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Grace: When God Stooped

The Good News is Good News - the Gospel tells us that God has reached into our world and done something about the way we direct our lives.  SIN is nothing more than the pride of our own individual decisions that are often/usually selfishly made.  Sin is the decision to ignore God and do what we want to do -even if we still seek God's help and faithfulness.
The answer to our Selfish, Sinfulness, is Grace.  Grace is God reaching into our lives and showing us a better way.  Grace is God helping us to step our of the false assumption of our own security and instead learn to "trust" God for the choices we make in following his commands.

Grace is God's idea...and we should be glad he thought it up.  We love Grace...We use it almost everyday in various ways.  We have "grace periods".  We see people in the public eye who "fall from grace".  Musicians have a "grace note".  We speak of an artist, or dancer, or musician as "graceful"; and of a person who is kind and generous as "gracious".  Grace is a part of what we sing, and it is joined immediately as a sibling to words like "forgiveness", "faith" and "fellowship".

The sage theologian/teacher, John Stott, said it best:  "Grace is God loving, God stooping, God coming to the rescue, God giving himself generously in and through Jesus Christ."

Titus 2:11 (ESV)
11  For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,

Ezekiel 36:26 (ESV)
26  And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

Ephesians 2:8 (ESV)
8  For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

All great reminders that in defiance of the Sin-dominated selfishness of our world, God has stooped for our defense.
AND, one more thing...what do we do with God's grace?

Hebrews 12:15 (ESV)
15  See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;

70 years ago, a German pastor/theologian saw a nation of "believers", "church attenders", "religious people" fall head-long into the Nazi propaganda, to the detriment of their supposed faith in Christ.  Caught up in the nationalism and belief that their world would be better with Hitler as their leader, they completely lost sight of the obvious direction he was leading their nation.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote against the Nazi "faith" and he directed people back to God's grace...Real Grace...and not the Cheap Grace he saw.  This is what he wrote.

“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.

Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.

Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.

Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: "ye were bought at a price," and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”

Peace

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