A Community of Grace

Part I: "Saved by Grace"

All verses unless otherwise indicated are from the English Standard Version of the Bible.

Why is it so hard to be nice to some people? Our 2-year old little girl was determined to go see her 6-week old little sister. My wife stopped her, saying that the baby was sleeping. Our little girl, being quite the smart girl she is, sought to rectify the situation. She runs to the end of the hall and hollers, "WAKE UP, BABY!"

Sometimes kids are much easier to be nice to than some adults. My wife was in labor with our oldest little girl from 9 pm until around 6:30 the following morning ... when all labor stopped completely. We had opted for no medication. Four hours later we were out of options. She was given Putosin ... and eventually it was too strong for her exhausted body. We certainly did not want any narcotics ... due to the effects they have on the baby. We opted for an epidural. The nurse understood our concerns about medication. However, the anesthesiologist did not. She busted in the room, shouting to the top of her lungs, "Heeeyyyy. How's it going?" Pointing to me she hollered, "I heard you have a problem with medication."

Mind you we both had already opted for the epidural, but she was having none of it. Evidently her debate team in high school lost the state championship, and she was making up for it now. While my wife was writhing in agony, she was attempting to convince me of the joys of medicating to death mama and baby.

I attempted to once again explain that we had already decided on an epidural, but she was still having none of it. I politely offered to step out in the hall way and discuss this with her ... after she administered the epidural if she wished. She huffed and puffed and stomped out of the room.

Some people are just difficult to be nice to. Many times it's difficult to be nice to me. Grace. We need it. Grace. We need to give it. But do we fully understand it? This month we'll be discussing this concept in more detail. Today, we'll be dealing with being "saved by grace" ... which in our particular church circles is perhaps quite misunderstood.

Consider the following statements:

• I can never lose my salvation. After all, I'm saved by grace and not by anything I do, right? So I can do whatever I want and still be saved ... since I'm saved by grace and not by works ... good or not.
• I don't think I can ever be sure of my salvation. After all I think God knows what I think and feel at work. He can't be pleased with that.

The above statements are two ditches we need to avoid on this road to understanding Scriptural grace. The first statement renders graces a license. The second statement renders grace unattainable. Following our lesson on being "Saved by Grace," I hope we'll better understand the Scriptural account of salvation by grace. Let's begin our study by turning to Romans 8:31-39.

Romans 8:31-39

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died--more than that, who was raised--who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered."

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. for I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This passage is one of the most comforting during stressful times and dire hardships. We take it out from its context and sleep with it during the dark night of the soul, as it were a stuffed animal. However, to fully appreciate its power, we must send it back to its textual home and back to its own cultural context. But for now let's make a "simple" observation.

Yes, we certainly inseparable from God's perfect love. Yes, we are more than conquerors in Jesus, being led in his own victory (II Corinthians 2:14). However, notice the context. Sandwiched between these two faith-building declarations is this series of horrible distresses and a very weird proclamational allusion, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." As hard as it is for our instantaneous, entitlement-mentality, hit-me-and-I'll-sue culture, God's grace and love are not promised to keep us from the horrible distresses mentioned in this passage. Rather, God's grace and love are what carries us through the distresses.

Now Paul comes to one particular distress that is nearly overwhelming for him. The whole of Paul's letter to the Romans is his anguish over the in-pouring of the Gentiles to the Church, while many of his own people, "God's elect," have already and continue to do so in Paul's day to reject Jesus as God's Messiah. "Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies" (8:33).

You see, all Jews during the time of Jesus, and most likely today as well, believed that they were saved by God's grace from slavery in Egypt. There was nothing they could have done to make God go into Egypt and rescue them. They were certainly not the most impressive people on earth at that time. They were quite an obscure lot wallowing in Egyptian slavery. God miraculously saved them. He led them out of Egypt, where at the Red Sea they were born again by water and by the Spirit. They entered on the other side of the sea a new people, having been led by the pillar of fire, which is always understood to be the Holy Spirit.

Paul's anguish: He fellow Jewish brethren were "God's elect" saved by grace, born again through water and the Spirit, married to Him at Mt. Sinai. Why are they rejecting God's messiah to them? They are the very ones who should have eagerly embraced him? We read further of his anguish in 9:1-5:

Romans 9:1-5:

I am speaking the truth in Christ--I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit--that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship,m and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

Again Paul's anguish is simply that his people saved by God's grace are missing out on God's grace in God's messiah. This touches on a particular debate that has been raging since the early days of the Church. Does God choose to save some and damn others? A very cursory read of chapters 9-11 without the Jewish background can leave one to wallow around in the anguish of Calvinistic predestination. Yet, a closer look, keeping in mind the Jewish background, will alleviate us of this dreaded near-Islamic concept of God. Let's turn over to chapter 11.

Keep in mind as we proceed further that God had chosen his people and saved them by his grace. A simple question, though ... did all Israelites who were "saved by grace" respond positively to his grace?

Romans 11:1-6

I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you knot know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel?

"Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life."

But what is God's reply to him?

"I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal."

So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

Again, a simplistic reading of this might well lead one to the near-Islamic concept of a God who controls all aspects of life--human, animal, plant, planetary, etc. The pine cone that drops to the ground was caused by God to do so. The men who refused to worship Baal were made to refuse Baal worship by God. The Israelites who worshipped Baal were made by God to do so.

(To be fair, not all Calvinists believe in this concept of the sovereignty of God. This concept is sometimes known as double-predestination ... God chooses who goes to heaven. God chooses who goes to hell. I argue that regardless if Calvinists don't accept the premise that God's damns people to hell, they believe this by default. They believe people can only come to Jesus, if God calls them to do so. Coming to Jesus is the only means to escape hell. While God might not damn people to hell, if he only doesn't call someone to Jesus, then he has by default damned them to hell ... by not enabling them to come to the only fire escape available.)

Again, remember that all Israelites were chosen--saved by grace, despite whatever time and age they live in. By throwing this caveat into the mix, one arrives at a not-so-Islamic picture of God. The Baal worshippers could have joined Elijah's group, but they chose not to do so. They resisted God's grace ... they removed themselves from the remnant, from their chosen status.

Likewise, the remnant of true Israel (see Romans 2-4) was not predetermined to accept Christ, nor was the false Israel predetermined to reject Christ.

Keeping in mind that all Israelites were chosen--saved by grace, despite whatever time and age they live in, the Israelites rejecting Jesus as God's messiah have removed themselves from the remnant, from their chosen status.

What then of verse 6: "but if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace? We must remember that neither Paul nor Jesus, himself, nullified "The Law." "Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? by no means!" (6:15) A little background would be helpful here.

The word we translate as law actually is best translated as Torah. The Torah referred to the first 5 Books of the Bible ... the Books of Moses. Torah was God's projection, direction, instruction, the path in which to walk for his people. Torah or the Law was not law in the modern legalistic sense. Jesus never departed from Torah or God's "projection, direction, instruction." Rather Jesus broke the injunctions which were imposed by the Pharisees to help the common man to keep from breaking Torah.

Thus, the question Paul is wrestling with in Romans is never grace verses Torah or Law. Torah was God's grace for his people. Rather, the question is one of identity. How does one consider themselves to be of "the elect/the chosen/the remnant?" Many Jewish Christians felt that the Gentiles must first circumcise themselves before coming into the Christian fold. Circumcision was their identity marker of being in "the elect/the chosen/the remnant." Paul's argument in using Abraham as an example is that God called Abraham and the basis of his relationship with God was that he believed and later make good on his belief. His faith was his identity ... not his circumcision or any other work he might have done. He was chosen by grace ... not by the face he circumcised himself. Paul nor Jesus seek to nullify Torah ... rather they seek to correctly interpret Torah ... which became modified by Jesus and later by the first Church Council in Jerusalem (Acts 15).

Let's resume our current discussion, picking up at 11:7:

Romans 11:7-10:

What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written,

"God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day."

And David says,

"Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever."

Again, it looks as if God had predetermined who would accept and reject Jesus. Yes, I understand that. However, we need to pay closer attention here ... especially to reading these citations in their context here in Chapter 11 of Paul's letter to the Romans.

Paul is asking "What then?" This is the very question he has been struggling with during the whole letter. He answers himself with what appears to be a tentative hypothetical, "Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened...." The reason I say "hypothetical" is because he has already said that not all of Israel has failed to obtain what Israel was seeking (see 11:1). Look also at verses 11 and 12: "So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means. Rather through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean? (italics mine)

In looking at the flow of chapter 11 so far, Paul is emphatic that God has not cast Israel away ... though some have taken themselves out of his remnant status. Did Israel fall beyond his reach? "By no means." Those who insist on Calvinistic-near-Islamic predestination need to wrestle around with the last clause of verse 12 "how much more will their full inclusion mean?" Let's continue with the flow of Paul's anguish and hope by picking back up in verse 11.

Romans 11:11-16

So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. Now if their trespass means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean! Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy so are the branches.

Again Paul is emphasizing that the Jews have not been forgotten ... but might actually still be considered holy ... on the account of future acceptance. Notice the last verse above (verse 16), "If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy so are the branches." Israel is known as the olive tree. Her heritage ... "the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises" (9:3) is the root and the individual members are considered the branches of the olive tree. Let's read further.

Romans 11:17-24:

But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant towards the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but root that supports you. Then you will say, "Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in." That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness towards you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. for if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own tree.

First we need to observe that the church has not replaced Israel. We have not become the new Israel. We have been grafted into the true Israel, whose root is the Old Testament ... Torah, the prophets, and the writings. The Church was never intended to replace Israel.

Similarly, notice that some believed that God cast away some in Israel so that Gentiles could come into the commonwealth. Notice that God did not arbitrarily elect some to the root and other to be broken off. Notice why those who were broken off were broken off: "They were broken off because of their unbelief" (verse 20). Notice what keeps the branches (wild and natural grafted into the olive root: "but you stand fast through faith" (verse 20). Notice again the warning in verses 21 & 22. Notice particularly the caveat in verse 22: "Provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off." God has bestowed his grace on us, but we must continue or persevere in it, which is dependent on our faith. This is not predetermination on God's part, rather it is his grace working with our faith resulting in our perseverance in his grace. If you think that is something, consider the next verses:

Romans 11:23 & 24:

And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.

In these verses Paul seems to suggest that those natural branches (who are currently broken off by God not because of his sovereign, arbitrary choice, but because of their unbelief) can be grafted in again ... returned to the root. Also Paul alludes to how weird all of this is by alluding to the "natural" process of grafting. In nature, I'm told, wild olive tree have a stronger sap than domestic or natural ones. Thus, natural branches are taken and cultivated onto the wild trees. Rather, in God's horticulture of salvation the wild branches are cultivated onto the domestic or natural tree.

So what are we to make of all of this?

God's grace is something that is highly misunderstood by many Christians today. Many Christians believe God's grace to be some force or fence keeping the bad of the world out and the good of God in. However, God's grace consigns us to live in the midst of the bad of the world, shouldering one another's burdens ... and bearing the nail-scarred hands and feet of Jesus to a screwed-up world in need of his healing.

God's grace is not a license for sin, as Paul never nullified the Law or Torah. Rather Paul, following the early Jewish Church Council's lead in Acts 15 reinterpreted Torah for the Gentiles God was grafting onto the Olive Tree. Reinterpretation is not whole-scale castigation. Thus, Grace is not something that we have instead of Law. Rather Grace is something we have as we follow Jesus in his interpretation of God's Way or Torah. This is not salvation by works. Rather it is salvation by grace through faith. I really like my folk definition of faith: Faith is the umbrella under which belief spurs one to action for a purpose. What does James say? "Faith apart from works is dead" (2:26). Remember it is dead faith or unbelief that causes branches to be broken off from the Olive Tree.

God's grace is not something within reach only for those talented enough to live purely. Being saved (both at the Exodus and at Calvary) was not something we could ever earn or make God want to do for us. It is purely on Grace ... or his unmerited favor.

God's grace is resistable. "For God soloved the whole world ...." Yet, the whole world has not come into the Church or has not been grafted onto the Olive Tree. Secondly, God's grace is resistable after being grafted onto the Olive Tree. Otherwise, why are any branches broken off, if not for persistent unbelief.

All taken together, we must remember the nature of Grace, when we are expecting God to show up in great power and glory and save our church from dying. God certainly bestows and showers his Grace on us ... but we must unwrap it. Faith without works is what?