Whatever Happened To Grace?

“You are saved by grace through faith”

Today because we live in a country where the vast majority claim to be Christian we have now become afraid of Grace. The apostle Paul wrote those words above to a group of individuals who were not living as those who have become new in Christ.

Today it is the type of church you go to, the type of music you listen to, how “holy” you live, how much theology or bible you know, and what type of theology you affirm. When we read the letters of the Apostle we see it written to a group of people who looked exactly as we did today. We have this romantic idea of the early church. Often times I hear and read stuff about how righteous they were, but history (and the bible) proves that idea absurd.

You see the Corinthians are called brethren and from what I can gather from the two letters they were jacked up. When I read the letter to the Thessalonians their theology was a bit shaky, if I turn to Colossians, they were having problem with Christ’s identity, go over to Philippians and they can’t get along, we can go on and on but you get the point.

Simply put, none of these things, rather behavioral or theological prevented Paul from preaching radical grace. Whenever you see Paul wanting Christians to change or to stop doing something or to start doing something, he always put Christ (grace) in front of them. “Christ did X and you are in Christ and now so should you”, never “you better do this or else”. Paul never threatened the church because he knew that grace would be the only thing that motivates Christians to love and love is what motivated God to crush His Son.

We can not be afraid to preach radical grace and plead with the people of God to put on Christ. It is not are job to separate the wheat from the chaff, it is not our job to bring conviction or condemnation, it isn’t our job to strong arm people into Christian compliance. It is our job to love, preach Christ and to proclaim grace and allow the chips to fall where they may. Yes people will not look like we want them to look or live like we want them to live, but allow the Master to handle that. Whatever happened to grace? You tell me!