Understanding Grace
By Tracy Smith
"But God is so rich in mercy,
and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he
gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace
that you have been saved!)"
Ephesians 2:4-5 (NLT)
I recently read A Heart for Freedom by Chai Ling, one of the student leaders in the 1989 Tiananmen Square uprising in China. In writing her memoir, she struggled with how much personal information to include in order to fully tell her story, including sad choices. Her husband especially struggled with her sharing certain things since he feared how people would judge her, until he heard the following at a conference:
"The key to understanding grace, Dr. Keller said, is recognizing that we are all dead in our sins…If we were merely sick in our sins, there would be degrees of illness and degrees of treatment. But dead is dead. When we're dead, we don't need treatment, we need a resurrection, and there is nothing we ourselves can do to bring that about. So grace is not only a free gift from God, it is also indispensable to our lives. On top of that, even though grace is a free gift to us, it was purchased at the price of Jesus' life - - which makes it infinitely costly, as well. If we have received this gift of grace, Dr. Keller continued, which is both indispensable and infinitely costly, on what basis do we look down our noses at others for the sins or wrongs they have committed?" [1]
This made me think of how often we judge others based on our own "pyramid" of sins. To use the sickness analogy from the book: Those sins at the bottom of the pyramid are not so bad, they don't even require medicine! The ones above may need some antibiotics and the ones in the middle may require hospitalization, etc. We look at where we are and judge those around us based on where they are in our own little pyramid. We forget that no matter how we view the sin, the cost was the same - -Jesus’ life!
As Dr. Keller pointed out, the Bible says we were all dead to sin. Not degrees of sickness - - death. We are all in the same place: guilty and in need of a Savior. I wonder what would be different if we refused to judge the sins that bring others to Christ… and what would happen if we all were as transparent as Chai Ling.
GOING DEEPER:
1. Whom are you judging and need to extend grace instead?
2. What in your life is God is asking you to be more transparent about?
FURTHER READING:
Romans 3:24; Titus 3:3-7
Along with being a wife and mother to two teenage sons, Tracy is a ministry assistant at Oakwood, serves on the Women’s Ministry Special Events Team and works with a great group of Junior High girls.
[1] Ling, Chai, A Heart for Freedom (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2011) 321.
