Is grace free? Absolutely! But what we as the modern church have been led into error with is teachings that assure us that forgiveness is all we need, the be all-end all of salvation and is totally seperate from what we do thereafter with our knowledge of God. Some will be more yielded than others, some more holy, but all who say the sinners prayer and mean it at the time are heaven bound. But is it true? No, it is not. Grace requires a response
We have defined grace as un-merited favor and forgiveness that somehow allows us to continue living with ourselves in control of our lives, as if we still owned ourselves, but the word tells us clearly, we are not our own if we have asked Him in. We are His. He owns us.
How foreign this way of thinking is to all of us. How this flies in the face of our "American" upbringing, the land of the free, free to live as WE wish. But from Jesus's own mouth, a different gospel comes out, one that we do not much agree with, or want to hear, for it asks something back from us. Jesus tells us that such unmerited grace asks for a response. THAT is where the truth of our salvation is shown to be genuine. Who is our Lord, us or Him? Listen to the words of the one we say we serve.
"He who tries to save his life will lose it, but he who loses his life for my sake will find it unto eternal life."
This is no isolated scripture, not taken out of context. He says that if we do not hate our own life, we CANNOT be His disciple. Ouch. How can this fit with our modern take on grace? The truth is.....it cannot. How do we know this? Grace requires a response.
We assume grace is free, and requires nothing from us but confession of our sins and acceptance of this "strings-free" salvation. Our ticket to heaven is officially punched, right? But if that is the case, what is Jesus talking about when He says that we need to count the cost of following Him? How can there be a cost if salvation is free?
What does He mean when He says that a wise man will not be content with shallow preparation, but will "dig deep" in making sure the foundation for his faith is a sound one?
What did Paul mean when he told us we must continue in the faith "to make our calling and our election sure"?
Why would he tell us in Romans 12 that it is our calling to present our bodies as living sacrifices and that this radical walk is "our reasonable service" if nothing is asked of us?
There is a scripture that I would be willing to bet any poster here that they have never heard preached on in church. It is found in Luke 19 where Jesus is telling His disciples about the parable of the talents, where various men received different amounts of gold to "invest" for their master. It was not THEIR gold, but the masters. They had a responsibility to make gain with it. Grace requires a response.
When the wicked servant had his turn to explain why he had made no gain with what had been freely given to him, he said that he had hid it in a field and here was the master's original investment, just like he had received it. Perhaps he had expected that would please the Master, as if not losing what was given was the goal, but it was not. Gain was expected. Grace requires a response. Is this not the natural flow where life is.... growth?
The master was angry, not pleased as the lazy sercant expected, and He took from the man what had been entrusted and given to another.
Then the scripture that should wake us up to our danger, should shake us to our core. I pray it does. For this is what the master then said:
"Then bring ALL THOSE who would not have me to reign over them, and slay them before me."
Do we HEAR this? Do we understand that the gentle, meek, full-of-grace lamb of God uttered these words? He asks for a believing ON Him, not just in Him. He asks us to willingly let Him become our Lord as well as our master, and seek with all our hearts how to obey Him in all things, how to let Him have the pre-eminece in our lives. It is our reasonable service, not the lifestyle reserved for preachers and/or religious fanatics who have lost their balance. THIS is Christianity, nothing less. It is not legalism, it is love returned.
To any here who are still in charge of their own being, and would still like to think that when Jesus asks us "Why do you call me "Lord, Lord, and yet not do the things I command you", that these may just receive less attractive mansions in heaven, but their salvation is never in question, think again.
You see, grace requires a response. Please, I beg you, do not confuse this response I speak of with working for our salvation. Do not think this some evil form of legalism. Grace is free. But grace asks, in response, for our hearts, for ALL of our hearts in return, for our devotion, for the singleness of our eye firmly fixed on the one who died for us. It asks us to make Jesus both our savior AND our Lord.
To do this, we must hate our fleshly man, the one in rebellion to His Lordship in our lives. We must yield ourselves to the master potter, totally, unashamedly, snd throw our entire being on the one who paid the ultimate price to buy us back from death. When we do this, we are ready to put on the new man, with a new heart, a heart that Jesus owns, for Jesus is Lord.
God's gift requires a response, giving Him back our hearts to fill. It is the only logical thing to do. It is the only pathway to joy. Ultimtely, it is the only way to hear "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."
Blessings,
Gideon