Living by grace. Part 1.

September 4, 2007 by Pastor Dan.

[Listen to this!]

We Lutherans talk a lot about being saved by grace. Usually as if it were some future event. Evangelicals, who don’t emphasize grace as much as decision, think of being saved as a past event. “I got saved. . . when I answered an altar call and asked Jesus to come into my heart.”

Lutherans more correctly could say “we were saved 2,000 years ago when Jesus died for us on the cross.” It is not my decision for Jesus that saved me, but his decision for me.

One cannot say “saved by grace” without acknowledging that this is God’s initiative, through Christ, God’s decision, God’s gracious acceptance of us and all who come to him for Jesus’ sake.

I have often said (only half-jokingly) that I know I am saved because God does not have the heart to throw me away. But believing with all our hearts that we are saved (present tense?) doesn’t finish the thought. The more immediate question is what it means to live by grace, not just believe that one is saved by grace.

For one, you don’t have to watch your back. Narrowly-focused control freaks have overblown the idea that one can “fall from grace.” Yes, I suppose, and one can walk away from it, too. Or walk right by it and never notice it. People who might be at risk of falling from God’s grace usually don’t read theology blogs. What are you worried about? The rest of us need not be preoccupied about our missteps, failures, inadvertent errors or unconfessed sins which might ruin everything with God. To worry that God might have a change of heart and condemn us forever and ever is not to live in the grace which is promised to us. It’s obsessing about the reliability and mechanics of redemption. That’s a waste of time, because God’s word is reliable, and there are no mechanics: we are redeemed, saved, bought back, made righteous simply by the decision and announcement of almighty God. None of that is affected by anything we do or fail to do on our end. Just believe it and accept it.

Go ahead and live joyfully. Why is it that so many Christians live their daily lives like sourpusses? What are they so unhappy about? Have we forgotten that we are in relationship with the God who is Love? Remember that Jesus said, “I came that you may have life, and have it abundantly.” This doesn’t just mean long life— one long, cheerless, resentful, dour watch until the end comes. You call that life? Living joyfully really does mean living well, richly, fully alive, and worry-free. Living by grace means living a grateful life—filled with the realization that we are wonderfully blessed just to be alive and to be loved. Living by grace means living a generous life—however you do it and in whatever measure, sharing, giving, offering the gift of happiness to anybody else you meet.

Keep your eyes on the horizon. If you’re living by grace, you have a lot to live for. Jesus has redeemed you and then commissioned you to follow him. His mandate is clear – to build for himself a people called form every nation, every background, every former kind of life there is, in order to help him redeem the entire world. You have your work cut out for you. All Christians have this same mandate, so you don’t have to go it alone. Look into the future, imagine the world the way God created it, the way Christ wants it to be. And keep your eyes peeled to find Christ out ahead of you, doing the very things he has invited you to do also. Go ahead, ask yourself: Who would Jesus redeem? Who would Jesus heal? Who would Jesus feed? Who would Jesus forgive?

— Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

[Read Living by Grace, Part 2]

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