Ephesians 2:1 You
were dead through the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once lived, following the course
of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is
now at work among those who are disobedient. 3 All of us once lived among them in the
passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were
by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the
great love with which he loved us 5 even when we were dead through our
trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- 6 and raised
us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in
the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness
toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through
faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God-- 9 not the
result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are what he has made us, created in
Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of
life.
“Saved by Grace” is the great slogan of the Christian Reformers
of the 1600’s. Drawing on Ephesians 2:8&9, as well as Romans 3:28 and
Galatians 2:16, they vigorously opposed the idea that peace with God is achieved
by belonging to a church, or by paying money for remission of sin, or from
completing various penitential acts. They insisted that the Grace of God is a
gift that is freely given. That said – this does not mean that there is no
human response to the love of God. James 2:24 speaks of the importance of faith
being accompanied by works, and Jesus tells a faithful man that he needs to
keep the commandments, and more particularly – that he needs to give away his
wealth to the poor.[1]
Dietrich
Bonhoeffer
writes of the danger of “Cheap Grace”
that expects Godly favour without any change in human behavior. “Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on
ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance,
baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession.... Cheap grace
is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus
Christ, living and incarnate.” Instead,
he calls for the practice of a “Costly Grace”, which demands the transformation
of our lives into disciples of the way of Jesus. “Costly
grace is the gospel which must be sought again and 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 time for those who follow Jesus to give up our sermons
on the Grace of God, and step outside of our church buildings to practice Grace
and Truth in a disbelieving society. Perhaps if we lived a life of Grace, our
words of faith might regain some credibility.
For thought:
I'm still discovering
right up to this moment, that is it only by living completely in this world
that one learns to have faith. By this-worldliness I mean living unreservedly
in life's duties, problems, successes and failures. In so doing we throw
ourselves completely into the arms of God, taking seriously, not our own
sufferings, but those of God in the world. That, I think, is faith.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Second Sunday after Trinity
32 God’s Gracious Love
The Scripture passage for the day is
drawn from Reuben Job and Norman Shawchuck, A
Guide to Prayer for Ministers and other Servants, (Nashville, The Upper
Room 1983), 202.
This reflection is from my own
devotional exercises for the day.
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