I think one of the most powerful gospel statements in all of scripture came from Jesus' own lips just before he died on the cross: "It is finished", from John 19:30. The reason I find this so powerful is because it puts to death all things that reek of religion - meaning, all these things that people feel they must do to be right with God and hopefully go to heaven some day. When Jesus said "It is finished", He meant it. There is no more work for us to do - Jesus has done it all.
What we're talking about here is grace. In His limitless love, God gives us grace by giving us His Son to be all that we can't, do all that we are unable, and pay for the debt we owe. And according to passages like Romans 5 and Ephesians 2, this grace is free - it's simply offered to us. We receive it by having faith (Romans 5:1-2; Ephesians 2:8-9).
A lot of "Christians" that I know reject God's grace, although they may not be aware that they are doing so. How do they do this? Here's a short list:
-They are unforgiving.
-They are judgmental.
-They serve with an underlying sense of guilt.
-They barely, or rarely, give.
-They over-emphasize tradition and ritual.
-They believe that it takes a long time to change.
-They constantly criticize others and gossip.
-They feel like they always have to pay back a kind deed done to them.
-They feel like they never read enough of their bibles, pray enough, serve enough, or attend enough bible studies or church services.
-They feel and act responsible to fix themselves or other people's problems.
That's just my short list...but I think it hits the biggies. Part of this is a cultural thing where we "pay to play", and part of this is a human condition thing and collateral damage of our sin nature. And honestly, grace is so amazing, so incomprehensible, so foreign that we mostly don't really believe it. We may believe it for salvation, but we don't believe it for sanctification (our daily lives as we grow more like Christ).
What does a life marked by grace looke like? If you really believe in God's grace to both save you and grow you, what would your life look like? Here's another short list:
-Loving
-Forgiving
-Joyful
-Hopeful
-Generous
-Hospitable
-Transformational
-Peaceful
Quite a different list, huh? If you sit and read and think something along the lines of "I wish" or "I could never" or "That would be too hard" or "That's not reality", I would challenge you if you really believe God's grace or perhaps believe the Gospel at all.
Because here's the deal: if God hadn't designed or desired us to live in His grace, Jesus never would have come, he would have never lived the life he did, taught the things he taught, suffered the way he suffered, died the way he died, or rose from the dead. It never would have happened. Nothing would be finished. The work would still be on-going.
But that's not the case. Jesus came, lived, loved, died, and rose again. We have a cross to reflect on this Friday and an empty tomb to celebrate on Sunday. By faith we have a new identity as His children. We have been given a community to live in called the church. We are part of a grace-filled kingdom where Jesus reigns and is sovereign.
We have grace that is sufficient.
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