4D Theology #3 - "Is God's Grace Bi-directional?"

     There’s an unspoken question staring us right in the face on at least thirteen pages of our Bible. Why do you think the Apostle Paul opened each of his letters with a sort of a Hebrew blessing, “grace to you and peace from God our Father…”? Why would Paul ask God to give his listeners two things they already had?— “Grace” from God, and “peace” with God? In particular, what could possibly prompt Paul to pray that God would multiply grace to sinners already justified by grace?
     Maybe at least part of what makes grace so "amazing," are the other dimensions of it that for the most part, we're oblivious to. This third episode in the "flip side" of Story words turns our favorite word, "grace" over to discover some unknown things about it that truly are amazing. And guess what? You're one of them!
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Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Transcript

There’s a story told of a large theology conference attended by some very bright minds. As the story goes, C.S. Lewis was walking through a room where a discussion was in motion about the various world religions. Someone stopped Lewis and asked him what the most unique thing was about Christianity that set it apart from all other world religions. Without hesitating, Lewis in his inimitable style quipped, “Grace,” and kept walking. Short answer to an enormous question. But he was right. Grace is the thing that separates the gospel from all other competitors to the One Story of the One God. Grace is the invisible power of the invisible God that can turn a slave trader like John Newton into an Anglican pastor and hymn writer who has reminded us for 250 years to keep singing that grace is amazing. And it is. In fact, Newton’s hymn is one of the most widely recognized songs in the world, crossing over from religious to folk music during the Sixties. The first time I heard it, it was performed by Judy Collins in the late Sixties. “Amazing Grace” has shown up at venues ranging from Arlo Guthrie’s performance at Woodstock in 1969, to the memorial service for one of the nine African Americans killed in church in 2015 in Charleston, South Carolina. The one singing at that venue was then President, Barak Obama. I guess grace really  amazing.

Welcome to the Road to Shalom. I’m Fran Sciacca, the show host. I want to thank those of you who continue to tune in to hear on old man try to talk about something much older, and to try to create an intersection between the ancient and the modern in our attempt to understand the world we find ourselves in.

In the last two episodes, we set out on the Herculean task of trying to transform our understandings of some vital words in the One Story of the One God from two dimensions to four dimensions. From a theological comprehension that only focuses on what these words mean to us personally, and corporately as a faith community, to what they also mean to those outside the faith family, and to God Himself. Those are the four dimensions we’re trying to look at: personal, parochial, global, and missional. Put another way, what we’re trying to do, is to reconstruct the pillars of our faith in such a way that they are rooted in the entire One Story, rather than us as believers. And as I was thinking and praying about this episode, and how to summarize my intentions, I realized that what we’re trying to do here is shift our perspective on the Bible from third person to first person. Instead of looking at the Story of the One God in the Bible as a record of a bunch of “he’s and she’s and thems,” to seeing it a Story about “I, me, we, and us.” That the One Story of the One God is our story…now. We’re actually in it as participants, not outside of it as spectators. That makes getting these profound Story words right so much more important. If our theology is based on words that point only to us as individuals and us as a group, well beloved, I hate to say it, but we’ll be creating a Christian narcissism, which is the polar opposite of the message of Jesus. That’s why we’re on this journey. To get the focus of our theology off ourselves and onto the larger purposes of God that have been staring at us on the pages of Scripture all along. Okay, let’s keep going.

Last episode, we looked at the Story word, “peace,” or shalom as it’s known in Hebrew. I mentioned that “peace” had a sort of spiritual twin, another word that hung out with it a ton of the time. And that word is what we’re going to look at today. It’s the word, “grace.”

Now, this is probably the one word in the Evangelical dictionary you don’t want to mess with, unless you want to accused of attacking the Reformation! So, let me assure you at the front end that our justification is purely by grace. The finished work of Jesus on Golgotha. I bring nothing to the table but sin and guilt, and leave without either of them, and the full righteousness of Jesus. Apart from him, I’m as guilty and condemned right now as I was 50 years ago in Wisconsin. That’s the grace that justifies and forgives. That makes, grace inseparable from what we looked at in the first episode of this series: our guilt from sin. Grace is God’s answer to our guilt because it’s the means by which we lay hold of the forgiveness that is in Jesus. It’s a huge word for us as believers. It’s a big word to God too. In fact, the Greek word for “grace,” charis, shows up 124x in our New Testament. And nearly 100 of them come from the pen of Saint Paul. He’s kind of our “grace guy,” who paints with broad strokes when he tries to create a portrait of grace. According to him, God’s grace is “immeasurable,” (Eph. 2:7) it’s a form of true “riches” and a gift God has “lavished on us.” (Eph 1:7-8; 2:7)  In every possible sense, we are “saved by grace” according to Paul.

“…For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,” (Romans 3:22–24)

Grace is a beautiful Story word about a scandalous, lop-sided transaction between God and sinners like us. Jesus paid the penalty for the life I lived, but shouldn’t have, and also credited me for the life I should have lived, but didn’t. Okay, so John Newton was spot on…grace is amazing. But, beloved, this is only the front side of “grace.” This is only a two-dimensional understanding of it. Great news for me, great news for you, and for any and all who are guilty before God. But what if grace, just like we saw with sin and peace, has other dimensions to it? What if grace has benefits for the unbelieving world? And what if grace somehow benefits God Himself? Well, it does. Just hang on, we’ll get to that. 

But before we do, there’s an unspoken question staring us right in the face on at least thirteen pages of our Bible. Why do you think Paul opened each of his letters with a sort of a Hebrew blessing, a thing known as a “barakah”? “grace to you and peace from God our Father…”? Why would Paul ask God to give his listeners two things they already had?— “Grace” from God, and “peace” with God? In particular, what could possibly prompt Paul to pray that God would multiply grace to sinners already justified by grace? Now, I know that some folks say, “Well you need to understand the common salutations that were used in the first century. Paul’s merely following the conventions of letter-writing of his day.” Let’s be serious here. Do you think of Paul as being “conventional”…in any way? Seriously, he would have gotten a trophy for being the most unconventional Jew of the first century! No, I think Paul was genuinely praying that God would multiply “grace” and “peace” to them…for a reason. And, it’s pretty obvious as we look into the Story, that the grace Paul’s praying about is not the grace that saved them in the first place. The grace Paul’s talking about here varies from one believer to another. It’s different for each of us. You could almost say there’s “50 Shades of Grace.” Paul wrote to the Romans: 

“Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them…” (Romans 12:6)

Then he goes on to describe what those gifts of grace look like when they’re used.  He talks about generosity, teaching, acts of mercy, and a bunch of others. What I’m doing on this podcast is an example. Not everyone can do this. And, I’m not doing it because I’m good at it. I’m doing it because it’s an expression of God’s varied grace to me. Some of you have grace to do acts of mercy. For some of you, serving comes naturally. Guess what? That’s NOT natural!

And this isn’t just something that began with Scene 1 of ACT V of the Story, with the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. This divine empowerment of a person for the purposes of God is scattered throughout the entire Story, before and after Pentecost.

God poured out his Spirit on a craftsman named Bezalel in the Book of Exodus so that he could perform artistic work as a jeweler, stone mason, carpenter for the building of the Tabernacle. He gave a man named Asaph incredible grace to compose worship songs and lead the congregation in worship of the One God. He gave a young woman named Hadassah, who we know as Esther, incredible beauty. Why? Well, it wasn’t so she could win “Miss Persia” and wave as she rode through town in a chariot. Yahweh gave her beauty so that she would be an agent of grace to save her people from genocide. God gave a woman named Dorcas grace to design and make clothes for others in the days of Peter. 

Beloved, this is the beauty of grace. God gives different shades of grace, and He gives it in abundance. But God gives it to be used. Listen to this:

“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” (2 Corinthians 9:8)

What does this actually look like in the real world? Well, for starters, it means that the “shade” of grace given to me is actually for others. You can hear this in Paul’s words to the Philippians:

“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith,” (Philippians 1:21–25)

And, this means that even my pain God intends to use as a means of grace to others. One of the most profound statements in the New Testament speaks of this:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” (2 Corinthians 1:3–4)

Beloved, sometimes you and I suffer for the benefit of others we have yet to meet. I know that doesn’t sound too inviting, but it’s the very thing Jesus did for each of us, and we don’t have any problem with that, do we? The beauty of this is that it means even our pain and suffering have meaning because they have a place in the Story.

Some of us even are given grace to make money. It’s pretty common to hear believers talk about how God has “blessed them” in one way or another in terms of financial success. I’ve never been real comfortable using the word, “blessing” to talk about money. I guess because of what the opposite scenario implies. But, in the One Story, even this shade of grace is intended to be a vessel of grace. Paul makes that really clear in writing to the Corinthians:

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich…For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. As it is written, ‘Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.’” (2 Corinthians 8:9, 12-15)

Paul says that God gives some us more than we need so we can be a source of grace to those who have less than they need. 

Okay, At the end of the day, all this means that grace is given to be used—for others—not kept for ourselves. Beloved, grace is a lot like manna. Hoard it, and it starts to stink, and we end up becoming “gracists,” a person who tries to keep for himself something God has given him that He intends for others. But, give grace away, and it’s there the next day. He’s constantly shaping us to be conduits of grace, not containers of it. Pipes, not pots. But, for what? For the restoration of shalom. God gives His grace to us so that He can accomplish the restoration of shalom through us. The things He wants done to turn back the corruption of sin, that His Kingdom may come on earth as it is in heaven.

All right. Let’s wrap up here. Hopefully, from this episode and the last two, we’ve got a four-dimensional understanding of our first three Story words: sin, grace, and peace. An understanding that is personal and parochial, but also one that is global and missional. 

Let me try to make this idea of multi-dimensional theology a step further in. I’d like you to try to picture each of these words like two sides of a coin. When you spin a coin the sides sorta disappear. What you see looks more like a ball, than a coin. That’s a multi-dimensional perspective. So when we talk and think about “sin,” both guilt and corruption are now in our minds. When we talk and think of “grace,” both justification and service are in our minds, and when we talk and think of “peace,” both receiving God’s peace, and being peace-makers are in our minds. All three of these words should have profound meaning for us, and yield profound ministry to others through us. That’s the beauty of a four-dimensional perspective on sin, grace, and peace. One that puts us in the Story as participants, rather than spectators who talk about it.

Okay, now for an application. How can you start today to be a shalom-maker, a conduit of grace, rather than a container of it? Let me suggest that we obey a single verse of the Bible for one week:

“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” (Ephesians 4:29)

By the way, there’s our first Story word, “corruption,” again. The flipside of sin. Have you ever thought about the fact that our words can be agents of corruption. And, our very words can build others up. They can actually give grace to people. Now, Paul lived in an oral culture and we live in a text and visual culture. But the truth is the same. Our words, spoken, written, typed, or filmed…Are they a source of grace, of shalomic restoration, or do they produce corruption? Do they enrich people, or diminish them? Solomon said, “Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.” (Proverbs 12:18)

Beloved, we are supposed to be peace-takers who’ve matured into peace-makers through the grace given to us. We’re supposed to be conduits of grace to those within our circles of influence.

Starting when this episode ends, I’d like to suggest, you choose to use your words to impart grace to others. To bring healing. In your fellowship, in your home, at your job, over the phone, and especially on social media. Let’s not be agents of corruption with our words. Let’s be a part of God’s mission to restore shalom this week, by being agents of grace with our words. Because…

“GOD is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.”

See ya next time…shalom.