Chapter 3
That Amazing Stuff Called Grace
In This Chapter
Understanding the meaning of grace
Exploring the basics of salvation
Knowing your role in being saved
Defining the born-again Christian
Negating the idea of “hopeless cases”
If you were to ask a random sampling of people on the street to name a Christian song or hymn, chances are that many of these folks — whether they are Christians or not — would respond with “Amazing Grace.” This song
“Amazing Grace” was written a few hundred years ago but has certainly stood the test of time. I think it’s rather fortunate that the song wasn’t written in this day and age when superlatives go in and out of fashion at a moment’s notice. If the song were written today as a teeny bopper tune, I can just imagine it would be entitled something like “Wicked Cool Grace.” Or, if some marketing folks got ahold of it, you’d surely have “Super-Sized Grace” or “Turbo-Powered Grace.”
When you actually start to think about God’s grace, a legitimate question to ask is, Is it really worthy of the “amazing” label? Or is this song title just another example of superlatives gone amuck? In this chapter, you find out about the core teaching of Christianity — the grace-filled message of Jesus Christ dying for the sins of the world — and explore what the grace of God is all about. You can then make up your own mind on what superlative to use.
Defining Grace
If Christianity is all about how mere mortals like you and I can have an intimate, eternal relationship with God, grace is what makes such a relationship possible. You could say then that grace serves as the underbelly of the Christian faith. But to really understand what grace means, consider three stories that illustrate what this concept is all about. I tell you the accounts in the following three sections and explain them in the fourth, so get a glass of milk and some cookies, because it’s story time.
Grace is a costly gift
Les Miserables is the classic Victor Hugo novel that has been made into a musical and several films. It tells the story of Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for 17 years in France simply because he steals a loaf of bread to feed his hungry family. Valjean starts off as a well-meaning guy, but by the time he is released from prison, he’s transformed into a hardened, embittered man with no hope for the future. After being refused by an innkeeper on a rainy evening, Valjean knocks on the door of a church’s parsonage and asks for a night’s lodging. In true Motel 6 fashion, a bishop “leaves the light on” for Valjean, opening up his home, giving him a warm meal, and offering a comfortable bed and pillow.
Valjean, however, isn’t of the mindset to feel much gratitude for this display of kindness; he awakens in the middle of the night, steals some silver plates, and runs off toward the edge of town. In the morning, the police catch Valjean with the suspicious goods and bring him back to the bishop for questioning. Valjean’s fate now seems sealed — he knows that being found guilty of theft a second time brings a permanent prison sentence.
Yet, when the bishop sees Valjean, he does something completely unexpected. Rather than berating the thief and turning him over to the police, the bishop greets him warmly and asks why he didn’t take the candlesticks as well. As the police leave, satisfied that no crime has been committed, Valjean looks at the bishop with an expression of total disbelief: “Is it true that they let me go?”
The bishop then goes home to retrieve two silver candlesticks, the only remaining property of value that he owns, and hands them to Valjean. He challenges Valjean to use the silver to make himself into a new man, finishing with, “Jean Valjean, my brother: you belong no longer to evil, but to good. It is your soul I am buying for you.”
A must-read: What’s So Amazing About Grace?
Phillip Yancey’s What’s So Amazing About Grace? (Zondervan, 1997) is a brilliant, brutally honest, and totally absorbing account of what grace means. Sometimes Christians seem to have forgotten about the seemingly simple concept of grace — core to the teachings of Jesus — when you consider the legalistic way many of them live (see Chapter 16) and what preachers speak from the pulpits each Sunday. This book attempts to bridge that chasm. Before reading it, as a long-time Christian, I was skeptical that I had much to learn about grace; I was wrong. I personally found the book to be life transforming, completely altering the way I look at my relationships with God and with others around me.
Grace is undeserved
Jesus’ parable of the prodigal (wasteful) son in Luke 15 has proven to be one of the most well-known and loved of all his parables. It tells the story of an ungrateful son who does the unthinkable — asks for his inheritance before his father has even keeled over — and tells of an amazing (there’s that word again) father who actually grants the offensive request.
The son cashes in on his inheritance and leaves home for Rio de Janeiro — well, some far-off land, anyway. While there, he goes hog wild with his cash, probably squandering his fortune buying cheap touristy trinkets and a T-shirt to send to his dad that says: My prodigal son went to Rio and all he got me was this lousy T-shirt. But after his brief fun in the sun, the prodigal finds both his wallet and his stomach empty. He looks for work but is unable to find it, leaving him as desperate as a homeless man in a deserted soup kitchen. He goes on for awhile, but eventually realizes that his only option is to return home.
A father in any day and age would deal with the prodigal son severely after such an escapade and would have a lifetime of “I told you so’s” to share with him. In the Middle Eastern culture of Jesus’ day, the treatment would have been even more harsh, because the prodigal’s actions were a slap in the face of two key beliefs of that culture — family ties and respect for family authority — both which were valued more than life itself.
Everyone in the village likely expected the prodigal to be forced to work off his debt like a slave and never be fully accepted as a son again. The villagers would certainly never let the prodigal live it down. They’d endlessly humiliate, harass, and taunt any person who’s done such an unspeakable deed.
A must-read: The Cross and the Prodigal
In this parable we have a father who leaves the comfort and security of his home and exposes himself in a humiliating fashion in the village street. The coming down and going out to his boy hints at [Jesus’ coming to earth]. The humiliating spectacle in the village street hints at the meaning of the cross.
—Ken Bailey, The Cross and the Prodigal (Concordia Publishing House, 1973)
Ken Bailey’s The Cross and the Prodigal is perhaps an obscure “must-read” selection because it’s hard to find, yet I recommend it because Bailey’s look at the prodigal son parable in Luke 15 has been instrumental to my faith. The relatively short 132-page book has deeply impacted my perspective on Christ’s sacrifice, the extent of God’s love, and the nature of sin.
The purpose of this book is to examine the parable of the prodigal son from the perspective of a Middle Easterner. Postmodern Americans and Europeans are removed from biblical culture in two ways — through 2,000 years of history and the differences between the Eastern and Western cultures. The result is to overlook some of the subtleties of the text and miss some of the underlying assumptions. Only when you look at the parable through Middle Eastern, 2,000-year-old eyes can you understand the father’s true sacrificial love and both sons’ equal sin, not just that of the prodigal.
Unfortunately, The Cross and the Prodigal isn’t widely available and takes a bit of searching to find. Visit my Web site at www.digitalwalk.net, where I point you the way.
But the father in Jesus’ story responds in an unexpected way. When he sees his son walking back, the father is sick to his stomach with compassion for his son as he realizes the suffering that his child has gone through and will go through by the villagers’ taunts. The father knows that the only way to prevent his son’s future shame is to take a drastic action himself, taking the focus off of his son and onto himself. Therefore, he sprints out to meet the ungrateful son, much like a track star running a 100-meter dash. Since senior citizens jog for exercise in this day and age, you and I don’t think much of his mad dash in public, but to the people of Jesus’ day, this sprint would have been a total embarrassment. No older person would ever jog, let alone run; it’s a matter of dignity. What’s more, in order to run, he’d have to expose his undergarments when he lifted his robe.
But the father’s surprising behavior doesn’t stop there. When he gets to his son, he puts his arms around him, hugging and repeatedly kissing him. He then calls his servants to kill a fattened calf and put his finest robe on his son, a ring on his finger, and sandals on his feet. Not only does this amazing response show the prodigal the boundless love that the father has, but his action also signifies to everyone that his son is to be welcomed back as a son, not as a servant.
Grace is an unexpected surprise
“Babette’s Feast” is a short story written by Isak Dinesen that was made into a film and won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1987. “Babette’s Feast” tells of a minister’s two daughters from a remote village in Denmark called Norre Vosburg who give up love and fame to remain in service to their tiny, strict Lutheran church. In spite of the women’s intentions, the years take their toll on the people of the church, which begins to deteriorate — consumed with rules and regulations and plagued by bitter feuds among the congregation members.
Out of pity, the two sisters reluctantly take in a woman refugee from Paris who knocks on their door one rainy night. She has an accompanying note with her that concludes with the simple statement, “Babette can cook.” Babette settles in and obediently cooks for the two sisters, fixing only what their pleasure-denying palettes would allow — bland cod and gruel.
Twelve years go by, and one day Babette receives surprising news in the mail that she holds the winning French lottery ticket, redeemable for 10,000 francs. Upon hearing this news, the two sisters, who’ve grown attached to and dependent upon Babette over the years, realize that Babette will leave them soon.
Around this time, the tiny church holds an anniversary celebration in honor of its founder, so Babette asks the sisters if she can prepare a special French meal for this event. To the sisters, the thought of a French meal seems worldly and self-indulgent, perhaps even originating from Satan himself. However, Babette has never asked for anything before, so the two sisters feel compelled to agree to her request in spite of their fears. After Babette receives her prize money, she begins to purchase supplies for the meal, and the sisters watch in horror as Babette brings in champagne, chocolate, turtles, pheasants, and even a cow’s head. The duo meet secretly with the other members of the congregation, and they all conspire to eat the meal out of duty, but won’t enjoy it or even speak of the meal to each other.
The night of the celebration comes, and the congregation sits down to dinner. A church member’s nephew, a high-ranking, cosmopolitan general, joins them; as the meal starts, the congregation eats and drinks without comment, but the general is amazed — he is drinking the finest Amontillado he’s ever had and eating real turtle soup, a delicacy never found in remote Denmark. Later, when he tastes the main course, the general announces that the only place he’d ever had this one-of-a-kind dish was at Café Anglais, a famous Parisian restaurant that was once well-known for its female chef. Throughout much of the meal, the general’s unbridled enthusiasm stands out against the stark silence of the rest of the dinner guests.
Grace versus mercy: Knowing the difference
Although the terms grace and mercy are often used interchangeably, there’s a subtle difference in meaning between the two: Grace is receiving something that’s undeserved, while mercy isn’t receiving punishment that’s deserved. For example, in Les Miserables, the bishop’s mercy saves Valjean from life imprisonment, and his grace gives Valjean a new life. In the same way, God shows humans grace by giving the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, and he shows mercy by not punishing for their sin those who accept his gift.
As the meal continues, the feast has a transforming effect, and the church members gradually loosen up and begin to enjoy the meal. They begin to laugh and talk of good times in the past. Feuds that had gone on for years are dealt with and buried. Finally, at the evening’s conclusion, they go outside together, form a circle under the stars, and sing a hymn together. What was, hours before, a decaying, feuding congregation is now a unified, joyful one, transformed by Babette’s feast.
The story ends with two bombshells. Babette first tells the two sisters that she was, in fact, the famous chef at Café Anglais (which the general had spoken of earlier in the evening). She then adds that she’ll be staying with the two in Norre Vosburg permanently. When the sisters ask about the prize money, Babette reveals that she spent the entire sum on the celebration meal. After all, that’s what a dinner for twelve costs at Café Anglais!
Grace in a nutshell
The stories in the previous sections underscore two realities of what grace is all about:
Grace is costly. Grace is a gift that costs everything for the one who gives it. The bishop in Les Miserables gives Jean Valjean his silver dishes and candlesticks, the only belongings he possesses that have any value. In the parable of the prodigal son, the father gives a costly gift, too: he takes on the humiliation due his son when he sprints out to him. In “Babette’s Feast,” Babette’s gift to the church congregation costs her everything — the 10,000 francs that she’s won.
Grace is undeserved by the recipient. In each of these three stories, none of the recipients of grace had any claim to the gift they received. They didn’t deserve the gift, nor could they have earned it in any way. Valjean is given the candlesticks in addition to the silver dishes he’s already stolen. The prodigal son deserves shame, punishment, and servitude — not the gift the father gives him on the road home. In Norre Vosburg, the church members, in judgment and skepticism, do their utmost to resist the delicious spread that Babette prepares — so obviously, they don’t deserve to partake of something that cost her everything.
Receiving God’s Gift of Grace: Salvation
From a Christian perspective, grace is what God shows to humans by offering salvation — freedom from the punishment of sin and the promise of eternal life — through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God’s grace is costly because it cost Jesus Christ his life. God’s grace is also undeserved — humans have sinned against him from the Fall of Adam and Eve and have done nothing — and can do nothing — to earn it.
God loves and wants a relationship with each person.
Everyone has sinned. And this sin, whether large or small, separates people from God. (See Chapter 4 to find out more about a Christian’s beliefs about sin.)
God came to earth as Jesus Christ (flip to Chapter 5) and paid the costly penalty for this sin.
Anyone who accepts this gift of grace receives salvation.
I discuss each one of these ideas in this section.
God’s motivation for grace
Not only does the prodigal son story (see the section, “Grace is undeserved” in this chapter) offer a vivid picture of grace, but the parable also hints at the reason God offers grace — his amazing love for his people. You can see this by the father’s reaction when he finishes his run and gets to his child. He doesn’t just shake his son’s hand or give him a high-five. Instead, Jesus gives a much more intimate description — the father excitedly hugs and kisses the prodigal repeatedly. Charles Spurgeon, an evangelical preacher who lived in the 19th century, spoke of the love this parable portrays in his sermon, “Prodigal Love for the Prodigal Son” (www.spurgeon.org/sermons/2236.htm):
God on the neck of a sinner! What a wonderful picture! Can you conceive it? I do not think you can; but if you cannot imagine it, I hope that you will realize it. When God’s arm is about our neck, and his lips are on our cheek, kissing us much, then we understand more than preachers or books can ever tell us of his . . . love.
Principle #1: God loves
God desires all people to be saved and come to full knowledge of the truth.
—1 Timothy 2:4
Christians believe that, from the very beginning, God created people because he loves them and wants a relationship with them (John 3:16). And he designed humans in such a way that they would naturally seek him, desire a relationship with him, and have a hunger for what he offers — long life, hope, peace, and joy. Yet, as discussed fully in Chapter 1, God also gave humans a wild card — the free choice of whether to follow him or to go their own separate ways. As a result, while God loves each person and has his arms outstretched, he’s a “gentleman” and never forces anyone to do what he or she doesn’t want to do.
Principle #2: People sin
All people have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.
—Romans 3:23
If you read the Bible through cover to cover, two truths about God become very clear: God loves people, and he hates sin. The problem is that everyone is born with a sin nature (see Chapter 4) and sins (Romans 3:23). And this sin, whether it’s a little or a lot, separates everyone equally from God.
God’s not simply being a meanie by making a big deal out of sin. Rather, sin isn’t something he can just sweep under the table or pretend isn’t there. Christians believe that he doesn’t ignore it for three major reasons:
Sin breaks God’s heart. Imagine the reaction of parents whose only child, on her 16th birthday, stole their life savings and ran off to Fiji. Yes, they’d be upset that she broke the rules, but that anger pales in comparison to the hurt they’d feel at the betrayal and selfishness of their own flesh and blood. Similarly, when you sin against God, you’re not violating an arbitrary list of do’s and don’ts that God wants you to obey; instead, you’re hurting God. As you explore in Chapter 4, thinking of sin as simply breaking rules is overly simplistic and even downright misleading. No, sin is all about breaking God’s heart.
A holy God can’t turn a blind eye to sin. Even if God, in spite of his hurt, wants to overlook sin, he can’t. Ignoring sin is the one option that isn’t open to God, because he’s perfectly holy and completely pure. In fact, if he tried to close his eyes to it, he’d no longer be who he is. In the same way, an ice cube can’t simply ignore a pot of boiling water. If the cube doesn’t take reality into account and jumps into the steamy liquid, it ceases to be an ice cube. So, although the common belief is “Nothing is impossible with God,” that statement is only partially true. Yes, he’s all-powerful and in control, but God can’t do anything that goes contrary to his nature.
God established the law of cause and effect in the beginning. When God introduced choice to the world, a natural side effect of that decision was the introduction of consequences: Every decision you and I make has an outcome that we can’t reverse. In other words, every cause has an effect.
This earth is a beautiful place, but it’s also, quite frankly, dangerous and treacherous. Sometimes actions have painful consequences, no matter how harsh or seemingly unfair the result. For example, getting into a pizza-eating contest with your 300-pound cousin may leave you with a stomachache. But wishful thinking or denial doesn’t change the cold hard fact that your poor decision has indigestion-inducing consequences. Reality wins in the end, whether you like it or not. In the same way, after you sin, you can’t simply wash away its effects.
The cost of freedom also plays a major factor in why Christians believe God allows bad things to happen in this world. See Chapter 16 for more on that topic.
Are you yearning for a few examples? Consider a couple of parallels to fully grasp why God can’t ignore sin:
Imagine that someone dear to you jumps into a pit of slimy, poisonous goo. When that person gets out of the pit, a gooey substance coats the individual and reeks of the sulphur-smelling poison. When you get near the person, the poison gas spewing from the slime burns your lungs and makes it impossible for you to breathe. You may still love that person, but you can’t carry on a normal relationship with him or her as long as the slime remains.
Suppose a wife has an affair and shamelessly brings her lover home to her husband. With another man hanging all over his wife, the husband can’t simply carry on as usual with her, ignoring the reality that’s in front of him. He may still deeply love her and hope their relationship can be rekindled, but he can’t act on those desires while the other man has his arms around the wife. The other man not only blocks the husband from interacting with his spouse, but he also prevents the wife from being intimate with her husband.
Sin is much like that gooey slime or that underhanded lover. It causes a gigantic rift and has divided people from God ever since Adam and Eve. God made it clear that the penalty for sin is death and eternal separation from God (Romans 6:23). As a result, people find themselves in deep doo-doo: They’re in a bad situation and can’t get out of it by being good. They’re between a rock and a hard place; they’re up a creek without a paddle; they’ve fallen and they can’t get up. Well, you get the idea.
People throughout the ages have tried some ingenious tricks to bridge that vast canyon of sin, but no one has been successful (although rumor has it that stuntman Evel Knievel came awfully close in the 1970s). As history has proven, humans simply don’t have the goods to pull it off by themselves. See Chapters 4 and 15 on why that’s the case.
Principle #3: God responds
God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
—Romans 5:8
Because of sin (Principle #2), God had a choice to make — either forget about the lot of us or take the initiative and do something himself to bridge the gap. God’s love for humans (Principle #1) drove him to respond to the sin, but that solution came at a great cost to himself.
Because the penalty for sin is death and separation from God, a price had to be paid. But a person couldn’t just pay it, because as you’ve seen, humans can’t pull themselves up to God. Therefore, in order for the gap to be closed, God had to take the initiative and pay the price himself. He had to come to earth as a man, Jesus Christ, and die for the sins of the world (1 Peter 3:18).
Therefore, Christians believe God’s gift of grace is the work that Jesus Christ did by dying on the cross for the sins of the world and coming back to life again three days later.
Principle #4: People must choose
If you will confess with your mouth that “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
—Romans 10:9
Why did Jesus have to die for your sins?
Buried in the Old Testament is an obscure Israelite custom that helps makes sense of why Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross redeems (saves) people from their sins. Ancient Israel had a concept of a kinsmen redeemer, which was someone who protected members of his or her extended family if they got into trouble. For example, suppose a person got deep into debt and couldn’t repay it. By law, that person could be sold into slavery until the debt was paid. However, if the person sold into servitude had a relative who could act as a kinsmen redeemer, then that individual could be freed as the kinsmen redeemer would pay off the debt. The qualifications for a kinsmen redeemer were threefold: you had to be a blood relative, be free, and be willing and able to redeem.
Christians think of Jesus as being the kinsmen redeemer for humanity. People have gotten themselves into a debt of sin that they can never, not in a million years, repay themselves. However, only one person in all history is qualified to serve as humanity’s kinsmen redeemer — Jesus Christ. He alone meets the threefold requirements:
Jesus is God (see Chapters 5 and 7), but he’s also a “relative,” because he was born into the world as a man.
Jesus is free, being the only person to have led a sinless life.
Jesus voluntarily went to the cross on behalf of everyone.
Although a kinsmen redeemer in ancient Israel would pay a financial debt to release a relative from slavery, the penalty for sin isn’t financial, but a matter of life and death. Therefore, the price that Jesus had to pay was his own life for the lives of all humans.
Through the work of Jesus Christ, God built a bridge over the gorge of sin that eliminates the consequences of Principle #2 (people sin) and enables Principle #1 (God loves) to happen. Christians believe that one doesn’t have to buy a ticket or do anything to earn his way across the bridge, but he does have to decidedly walk across it in order to take up God on his offer. In Les Miserables, the candlesticks wouldn’t have meant anything to Valjean if he hadn’t taken them with his hands from the bishop and carried them away. In the story of the prodigal son, the father’s love wouldn’t have mattered had the son not accepted it. And in “Babette’s Feast,” the dinner wouldn’t have done its transforming work on the church members if they didn’t lift their forks and partake of the food.
Acknowledge your sinful position to God.
Believe that Jesus Christ died in your place for your sins.
Confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and allow him to be lord of your life.
It’s important to note that God doesn’t treat humans as a group, but as individuals. Although grasping it seems impossible, Christians believe he desires a relationship with every single person who walks the face of the earth. So, given that he singles every person out for love, he also holds every individual accountable for the choices that he or she makes. Christians believe that God gives freedom, but he demands accountability.
Understanding Salvation by Faith
The notion that salvation is totally of God and is the result of nothing that you or I do is hard to grasp. To many, this solution is too easy. Human nature almost demands us to tack something onto the end. And many through the ages have felt compelled to add onto the central message of Christianity. But the Bible makes it clear that salvation is sola gratia — by grace alone. As Ephesians 2:8–9 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. It is not from yourself or anything you’ve done, but the gift of God.” Salvation, therefore, is a free gift of grace from God.
When a person accepts the gift of salvation, he or she is said to be justified — made acceptable before (or made right with) God. The process of being declared righteous is called justification .
A prayer of salvation
Over the years, you may have seen a Billy Graham crusade on television, during which Mr. Graham speaks to a stadium filled with thousands of people. If you watched the program all the way through, you’d see that Graham always invites people to come down to the front after his talk in order to make a commitment to become a Christian. What Graham is doing here is emphasizing the fact that God’s gift of salvation is a deliberate act of the will and so requires an explicit response from an individual. The actual step of becoming a Christian is typically done through a simple prayer that goes something like this:
Dear Jesus, I understand that I’m a sinner and need your forgiveness. I want to turn away from my sins, and I believe that you died for them. I invite you to come into my heart and begin transforming me. I commit myself to trusting and following you as my Lord and my Savior. Amen.
Although all Christians agree that God’s grace is what saves people, they disagree considerably over what a person’s role is in this whole process. Obviously, a Christian needs to believe in Jesus Christ, but a sticky issue has always been whether faith by itself is sufficient for salvation. The Christian Church is split on this issue.
Catholics believe that God’s gift of grace is received through faith and by partaking of the sacraments (such as being baptized, taking Communion, being confirmed in the church, and confessing sins to a priest). Baptism is particularly important and Catholics consider it a key requirement for being saved. If you read Catholicism For Dummies, by Rev. John Trigilio, Jr. and Rev. Kenneth Brighenti (Wiley) for example, you see this viewpoint.
Most Orthodox Christians believe salvation is more of a gradual process in which humans become more and more like God as they participate with him in the work of salvation. Protestants see the act of praying the sinner’s prayer (see the sidebar, “A prayer of salvation,” earlier in this chapter) as the trigger that brings salvation into a person’s life. In contrast, Orthodox Christians typically place far less emphasis on a specific “salvation event” that starts the Christian’s life, focusing instead on what must be done over the course of a person’s life to continue on in the faith. In other words, while Protestants ask, “What can I do to be saved?”, Orthodox Christians ask, “What can I do to be most saved?”
Protestants believe in justification sola fide (by faith alone). In other words, faith in Jesus Christ is all that is needed to actually save a person. “Faith” or “belief” in this context isn’t simply an intellectual belief in God, but rather something far deeper and life changing than head knowledge. Protestants point to several verses in Acts and Romans to back up their claim:
“Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.” (Acts 16:31)
“This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” (Romans 3:22)
“For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.” (Romans 3:28)
“To the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.” (Romans 4:5)
Protestants are very leery of the W word that Paul speaks so loudly against in the Book of Romans — works . That’s why they disagree with the Catholic link between the sacraments and salvation and the tie that Orthodox Christians place on living a Christian life with one’s salvation. Protestants consider these efforts to be works, plain and simple, since they are actions that one takes apart from belief. Although Protestants agree with Catholics and Orthodox Christians that a Christian must live out her faith (Philippians 2:12), they see the practice of “living out” as something that is separate from salvation itself — an effect of receiving salvation, rather than a necessity to receive salvation.
Is all of this discussion making your head spin yet? Okay, let me put aside all of these debates and nuances and drill down on two key truths about salvation and faith that all Christians agree on:
Faith in Jesus Christ is essential to be saved and justified. See Ephesians 2:8–9.
True faith has a backbone. The Book of James makes it abundantly clear that a declaration of faith by itself doesn’t amount to a hill of beans if it isn’t backed up by action (James 2:14–26). In other words, if you’re gonna talk the talk, you’ve gotta walk the walk. Therefore, if someone is truly a Christian, his or her life is going to be characterized by a growing faith and, over the long haul, he or she will live in accordance with that faith. However, recognize that this is a consequence of faith, not a condition. See Chapter 13 to find out what it means to live a Christian life.
Being “Born Again”
“Born again” is one of those stereotyped expressions that means different things to different people. To some, the phrase is a perfect summary of what being a Christian is. To others, the expression sounds like a label that is associated with wacky televangelists. But truth be told, “born again” is a phrase that was first used by none other than Jesus himself.
Born again means to be spiritually reborn by committing your life to Jesus and entering into a personal relationship with him. Jesus said in John 3:3 that unless a person is “born again,” he won’t see the Kingdom of God. In other words, Jesus is saying that when a person accepts the gift of grace from God and believes in Jesus Christ, a very real change happens, brought about by the Holy Spirit — a second birth, if you will. In that respect, every earnest Christian is “born again” whether he or she ascribes to that label or not.
The New Testament is filled with the idea that something’s different in people who’ve committed their lives to Jesus. Paul says that a Christian is a “new creation,” meaning the old things of that person’s life in effect die, and all things become new (2 Corinthians 5:17). He adds in Ephesians 4:24 that the Christian “puts on the ‘new self,’ who in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.”
Dealing with Hopeless Cases
A common response that many people have when they hear about God’s gift of grace is: “But you don’t know what I’ve done!” In other words, God may forgive some people, but the sin in that individual’s life is soooooooo bad that God can’t possibly forgive him or her.
An amazing truth of Christianity is the way that God treats even the worst of sinners. Consider the following three “hopeless cases” and their unique encounters with Jesus Christ.
Last gasps for a thief
The Romans crucified Jesus between two criminals on a hill outside of Jerusalem. The Gospel of Luke (23:39-43) says that one of the criminals started to taunt Jesus, saying, “Aren’t you the Christ? If so, save yourself and us!” But the other criminal was angry at the taunter, responding that they were being punished justly for the crimes they committed, while Jesus was fully innocent. This second criminal then turned his head toward Jesus and said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus looked back at him and responded with some amazing (the word that keeps popping up) words, “Today, you’ll be with me in paradise.”
The thief may not have said the words of the “sinner’s prayer” (see the sidebar, “A prayer of salvation”), but Jesus knew his heart. The thief acknowledged his sin and believed in Jesus Christ. Jesus then wiped out everything bad that the thief ever did before being nailed to that cross and welcomed him into heaven.
The thief proves that as long as you’ve got one more breath, you’re never too late, and your deeds are never to despicable for you to receive God’s grace.
Within a stone’s throw of judgment
A group of Jewish teachers brought a woman caught in the act of adultery to Jesus and wanted to stone her, based on the laws of Moses in the Old Testament. When they questioned Jesus about this, his response startled everyone: “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:7). One by one, the leaders slowly left as Jesus wiped away their grounds for punishment with his bold statement.
Jesus turned to the woman and said, “Who are your accusers now?” The woman responded, “No one, sir,” to which Jesus replied, “Then neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin.”
This woman had received a death sentence from the what-comes-around-goes-around crowd. But Jesus forgave her and gave her a chance to turn from her sin-infested life into a life of belief in him.
The original “wretch like me”
John Newton was a captain of a slave ship in the 18th century and had a heart that was as wicked and cruel as you’d expect a slave trader to have. For many years, Newton rebelled against God and would have nothing to do with him. That is, until a violent storm occurred one night during a voyage. The storm was so bad that it seemed like certain death for all aboard. During the worst of the storm, he cried out for the Lord to have mercy on them. God rescued the ship that night, and Newton, who was certain he’d narrowly escaped death’s door, now saw his life in a different light.
Newton committed his life to Christ and began a slow process of changing his life of sin into a life fully dedicated to the Lord. After several years, he even felt called by God to become a minister and spent the remaining decades of his life preaching the good news he discovered on that slave ship years before. As a preacher, Newton often wrote hymns for weekly church services and prayer meetings. He penned hundreds of them, but one stands apart from the rest. You guessed it — “Amazing Grace”!
On first take, it’s perhaps natural to think that a traditional hymn like “Amazing Grace” must have been written by a goody-two-shoes whose worst offense was fighting with his kid sister. But when you grasp that someone as despicable and slimy as a slave trader wrote the song, you realize that God’s gift of grace does indeed live up to that “amazing” label.
Unplugging “Amazing Grace”
John Newton’s “Amazing Grace” captures so well the gift of grace that I’ve explained throughout this chapter. Check out Newton’s original lyrics:
Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound) That sav’d a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, Was blind, but now I see.
‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, And grace my fears reliev’d; How precious did that grace appear, The hour I first believ’d!
Thro’ many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come; ‘Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, And grace will lead me home.
The Lord has promis’d good to me, His word my hope secures; He will my shield and portion be, As long as life endures.
Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail, And mortal life shall cease; I shall possess, within the veil, A life of joy and peace.
The earth shall soon dissolve like snow, The sun forbear to shine; But God, who call’d me here below, Will be forever mine.
In this song, Newton shows how grace saved and transformed his wretched life. A stark contrast — “I was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see” — is made between his dead-end life of sin and his new one found with Jesus Christ. The song also perfectly depicts the protagonists in the three stories told in the section, “Defining Grace.” Valjean was a thief ready for permanent imprisonment, but he received a new life, paid for by the bishop’s candlesticks. The prodigal son prepared for a life of payback, but his father wiped the slate clean. The people of Norre Vosburg were wasting away until Babette’s feast filled them with peace, joy, and a newfound freedom.