CHAPTER THIRTEEN

GARMENTS OF GRACE

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

COLOSSIANS 3:12-14

One day, driving back to the office from an appointment, I was grappling with some difficult circumstances in my life and feeling a bit sorry for myself. But as I drove, I tried to focus my mind on some portions of Scripture and reflect on them rather than on my problems. As I did this, I thought of Colossians 3:12-14, the Scripture text at the beginning of this chapter.

I had memorized this passage years ago and had reviewed it and reflected on it many times, but that day I saw the passage in a new way. Always before, when reflecting on the passage, my mind had gone directly to the character traits we are to put on: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, and love. I had never paid attention to the apostle Paul’s introductory phrase: “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved.” To me Paul was saying nothing more than, “Since you are Christians, act like Christians.” I saw his emphasis to be solely on Christian duty, the traits of Christ’s character I should seek after.

But that day the Holy Spirit caused my mind to focus on the two words “dearly loved.” It was as if He said to me, “Jerry, you are feeling sorry for yourself; but the truth is, you are dearly loved by God.” Dearly loved by God. What an incredible thought! But it is true, and that afternoon the Holy Spirit drove home to my heart the wonderful truth with such force that my self-pity was completely dispelled. I continued on to my office rejoicing in the fact that, despite my difficult circumstances, I was dearly loved by God.

Of course, the main thrust of Paul’s teaching in this passage is that we are to clothe ourselves with Christlike virtues, what I call “garments of grace.” But he grounds his exhortation on the grace of God —on the fact that we are chosen by Him, holy in His sight, and dearly loved by Him. It is difficult, perhaps impossible, for us to show compassion or patience to someone else if we are not sure God is patient with us —or worse, if we don’t sense the need for God to be patient with us. So these garments of gracious Christian character can only be put on by those who are consciously experiencing God’s grace in their own lives.

Having experienced God’s grace, we are then called on to extend that grace to others. The evidence of whether we are living by His grace is to be found in the way we treat other people. If we see ourselves as sinners and totally unworthy in ourselves of God’s compassion, patience, and forgiveness, then we will want to be gracious to others.

God’s grace is indeed meant to be a transforming grace. As Paul said in Titus 2:11-12, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.” The grace of God brings salvation, not only from the guilt and condemnation of sin, but also from the reign of sin in our lives. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodly character traits, but also to say “Yes” to godly character traits. God’s grace teaches us to clothe ourselves with “garments of grace.”

Paul listed eight different character traits in Colossians 3:12-14 with which we are to clothe ourselves. I did a detailed study on most of these traits, as well as others, in an earlier book, The Practice of Godliness, so I will not cover that material again.[84] Instead, I want to focus on five character traits that are particularly related to grace: gratitude, contentment, humility, forbearance, and forgiveness.

GRATITUDE

The very first character trait that should flow out of experiencing God’s grace is gratitude to Him. Everything we are and everything we do that is of any value, we owe to the grace of God. This, of course, begins with our salvation. The longer I live the Christian life, the more grateful I am for the salvation God gave to me when I was an eighteen-year-old college student.

Years ago I memorized Mark 8:36-37: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (KJV). Initially, I memorized that passage to use in witnessing, to help point out how utterly important it is for a person to take the gospel offer seriously. But in recent years I have begun to meditate on those verses for my own benefit to help me realize what an infinitely priceless gift I have received in God’s gracious gift of eternal life. As I think of the message of those verses, I visualize a balance scale with all the treasures of the entire world on one tray and eternal life on the other tray. The two trays are not balanced. Rather, the scale is bottomed out on the side of eternal life.

In the gift of eternal life, God has given us greater treasure than all the accumulated wealth of the whole world. Are we sufficiently grateful for this priceless gift? Do we take time to actually give thanks to God for the gift that cost Him so much? Are we as grateful today as we were the day we initially experienced the forgiveness of our sins and peace with God? If we are truly living by the transforming grace of God in our daily lives, gratitude for God’s gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ will be a growing experience. We should have a greater sense of gratitude, and be more desirous of expressing that gratitude to God, today than the day we were brought out of the kingdom of sin into the Kingdom of grace.

God has, of course, given us so much else in Christ. Have we grown in the Christian life so that we are a bit more mature today than we were a year ago? Are we perhaps more loving and gentle today than we were a year ago? If so, where did this growth come from? It did not come from ourselves, because as Paul said, “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature” (Romans 7:18). There are only two moral forces within us: our sinful nature and the Holy Spirit empowering our new nature. If we are more Christlike today than a year ago, it is because of the work of the Holy Spirit within us, and this is by the grace of God.

Certainly, as we have seen in earlier chapters, we must clothe ourselves with Christlike virtues (Colossians 3:12-14), but these same virtues are elsewhere called the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) —that is, the result of His work in us. One great paradox of the Christian life is that we are fully responsible for our Christian growth and at the same time fully dependent upon the Holy Spirit to give us both the desire to grow and the ability to do it. God’s grace does not negate the need for responsible action on our part, but rather makes it possible.

What about ministry? Have we accomplished some specific work for God? As we have already seen, we must admit to God, “All that we have accomplished you have done for us” (Isaiah 26:12). There is nothing, absolutely nothing, we are or we have done that is worthwhile, that is not the result of God’s Spirit working in us and through us.

I fear that often we Christians begin to think our spiritual growth and “success” in ministry is due, at least in large measure, to our own goodness and hard work. The irony is, the more committed and diligent we are, the more susceptible we are to that temptation. We face the same temptation in a spiritual sense that Israel faced in a material way when God warned them they would be prone to say, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me” (Deuteronomy 8:17).

Let us go on to the temporal blessings of life. Are we comfortably situated in a nice home with plenty of food in the cupboard and the refrigerator? Do we enjoy a reasonable degree of health? Do we have our own personal copy of the Bible (aside from the half dozen or so different translations some of us have)? Are we able to gather with other believers for worship and study of the Scriptures without fear of religious persecution?

All of these blessings come to us by God’s grace, and all of them are occasions for gratitude and giving thanks to Him. It is interesting that some people use the expression “saying grace” for the prayer of thanksgiving at meal time. I have no idea of that expression’s origin, but I suspect it was born out of a recognition that the food on the table was not only from God, but that it was there by His grace.

We actually ought to “say grace” continually throughout the day for the temporal and spiritual blessings that come our way so abundantly. I know many of us are going through some difficult times, and it’s tough to have a grateful spirit. But if we will stop and consider, we will recognize that we are still recipients every day of the amazing grace of God. If we are truly growing in grace, gratitude —and its expression in actually giving thanks to God —will be an ever-growing characteristic in our lives.

CONTENTMENT

Gratitude is a handmaiden of contentment. An ever-growing attitude of gratitude will certainly make us more content since we will be focusing more on what we do have, both spiritually and materially, than on what we do not have. But contentment is more than focusing on what we have. It is focusing on the fact that all we do have, we have by the grace of God. We do not deserve anything we have, materially or spiritually. It is all by His grace.

Discontent usually arises when we think we are not getting what we deserve, or when we think we are not getting as much as someone else. We have already seen the corrosive effect of discontent in the attitude of those who worked all day in the vineyard (see chapter 5). They were discontent and consequently unhappy, because they felt they had earned more than the workers who were hired at the eleventh hour. How different from their attitude was that of Paul, who regarded himself not only as “the least of the apostles” but even as “less than the least of all God’s people” (1 Corinthians 15:9; Ephesians 3:8). Paul truly regarded himself as an “eleventh hour” worker in God’s vineyard, as one who was receiving a full day’s wages, and more, for one hour’s work.

Discontent is a sign that we are living by works, that we think we deserve more than we are getting, that in some way God isn’t being fair to us. One of the more helpful passages of Scripture on this subject is Luke 17:7-10:

Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, “Come along now and sit down to eat”? Would he not rather say, “Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink”? Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.”

I’m sure this passage of Scripture offends many people’s sense of fairness just as much as does the parable of the workers in the vineyard. The master of the servant seems completely selfish and callous to the needs of his servant. But Jesus was not commending the master, He was simply describing conditions as they existed. The issue was, given the culture of the day, who had a right to have expectations of whom? Clearly, the servant, when he had fulfilled his duties, had no right to expect either gratitude or consideration. He had simply done what he was supposed to do.

God is not selfish and callous like the master in Jesus’ story. He is the generous and gracious landowner we saw described in the parable of the workers in the vineyard. But we are the servants of Luke 17:7-10. When we have done everything we were told to do —and who of us has come anywhere close to that standard? —we should still say, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.”

If we want to live by what we deserve, God could say, “All right, let’s first add up your debits, and then we’ll think about your credits.” Our problem is we don’t recognize our debits. We don’t recognize how far, far short we come every day in doing what we are supposed to do. And because of that, we tend to live by works instead of by grace in our daily relationship with God.

Paul said, “Godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Timothy 6:6). All the wealth and prestige in the world with discontentment results in poverty of spirit. But contentment arising in our souls from living by grace —that is, from realizing we have not received what we actually deserve, but daily receive what we don’t deserve —brings great wealth of spirit, even if we are living in poverty and obscurity.

I commend to you for meditation in respect to contentment Luke 17:10, which sums up Jesus’ teaching in that story.

HUMILITY

A person living by God’s grace will also clothe himself with humility. Unfortunately this particular fruit of the Spirit is not eagerly sought after by most believers. Perhaps that is because it is often confused with self-depreciation, which denies there is any good or worth in us. To refer again to the illustration I used in chapter 11 from Isaiah 41:14-15, this false notion of humility causes us to see ourselves only as “worm Jacob” and “little Israel” without at the same time seeing ourselves becoming mighty threshing sledges through God’s grace at work in us.

But, as Charles Hodge so aptly said, “Christian humility does not consist in denying what there is of good in us; but in an abiding sense of ill-desert, and in the consciousness that what we have of good is due to the grace of God.”[85] Humility, then, gives credit where credit is due, namely to the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Pride, which is the opposite of humility, seeks to find within ourselves some innate goodness or even to ascribe to our own commitment or faithfulness the cause of any blessings of God in our lives. Pride might say, for example, “Because I have been faithful and obedient, God has blessed me”; whereas humility would say, “Because of God’s grace at work in me, I have been motivated and enabled to be faithful and obedient.”

Humility begins with God’s grace and recognizes that the good in us in the form of Christlike character, and the good done by us in service to God and other people, is totally undeserved on our part and is due to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. But humility does not deny the evidences of His gracious work in us and through us. To do so would be to dishonor Him as much as to ascribe the cause and results of His working to ourselves.

Jesus not only said, “No branch can bear fruit by itself,” but He also said, “If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit” (John 15:4-5). To remain, or to use the word we are more familiar with, to abide in Christ is to set aside our own wisdom, strength, and merit in order to draw all from Him.[86] In other words, to abide in Christ is the same as to depend totally on God’s grace, both in the realm of ability and in the realm of merit. But the point I want to make here is Jesus did say that when we abide in Him, when we depend on the grace of God, we will bear much fruit. So it is not honoring to God, nor is it a mark of true humility to refuse to see the good produced in us or through us. Humility, then, is a recognition that we are at the same time “worm Jacob” and a mighty threshing sledge —completely weak and helpless in ourselves, but powerful and useful by the grace of God.

We have been looking at humility in a vertical dimension —that is, in our relationship to God —recognizing that all the good we have and do is from Him. But there is a horizontal dimension of humility in relationship to other people. Pride, in relation to other people, is comparing ourselves with others and seeing ourselves as superior to them in some way —whether it be in character, conduct, or achievement. One of the worst forms of pride is spiritual pride, an attitude that I am more holy or righteous or faithful or obedient or more fruitful in evangelism than others.

Humility toward others, then, is once again a recognition that all we are and do that is of any worth is a gift of God’s grace. Hence, humility turns the temptation to pride into an occasion for gratitude to God for what He has done in and through us.

There is another aspect of humility in relation to other people. Paul probably had this aspect in mind when he said in Colossians 3:12 that we should clothe ourselves with humility. According to R. C. H. Lenski, “The virtue admired by pagans [in Paul’s day] was domination, powerful self-assertion, assuming a position above other men; hence . . . [humility] was despicable to the pagan mind, a poor, low mind that could not assert itself and lord it over anybody.”[87] Unfortunately, this self-assertive, domineering attitude was not limited to Paul’s day; it is still with us today and, even more unfortunately, is found among Christians.

But Jesus took the pagan meaning of humility and turned it upside down. He washed His disciples’ feet —the usual task of the most lowly servant —and told His disciples they should follow His example (see John 13:1-15). He said, “For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves” (Luke 22:27). Above all, Jesus laid aside His glory and became the ultimate servant, dying for us on the cross (see Philippians 2:5-11). By His actions, Jesus turned what was deemed a weakness by pagans into a strength and virtue for Christians. The person who wants to experience God’s transforming grace in his or her life must be prepared to let the Holy Spirit transform self-assertiveness into Christlike humility and servanthood.

FORBEARANCE

In his “garments of grace” list in Colossians 3:12-14, Paul put forbearance (“bear with each other”) and forgiveness together. These two character traits should certainly be hallmarks of a person living by God’s transforming grace. Forbearance is no longer a common word in most vocabularies. We tend to use the word patience in its place, as in “please be patient with me.” Forbearance literally means “to put up with” and is translated that way several places in the New Testament.

For example, the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 17:17, “O unbelieving and perverse generation, . . . how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you?” (emphasis added). Paul spoke similarly when he wrote to the Corinthians, “I hope you will put up with a little of my foolishness; but you are already doing that” (2 Corinthians 11:1, emphasis added).

So when Paul said to “bear with each other,” he was saying, “put up with one another,” or as we would say, “be patient with one another.” When we use “be patient” in this manner, we are saying to put up with or overlook the faults and thoughtless acts of others. One person is always prompt for appointments, another is habitually late. When they set a lunch date, the prompt person will very likely have to put up with twenty or so minutes of tardiness from the habitually late person.

But there are two ways we can put up with the faults and thoughtless acts of other people. One way is politely but grudgingly. A person says, “Excuse my lateness,” and we smile and say, “Of course,” while inwardly we are saying, “Why can’t you be on time like I always am?” Such an attitude is born out of pride and is obviously not the way God intends that we put up with or be patient with one another.

The other way is to recognize that God has to constantly put up with our faults and failures. Not only are we faulty and thoughtless in our relationships with one another, more importantly, we are faulty and thoughtless in our relationship with God. We do not honor and reverence Him as we should. We prefer the entertainment of television to intimate fellowship with Him. But God is patient with us because of His grace. And to the extent that we consciously live in His grace, we will be patient with others. In fact, the definition of patience in our common use implies the latter, gracious way of putting up with the faults of others.

We all recognize that grudgingly “putting up with” is not true patience according to our common meaning. True patience holds no grudge, not even a minor, momentary one.

In Ephesians 4:2 Paul urges us to “[bear] with one another in love.” The basis for our patience with one another is love. As Peter said in 1 Peter 4:8, “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” Love not only covers over a multitude of sins but also a multitude of faults in one another. But where do we get such love? John answers this in 1 John 4:19: “We love because he first loved us.”

As we saw in an earlier chapter, the object of the verb love in 1 John 4:19 is indefinite. John could be saying, “We love God because He first loved us”; or he could be saying, “We love one another because God first loved us.” Perhaps John intended both meanings, although the context seems to indicate the latter. If so, he is saying the basis of our love for one another is God’s love for us. This being true, the extent of our love for each other will be based on our consciousness of and appreciation of God’s love for us. The more we have a heartfelt comprehension of God’s love for us, the more we will be inclined to love others. And since love covers over a multitude of faults, the more we will be inclined to be patient with one another. So patience ultimately grows out of a recognition of God’s grace in our lives. The more we are consciously living by grace, the more we will be patient with one another. Or to say it another way, if we are not patient with each other, we are not living by grace.

FORGIVENESS

Paul said we are to go beyond being patient with one another; we are also to forgive each other. Forgiveness differs from forbearance in that it has to do with real wrongs committed against us. Forbearance or patience should be our response to unintentional actions due to the faults or carelessness of another. Forgiveness should be our response to the intentional or provocative acts of another, the instances when they attempt to or actually do harm us in some way.

In Colossians 3:13, Paul said, “Forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.” Paul’s language seems to take for granted that such grievances will occur. As believers, all of us are still far from the Christlikeness we would like to have. So we not only offend our fellow believers unwittingly through our faults and failures, but we also sometimes offend deliberately. We need forgiveness not only from God but from one another. And we need to forgive one another as God forgave us.

Paul said, “Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” We are to forgive because we have been forgiven. As F. F. Bruce said, “The free grace of the Father’s forgiving love is the pattern for his children in their forgiveness of one another.”[88] This thought takes us back to Jesus’ parable of the unmerciful servant in Matthew 18:21-35. We considered this briefly at the end of chapter 3, but I want to look at it in more detail now. For convenience the parable is reproduced here:

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?”

Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

“Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all he had be sold to repay the debt.

“The servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

“But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.

“His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’

“But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.

“Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

“This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”

As we consider the parable, note first that Jesus gave it in response to a specific question from Peter: “How many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” The parable serves to reinforce Jesus’ answer, “not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”

The servant in the parable owed his master millions of dollars. When the master ordered that he and his family and all he had be sold to repay the debt, the servant stalled for time. He said, “Be patient with me, and I will pay back everything.” The servant should have declared bankruptcy and pleaded for mercy; instead, he pleaded for time. He thought he could wipe out his huge debt, given sufficient time. But he owed an impossible sum. According to David Seamands, the annual taxes at that time from all the Palestinian provinces put together amounted to only $800,000.[89] Yet the servant owed millions of dollars. There was no way he could pay his debt.

This servant illustrates a person who is living by works. He foolishly thought he could work his way out of debt. But the master knew that only grace would suffice to meet the man’s needs, so he freely forgave him and canceled the debt.

Despite experiencing such overwhelming forgiveness, this man refused to forgive a fellow servant who owed him only a few dollars. Instead, he ruthlessly demanded payment. The obvious message of the parable is that, whatever offense anyone has committed against us, it is trifling compared to the vast debt of our sins against God.

It seems that the unmerciful servant’s unforgiving attitude arose out of his lack of understanding of grace. He wanted to repay his debt, or to use an earlier expression in this book, to pay his own way. In his mind he never declared total bankruptcy. That is why, even after receiving such gracious forgiveness himself, he treated his fellow servant so unmercifully. Had he recognized his own total bankruptcy, and consequently, the necessity for absolute grace on the part of his master, he probably would have behaved differently.

Many Christians behave like the unmerciful servant and for the same reason. Because they have not admitted their own total and permanent spiritual bankruptcy, they do not recognize the infinite extent of God’s grace to them. They still see themselves as basically “good,” and because of that, they expect everyone else to be “good” also, especially in relationship to them. Because they do not recognize their own continued bankruptcy before God, they insist that everyone else pay his own debts.

But the Christian living by grace recognizes his own spiritual bankruptcy. He sees the vast contrast between his sins against God of “several million dollars” and his neighbor’s sins against him of only a “few dollars.” And because of this, he both understands and responds to Paul’s instruction, “Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”

So we have come full circle and are now back where we began in chapter 1, recognizing our own spiritual bankruptcy. This is where we must begin and end if we are to experience the joy of living by God’s transforming grace. So I invite you and urge you to lay aside any remnant of self-goodness you may think you still have. Admit your total spiritual bankruptcy, and drink deeply from the infinite grace of God. And then in deep awareness of what you have received, extend that same spirit of grace to others.