Perhaps you remember the parable told by Jesus in which he
describes a father and his prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32).
One day the son asked his father to give him the son's share
of the father's estate, even though the father was still alive. The
father complied. Soon after, the son gathered all his wealth and set off
for a distant country, where he squandered his fortune in wild living.
After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that country, and
he began to be in need. So he hired himself out to a citizen of that
country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. The son longed to fill
his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
When he came to his senses, he realized his father's hired
servants had food to spare, and here he was starving. He decided to go
back to his father and say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven
and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me
like one of your hired servants." So he got up and went to his
father.
But while the son was a long way off, his father saw him and
was filled with compassion for him. The father ran to his son, threw his
arms around him and kissed him.
The son said to him, "Father, I have sinned against
heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your
son."
But, the father said to his servants "Quick!
Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and
sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's
have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive
again; he was lost and is found." So they began to celebrate.
Was this father rewarding irresponsible behavior? What
kind of "family values" would this father communicate by throwing a
party for such a renegade? What kind of virtue would that
encourage? There was no solemn lecture, no "I hope you've learned
your lesson!"
Instead, Jesus tells of the father's exhilaration ----
"This my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found"
---- and then Jesus adds the buoyant phrase, "they began to make
merry."
The Webster Dictionary's definition of grace is
"the unmerited divine assistance given man for his regeneration or
sanctification."
The story of the prodigal son delivers an astonishing
message. We realize how thickly the veil of "ungrace"
obscures our view of God. Every human institution seems to run on "ungrace"
---- it's insistence that we earn our way. All this helps us
prepare for the real world with it's relentless ranking of who is
greatest. Secular culture tells us we must look good, feel good and make
good.
From nursery school onward we are taught how to succeed in
the world of "ungrace". The early bird gets the
worm. No pain, no gain. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
Demand your rights. Get what you pay for. We know these rules well
because we live by them. We work for what we earn. We like to
win. We insist on our rights. We want people to get what they
deserve ---- nothing more, nothing less.
Yet if we care to listen, we hear a loud whisper from the
Gospel that we did not get what we deserved. We deserved punishment and
got forgiveness. We deserved wrath and got love. We deserved
debtor's prison and got instead a clean credit history.
But, the world runs on "ungrace".
Everything depends on what I do. But, Jesus' kingdom calls us to
another way, one that depends not on our own performance, but God's. We
do not have to achieve, but merely follow. On the Cross, Jesus has
already earned for us the costly victory of God's acceptance.
Author Philip Yancy asks: "What belief is unique
to the Christian faith? ---- GRACE. The notion of God's love coming to us
free of charge, no strings attached, seeming to go against every instinct of
humanity. Other religions offer a way, a path, to earn approval. Only
Christianity dares to make God's love unconditional."
So, grace comes free of charge to people who do not deserve
it. Grace comes from outside, as a gift and not as achievement. How
easily it vanishes from our dog-eat-dog, survival of the fittest,
look-out-for-number-one world.
Grace does not depend on what we have done for God, but
rather on what God has done for us. Grace comes undeserved, at God's
initiative and not our own. God loves people because of who God is, not
because of who we are. Grace baffles us because it goes against the
intuition everyone has that in the face of injustice, some price must be paid.
Grace makes its appearance in many forms. Grace means there is nothing we
can do to make God love us more ---- and there is nothing we can do to make God
love us less.
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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult
Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage you to pursue some
personal spiritual growth this year at CPC.
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