A man must completely despair of himself in order to become fit to obtain the grace of Christ.
~Martin Luther (1483-1546)
So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
~ paul, The Least of The Apostles, in 2 Corinthians 12
Oh beloved, it is true. There is within us a bitter dreg of our old selves. Something within us wants to do good. We want to return the favor to G_d for all that He has done for us. And in all of this, though, there is just one glaring problem.
We can’t.
G_d is calling us to be holy. We are to be utterly set apart to Him. And in being set apart to Him, we are to abandon the impoverished lands of sin in which we once dwelt. And once again, the horrible truth of who we are, in our own strength, emerges through our escape attempts from the world.
We can’t.
We are to live free from the bondage to rules and regulations. And in their place, we are to live under an even more preeminent dictator. We are to actually Love those around us. We are to Love the G_d who has saved us with every fiber of our body and soul and spirit. And in this too, we have exactly the same problem.
We can’t.
But G_d! Enter Grace.
Grace is not a “nice-to-have” in the package of our salvation. Grace IS what saves us. Grace is not that He has given us some sort of extra power to get things done, and that He then somehow looks allowingly away from our intermittent failure.
No, the good news of G_d’s Grace is an infinite proposition. There is no other path to good works or holiness or actually Loving each other. Grace is G_d Himself (read all that He is), moving towards us as who He is (read a Loving, Perfectly Holy and Good Being) in magnificence and favor.
Can we see it beloved? The reason Grace is necessary, is that there is no other way for us to become the people we need to be, and do the things which that kind of person does. The problem of changing a man or woman into someone who actually looks and Loves and acts like G_d, is a G_d-sized problem. And apart from the direct and infinite power of G_d, it is impossible.
So, for us to think that we can have too much Grace, and that we need to try and “get our act together” for G_d to accept us, is not only foolish – it is the height of foolish pride. As a friend of mine recently said:
So, are you feeling your failures lately dear reader? Good. Failure is one of the best indicators that we need to do the opposite of what we “think” we should do. Failure tells us one thing: we are trying to do things in our own strength. It is not that we have not given ourselves “enough” to G_d. No, the problem is that we have simply not allowed Him to be His amazing Self in us. For nothing (read no thing) that we could ever attempt to do to gain G_d’s favor is ever going to work.
Tonight is your night beloved. Time to believe that apart from Him you can do nothing. However, in embracing this truth, you will find the deeper Truth that – in Him – all things are possible.
