulating my actions, but
my relationship with God was totally out of whack.
Yet one place we would expect to be most free is at church, free from
condemnation for being who God created us to be, free to accept God's grace
without condition, free to launch our own individual walk toward spiritual
maturity. Grace allows me to allow you to follow God however you can,
without my imposing any rigid rules.
Grace also allows me, a gay person, who is just doing the best I can, to
make mistakes, to learn how to best serve God, to grow into spiritual
maturity. Those claiming to be Christian who say God condemns me haven't
seen into my cleansed heart, free of condemnation, free of guilt, filled
with grace. The Bible-thumpers who say that being gay excludes me from
God's grace are vastly mistaken. They obviously haven't experienced the
grace of God's love. Instead they have adopted their legalisms to box in
their faith and exclude anyone they deem unworthy. How contrary to grace.
As gay and lesbian Christians, we must fight for the freedom of grace.
This is a fight to set others free, so that others can experience the joy
and privileges of grace. Serving God and loving God is then a joyful
experience, not one weighed down with artificial adherence to human-made
ideas of who is eligible to be Christian.
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Steps To Recovery From Bible Abuse
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