A More Mature Understanding of Grace
A few years ago I recall a young lady in our youth group expressing some interesting thoughts immediately after her baptism. She actually said a couple of things: One was that she was looking forward to going to sleep because she knew that she was right with the Lord. A second thing was that she was hoping perhaps the Lord would go ahead and come back before she had any chance of doing something that would cause her once again to be lost.
I remember as a young Christian having similar feelings. In fact, right after my baptism, I can remember a prayer I used to pray for a few years at night while alone in my bed just before sleeping. I had always been taught that no person could predict the return of Christ (which I am certain is accurate – Matt. 24:42). So I figured that any prediction concerning the Lord’s coming would be rejected by God. Therefore I would pray, “Dear God, I know you are not sending Jesus back in the next five years.” In essence I was daring God to prove me wrong by sending Jesus immediately! You see, I was ready. I was a new Christian and I wanted Jesus to come right away and take me to heaven. I was afraid that if I started sinning again I was going to ruin the salvation I had obtained. In reality, I just didn’t understand grace.
I think it is natural for any person who respects the authority of the Bible to be afraid lest they come short of its teachings. In fact, God expects for us to tremble at His word (Isa. 66:5). We all know that we sin every day, and we know that sin is what separates us from a holy God. But we do need to make a distinction between the spiritual status of an alien sinner and that of a redeemed saint. I have something that I did not have before I became a Christian. I have the blood of Christ continually cleansing me from sin every single day if I am making my best effort to walk in the light (1 John 1:7).
Ironically, the only Christian who is even in danger of falling from grace is the person who is not concerned about doing so. When I think of all of the Christian people I have counseled over the years who have had concerns about certain spiritual issues, I remember telling them that the very fact that they are concerned about being right with the Lord basically implies that they are. They have nothing to worry about. It is the person who has no conscience who is jeopardy. Not the child of God who sometimes fails but who wants to do what is right.
A more mature understanding of grace will guard us from the error of thinking that we are constantly falling in and out of a relationship with the Lord. The grace of God remains in our unfaithfulness. While we are required to have a repentant heart and while we are also commanded to confess our trespasses to God, we need not think as Christians that one false step that we have not admitted or confessed to God would keep us out of heaven if we were to die before it was addressed.
I have learned over the years to wake up with the attitude that I am going to be a Christian and to go to sleep with an attitude that is willing to admit to God any sins or moments of weakness I have displayed. If we truly believe in the grace of God then we will not think that such grace is powerless to save us in spite of ourselves.
Perhaps the lines of song we often sing can say it best – “Grace, grace, God’s grace, grace that will pardon and cleanse within. Grace, grace, God’s grace. Grace that is greater than all our sin…”
I am ever thankful for the wonderful and matchless grace of our awesome and eternal God.
“But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” – 1 John 1:7
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AUTHOR: Jeremiah Tatum
