Grace is more than a gift; it is the example of heaven. Grace is the way, the truth, and the life. Grace calls us not only to taste and see but also to come and follow. The grand goal of grace is not that we would be mere partakers of the feast but that we would become the servants in its grand banquet. Grace calls us to fill the glass of every thirsty soul.
Why Grace Means Something More Than Forgiveness
Once upon a time there was an abusive husband. He was a rage-aholic, given to fits of anger and, horribly, those moments sometimes overflowed into violence. Like the time he slammed his wife up against the kitchen cabinets. Or the time he slapped her across the face and then, in horror and shame, he ran off to find a quiet place to tremble and cry.
The wife (a Christian) forgave her husband each time he came home. He said (quite accurately), “I don’t know what comes over me.” The wife loved her husband deeply and saw the many good sides of this flawed man, but she lived in fear that the next rage-riot might bring harm that would not heal. She stayed with her husband because each time he sincerely begged for forgiveness. She knew her duty as Christian was to extend grace.
The only thing she knew of God’s grace was forgiveness. She had been told all her life that she herself was powerless over sin, and God’s grace came to forgive and restore her relationship with God. She was enough of a Christian to understand that if God had forgiven her, she should extend the same grace to others, especially her husband.
She knew a small piece of God’s grace but only enough to put her in danger.
With God’s grace comes forgiveness. Sweet forgiveness. Sweet—but sometimes filled with torment unless there is something more. If we look at the wife in this story we want to scream, “Get out! It’s not safe!” Any sane Christian understands the woman has no duty to remain at home and risk injury or death because of some false notion of grace, expressed as constant forgiveness.
If we look at the husband in this story, we see a man trapped in thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that will harm everyone he loves and ruin his own life as well. A sympathetic view of the husband understands that he, too, is a tormented soul in desperate need of help—help beyond merely wiping clean his sinful slate. The most gracious thing his wife could do would be to move out and demand that he get the help he needs to overcome his deep anger and pain.
And what of Jesus, the third member of the marriage? We could no more imagine Jesus leaving the wife and husband in his condition than we could imagine Jesus telling a homeless man, “Go your way, be warm and filled,” without giving him food and clothing.
Beyond the characters in this simple story lies a larger question: What about us? Would a grace-filled God leave us in the condition he finds us? Would he spend his days reminding us of our shortcomings, demanding again and again prayers of repentance and sorrow? Would the loving Creator wave his hand and say, “You are forgiven, now—go and sin no more,” without lifting even one finger to empower us over our sin?
Sometimes an extreme example is necessary to grab our hearts and free our minds. Does God’s grace mean only forgiveness, or is there something more to his antidote for sin? Richard Foster, a man who has spent his adult life encouraging Christians to grow in the grace of God, points out that the message of grace is something more than merely a means for gaining forgiveness. He points out that many Christians attend church faithfully, and, hearing only the message of forgiveness week after week, remain stuck at the beginning level of Christian maturity. “Having been saved by grace,” Foster writes, “these people have been paralyzed by it.” But would God leave us paralyzed in our rage, our addictions, or our isolation? Would he leave us naked and wounded on the side of the road? A cold and comfortless God he would be if it were so. But it is not so. “I do not at all understand the mystery of grace,” says Anne Lamott, “only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.”
The problem is neither with the heavenly Father nor with his grace; it is our understanding of grace as God’s on-going work in our lives. Jesus will not leave us to ourselves any more than he would leave a beggar in the street. Anyone who suggests so misrepresents the true grace of God. Set aside the question of heaven or hell after we die: what about heaven or hell while we live? If we remain camped at the notion that God’s grace is merely another way to describe forgiveness, we will never discover that there is grace for everyday living, relationships, and ministry to others. In the New Testament alone there are connections between grace and truth, grace and power, grace and spiritual gifts, grace and thanksgiving, grace and generosity, grace and provision, grace and suffering, grace and destiny—and this list is not complete!
