Tuesday, October 27, 2009

What Grace Is NOT

Last night as I was waiting for our Bible Study Fellowship meeting to begin, I thumbed through the hymnal sitting on the chair next to me. I landed upon a hymn titled, "I Gave My Life for Thee."

I gave My life for thee, My precious blood I shed,
That thou might ransomed be, and raised up from the dead
I gave, I gave My life for thee, what hast thou given for Me?
I gave, I gave My life for thee, what hast thou given for Me?

So it goes for three more verses.

Honestly, I don't think this hymn does Jesus much honor. God's grace--any grace for that matter--is not a quid pro quo, tit-for-tat transaction. Salvation is not an "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine" affair. Now it's one thing to say that we ought to live grateful lives in thanks to Christ for his salvation. It's also true that by being transplanted into his kingdom we are called to live as strangers here, citizens of heaven longing for our future dwelling with God. But this hymn has a distinct air of needing to give something back to Christ for his humbling kenosis and death on our behalf.

Maybe I shouldn't be so harsh; after all, even some of the best hymns goof this up: "Oh, to grace how great a debtor / Daily I’m constrained to be!" ("Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing"). When God graciously and freely wipes away our sins, we're not debtors. We're free. Yes, the Bible speaks of our proper response as that of a volitional bondservant, but that doesn't mean an indentured servant. Indentured servants work for a fixed time to pay off a debt owed to their benefactor. But we can never pay back God for the inexhaustible riches of his love. Anyone who thinks he can do so has no idea of this "love that surpasses all understanding" (Ephesians 3:14-21). Such a person doesn't understand this love because he doesn't understand how tremendous was its cost. We're disconnected from the sufferings of God in the cross.*

We can't grasp grace, partly because we don't love this freely in our own lives nor experience it much, and partly because we don't understand (or accept) that God's deliverance was completely unconditional. No one in this created, contingent world makes choices as blatantly free as God. But the fact remains that "when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but because of his mercy" (Titus 3:4-5). God's grace is too radical to be anything other than free. We never put him in our debt to begin with, and we don't live a life in debt, either. God's grace in our lives is free because he simply loves us and chose to do so.

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*This was, in part, the problem faced by the Judaizers and the Galatians influenced by them. Despite clearly having had the crucified Christ portrayed to them, they still thought that their salvation, begun by grace, now had to result in some sort of Jewified lifestyle (Galatians 3:1-3).

9 comments:

Ted M. Gossard said...
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Ted M. Gossard said...
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Ted M. Gossard said...
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Ted M. Gossard said...

Andrew,
My comments lack dialogue so that I'm afraid I'm in error in making them. You made a point, I could have made a point and let it go at that.

One thing: your posts are stimulating.

Thanks.

Andrew said...

Ted,
My point is not whether or not grace is supposed to change your lives. On that point Scripture is clear. (See, e.g., Titus 2:11-14; Philippians 2:12-13.) My point is that while the right response to God's grace is one of deep gratitude that effectively results in self-commitment to Christ, God's unconditional, free grace is not a bilateral relationship (cf. Gal. 2:19-20). Although our salvation is certainly for God's purposes of reclaiming his image and glory in us and putting it on display through us to the world, God is not saying, "What's in it for me, huh?"

Halfmom said...

deep gratitude versus payback - hard to separate much less to get this across sometimes when teaching - suggestions for how to do so to a Jr High audience. We've gotten as far as gratitude. Based on your post though I think I need to address the works from gratitude and a new life versus payback. Please email me with suggestions if you can - I am teaching Thrusday night and this would be a logical followup to last Thursday night's discussion.

Ted M. Gossard said...

You're right on grace, Andrew. But God created us for his pleasure and for our own pleasure with him. And to engage in fellowship with him. One word, grace, can't be separatated from the rest of biblical revelation in hashing it out.

Though grace in itself, as you say is strictly a gift. One we can't replay. But relationship is in view here.

Ted M. Gossard said...

...I guess this just brings up for me what I dislike in theologies in which it is always pressed to the fore everywhere, one big thought, in a way in which I don't believe such is the case in Scripture.

I probably should just step aside from discussions in which I think I'm catching a whiff of that. And I probably engage in it somewhat sometimes myself. Jesus certainly brought loving God and loving our neighbor- and the apostles, to the fore and with reference to comprehending everything.

Ted M. Gossard said...

...also I want to add, Andrew, that you have a first rate mind. We surely know in part. And at times what we do think we know can be hindered so that our knowledge is skewed. Why I think we have to have somewhat a healthy scepticism about theology, and keep going back to the Word, and even to theologians and keep reading and studying and praying and seeking to live together in God's truth in Jesus in this world.