What has Happened to Grace?

Jesus was born into a graceless world. Brutalism and violence were far more prevalent than any semblance of grace. Governments were violent and graceless, and religions were just as brutal. Life was hard.

Religions were based on a concept of cause and effect legalism that gave little value to individuals. They were all about pleasing gods who could be very whimsical or very legalistic. The lives of individual persons were of little value. People were thought to be basically evil and deserving of punishment from the gods.

Most religions spoke to this condition of humans by creating ways in which some sort of compensation for their deficient condition could be made to the gods. The gods were constantly angry because humans were constantly violating their rules for living. Their displeasure was expressed to persons and nations through famines, disease, earthquakes, wars, deformities, accidents, and reversals. Life was hard. The gods made it so. People deserved to be punished.

Even then, religions provided a way around deserved punishment. The anger of the gods could be placated by religious exercises. Future blessings could be gained by other religious exercises. The most universal of these exercises involved some type of sacrificial system. Alters were erected and systems of sacrifice were made known to the people through religious priests who spoke for the gods. Religious legalism reigned supreme all over the world. It took different forms with different gods, but all understood that mankind must pay the gods for its errors.

The gods were portrayed as stern judges who showed very little mercy to guilty parties. Their laws, rules, and commandments were strict and their punishments were harsh and just. Life was hard, and there was little joy to be had from the gods of the world.

Jesus came into this ruthless world with a new and different message from God. He placed little value on the religious understandings of his day. (Romans 12.1-2) He taught and demonstrated with his life that God was being misunderstood in both his personality and his actions. (Hebrews 1.1-3)

Jesus told his disciples that God behaved like Jesus behaved and thought like he thought. He said, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” Obviously, the disciples had difficulty believing him, and the religious leaders of the day simply denied that he was from God altogether. His portrayal of God was completely unlike any other understanding. It was actually too good to be true.

The stern, law-giving and punishing god of the Pharisees and lawyers was seen in Jesus to be a loving father who is compassionate with his off-track children.

The god of legalistic payoffs, good and bad, was seen in Jesus to be a God of grace, edification and transformation. Jesus transferred an emphasis on the importance of the Law to an importance of the individual person. He taught and demonstrated grace instead of legalism. In so doing, he turned the religious world upside down. If God is truly gracious, there is no need for a payment to be made for every mistake made in life. If he is patient and compassionate to sinful persons like Jesus was, they do not have to live in constant fear that their just deserts are only a day away. Grace was overcoming legalism.

Whereas, legalism proclaims that everyone should “get what they deserve,” grace proclaims that persons should be treated “better than deserved.” Jesus reveled that God is actually a Father of grace and gifting who blesses the undeserving. The Pharisees did not believe him. If he was right, their entire religious world came tumbling down.

Jesus not only portrayed God as a Father of grace, he taught that everyone should become a person of grace. His teachings about forgiving, returning good for evil, praying for persecutors, going the second mile, giving a cloak along with a coat, and not judging are teachings about how to live graciously. All of those teachings instruct us to treat other people better than they deserve to be treated. That is, with grace. His disciples are to be persons of grace who are the spiritual offspring of a Father of grace. This is light, and this is life.

Belief in Jesus changes everything: understanding of life, worldview, view of God, view of other people, value system. Everything changes. But he is difficult to believe. Legalism is so logical and doable that it is a no-brainer. Grace is abnormal, difficult and unnatural. It requires a complete reorientation to life, and to God.

Jesus came to change the world, one person at a time. He is changing it from legalistic ruthlessness to redemptive graciousness. The spirit of grace is coming to live in persons of this world. They were dead, but now they are alive. Amen.

Graciousness seems to have alluded the institutional Christian church. It seldom proclaims the development of graciousness in every believer. It is not known for a proclamation of grace and graciousness. It seems to be as legalistic as were the Pharisees. What has happened to grace?

Whatever happened has robbed the world of much of the Good News. It has robbed Christians of lives which overflow. This must be changed. Grace must be rediscovered and graciousness must be reclaimed as the Christian lifestyle. The world needs grace and a people who are gracious. A change can only begin with one person at a time. When individuals become persons of grace, the world begins to be changed. How long, O Lord, how long?