Over the last couple of months, I have had a number of conversations with folks about what it means to be united Methodist. We’ve talked about what we believe, what is distinctive from other denominations , as well as how we are similar to folks in other denominations. And even in Bible study, we’ve talked about church laws and structure and many have remarked, “I never knew that!” So we’re going to take the next few weeks to go deeper into what it means to be a United Methodist.
Today, we’re going to start with grace. Some would say, “we are people of grace.” And we are, but not because we are the only ones to receive grace. God’s grace is for all, it’s not reserved for a select few. Grace is a gift that God gives us. We can’t earn it. We don’t deserve it. It is freely given to all not because of what we’ve done to deserve it, but because of God’s abundant love for each of us. There aren’t contingencies. There are no strings attached. It’ a loving gift offered to all.
Now, some would say, “grace is grace is grace.” But John Wesley, the founder of Methodism and the namesake of our church, says something different. He says, “Well, grace is grace, but, it does different things at different times in our faith walk.” And to distinguish between those different things, he came up with 3 names for grace:
1) Prevenient grace
2) Justifying grace
3) Sanctifying grace
In some ways, to say, “we are people of grace” means we categorize our faith journey in terms of these types of grace.
#1 Prevenient grace. Prevenient means: comes before. This is the grace that connects us to God, no matter what. It’s the hold God has on us from before we are born until after we die. It’s the grace that’s there when we don’t’ know God, when we are selfish and self-involved. God uses it to call out to us, but even when we deny it or ignore it, it’s still there.
Now, I’m a visual person, so I like to see things in order to understand them better. So I think of it like this. Prevenient grace is this rope. God ties it around us before we are born and whether we know it or not, God has a hold on us through prevenient grace. Even if I am completely unaware, totally clueless, God has this hold on me. I can’t go anywhere that is beyond God’s reach. And I can’t do anything to untie this knot. God’s got a hold on me….period. That’s prevenient grace.
The second type of grace is justifying grace. This is the grace that draws us into awareness of who we are and who God is. It shows us that we are sinful and broken and God is perfect and forgiving and that we need God. It is the grace that prompts us to repent and ask for forgiveness and it is the grace that forgives. To say it “justifies us” means it sets us right with God. This is what God does for us through Jesus—God bears our sins, sets us free, and gives us new life.”
John Wesley says it this way: “[Our] sins, all [our] past sins, in thought, word, and deed, ‘are covered’, are blotted out; shall not be remembered or mentioned against [us], any more than if they had not been. God will not inflict on [a] sinner what [we] deserved to suffer, because the Son of [God’s] love hath suffered for [us]. And from the time we are ‘accepted through the Beloved,’ ‘reconciled to God through his blood’, he loves and blesses and watches over us for good, even as if we had never sinned.”
God forgives us, not because of what we’ve done to earn forgiveness, but because of what Christ did—at no cost to us—but all FOR us. Some folks talk about justifying grace in terms of our conversion. That’s the moment where we acknowledge our sin, see and proclaim Christ’s sacrifice, repent and ask for forgiveness. It is in that moment we are saved from the eternal consequences of our own sins. Justifying grace is a part of our journey throughout—we don’t stop sinning simply because we believe in Jesus. All professing Christians sin. That’s why we need God. That’s why we receive grace. And we need justifying grace to keep forgiving us for our sins. Each time we repent we receive justifying grace. Each time we take communion, God pardons us through justifying grace.
To go back to our visual, God has a hold on us through prevenient grace, that’s the rope. Remember it’s there and connected to us whether we know it or not. But then when we see the rope, when we understand that God is on the other side of it, beckoning us to draw near, that’s because of justifying grace.
Now, some folks are inclined to leave it at that. Once you’ve professed Christ and asked for forgiveness you’re done. But Wesley says no. That’s not enough. Faith life shouldn’t be simply sinning and asking for forgiveness and sinning and asking for forgiveness over and over again with nothing in our life changing. An attitude of “I can do what I want because God will forgive me,” is essentially hedonism. But it’s not how we walk faithfully. There’s more. We have to engage this rope and try and get closer to God. Justifying grace is holding onto the rope, but we need something to make us use the rope to get closer to God.
That something is sanctifying grace. Sanctifying grace helps us grow and learn, it teaches us to be more like Christ with each step we take. This is the grace where God says, “I love you just as you are, but too much to leave you that way.” Sanctifying grace gives us the courage, wisdom, and strength to keep saying “no” to sin and “yes” to God. When we use sanctifying grace to grow in relationship with God, we bear the fruits of the spirit as found in Galatians 5:22-23:
· love,
· joy,
· peace,
· patience,
· kindness,
· goodness,
· faithfulness,
· gentleness
· self-control
We see more of these as sanctifying grace takes a stronger and stronger hold in our lives. This is where the real work of faith lies. Growing closer to God and becoming more like Christ is a continuous journey of self-reflection and self-discipline. It can be very difficult. But it also reaps some of the greatest rewards as we love God more deeply and see God more clearly. This is also where we see others with greater insight and treat them with greater compassion.
To use our visual again, sanctifying grace is what helps us pull ourselves closer to God. Now, the thing about sanctification is we can work at it a lot, or we can work at it a little, or we can refuse to work at it at all. That’s all our choice. God never forces us to be faithful—that is a choice we make. God constantly offers us grace—wherever we are in our journey. Faith is our response.
So, we are saved by grace through faith. If we refuse to receive the gift, which is salvation, then we won’t have it. God can give us gift after gift after gift. But if we leave them all unopened then we haven’t actually received it. Believing in who God is and what God has done and can do is faith—it’s how we open that gift to truly experience what God has for us.
(Summarize)
No comments:
Post a Comment