“You
crazy Galatians! Did someone put a hex on you? Have you taken leave of your
senses?
Something crazy has happened, for it's obvious that you no longer have the
crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives. His sacrifice on the Cross was certainly set before you
clearly enough.
“Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin?
Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God's
Message to you? 3 Are you
going to continue this craziness?
For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what
was begun by God.
If you weren't smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you
could perfect it?
4 Did you go through this whole painful learning process for
nothing?
It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up!"
Galatians 3:1-4 (MSG)
Galatians 3:1-4 (MSG)
Of
course this raises a difficult question.
Does this mean that everyone is automatically “in”?
In one sense it is true that everyone on planet earth lives by Grace
right now. Each of us breathes,
experiences beauty, moments of joy, interaction with others . . . it’s all
gift, all grace. It is
also true that regardless of the depth and perversity of my rebellion, sin, and
shortfall, that God invites me into his kingdom as I am, no questions asked, no
promises needing to be made, nothing else I need to do other than to come.
You
may want call “coming” a “to do”, but I don’t think that’s accurate.
If I do come it’s the invitation that opens the door and it is God’s
invitation that motivates me. Even
my coming to the party of God is God’s act of Grace.
Does
that mean I can remain as I am at the party, in his Kingdom, in God’s world?
An
illustration may help. A
father of a rebellious teen loves his son immensely.
His son becomes an ungrateful, hateful rebel and leaves home with a blank
check that his Father wrote for him. One
day however the son returns and the father invites him in, throws him a party
and tells him that Father’s home is his home, without
doing anything to earn his way back in.
(see Luke 15). What
happens next? The story ends there
allowing us to speculate.
Here’s
my speculation. The moral law
of the Old Testament, repeated with depth by Jesus, is not a way to earn our way
back into life with God. Rather it
is an explanation of how the world works.
In a sense it is a “picture of the character of God” which, of
course, means that the world operates according to that character.
So
if honesty, integrity, sacrifice, generosity, humility, etc. are simply how life
works in God’s Kingdom/Home/at God’s Party, then in order for anyone to
flourish there, one will need to allow God’s Grace to effect change in him.
If
he refuses then there’s a clash between God’s Grace and God’s good world
and the will of the returned son. It’s
really either/or for the son. There’s
no in between. Not because God
says either /or but because that’s simply reality, the way things are.
The son either learns to get on the good side of how things work or he
doesn’t. We either go with
the grain or get splinters. If I choose not to arrange my life around how God
made life to work, I will find that
one of two things are true. Home
with God will be for me, not heaven, but hell, or I will decide to opt out of
life with God and return to my world of rebellion.
In
neither case does God prevent me from coming home or evict me.
If the son in this illustration leaves, God accepts the painful loss of
his son (remember the cross?) but loose him he will, absorbing his son’s
rejection with the words, “son, thy will be done”
For
more:
follow on Twitter @jefflampl
No comments:
Post a Comment