Tag: grace

Romans 7:14-25

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
            “I don’t understand why I act the way I do.  I don’t do what I know is right.  I do the things I hate.”  Paul’s existential angst is a timeless description of our common human condition.  We all can relate to the seeming inability to do what is right in so many situations.  It can really drive us nuts, even to a constant low-level discouragement that underlies almost everything we do.
 
            Paul’s prescription for dealing with this does not rely on law.  That’s right.  Paul understood that putting our willpower and effort into obeying commands gets us nowhere because we will eventually fail.  The law just shows us how bad off we really are in this world.  We are a bundle of contradictions, doing good, then bad, and flip-flopping back and forth with great frustration.
 
            “What a miserable person I am.  Who will rescue me from this body of that is doomed to die?  Thank God! Jesus Christ will rescue me.”  Sheer willpower and obedience will not work because what we really need is a Savior who will deliver us from ourselves.  Grace, then, is the operative power that changes lives, and not law.  Freedom from the tyranny of our misplaced desires comes from Christ’s forgiveness through the cross.  Like a lover enamored with his beloved, our desires become oriented toward Jesus for his indescribable gift to us.  That is the strength of grace.
 

 

            Saving God, I thank you for delivering me from sin, death, and hell through your Son, the Lord Jesus.  May your Holy Spirit apply the work of grace to my life every day so that I can realize practical freedom from all that is damaging and destructive in my soul.  Amen.

Galatians 3:15-22

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment


              If the Apostle Paul were living in our day, I’m pretty sure he could have his own reality show if he wanted.  Paul is a terribly interesting man.  His adventures are legendary in church circles.  One of the most interesting things about Paul is his piercing intellect and flawless rhetoric.  Today’s New Testament lesson has Paul taking on a Galatian heresy.  Maybe we could call it “Law and Grace:  SFU (Special Faith Unit).”  
             The folks who were holding to the law were reminded by Paul that the promise to Abraham was a contract or covenant made by God that was binding, permanent, and divinely ratified.  The law, on the other hand, was not – it was designed to be in effect for a specific amount of time, temporary, and only bound the people of God until the promise was fulfilled in Christ.
             So, why in the world was there a law to begin with if it is no longer in effect?  Paul said, “It was added because of transgressions.”  So there we have it.  It was as if the Israelites were precocious and disobedient little children who needed some firm boundaries and rules in order to keep them safe and lead them to the time when they would grow to maturity.  Once adulthood arrived there was no longer any need for the law.
             The law was never designed to be permanent.  So, when Christians cling to a rules-based faith they are showing their gross immaturity and need to grow up and embrace the permanent reality of living in the Spirit.  Grace is the permanent and pervasive reality that governs everything Christians are to do and say.  It cannot be earned, only accepted, not achieved, but only given by God.  Until we can grasp this fundamental truth of Christianity, the Christian life will never make sense.  Only until we release our expectations of rules and let go of our orienting around law will we discover the liberation of a grace-filled existence.
             Gracious God, you saved me through Christ alone by faith alone.  Now help me to live by grace alone as the highest and greatest truth operative in the universe and in the kingdom of God.  Amen.

Galatians 3:1-9

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
            “You stupid Galatians!  I told you exactly how Jesus Christ was nailed to a cross.  Has someone now put an evil spell on you?” (CEV).  So, Paul, what do you really think of the Galatians’ attitude?  The apostle was totally exasperated with this church.  Having embraced the gospel of grace the Galatian churches turned around and started practicing a gospel of works.  This did not just raise the ire of Paul; he went spiritually Rambo on them.  The Christian life, Paul argued, was thoroughly imbibed with grace – so much so that there is no room whatsoever for Christianity to practically exist outside of grace.  If we were saved by grace, we continue to live by grace.
 
            The Galatian heresy, or stupidity, or whatever you want to call it, still exists.  Having been redeemed by the grace of God in Christ, there are “believers” who persist in declaring a gospel of judgment for any and all who are different.  Whereas they were saved by grace, stupid believers set up a system of works for folks like the LGBTQ community.  Somehow they cannot be saved and sustained by grace because they are in a special class of sinner.  In this system, somehow Muslims can only be saved and sustained by proving how bad they are, and not by grace, because they are terrible people who want everyone else dead.  Somehow they need a gospel of judgment….  I see stupid believers everywhere (said in a hushed whisper).
 
            If I seem perturbed, I guess I am.  I would like to think I’m living along the lines of the Apostle Paul, but I know the human heart’s propensity toward thinking better of itself than it really is.  It seems that, without fail, someone inevitably feels the need to remind me that God cares about truth whenever I talk about grace, as if grace isn’t the highest truth that one could hold.  If it isn’t the gospel of grace it is not biblical – it is a perverted gospel – and the evidence of it is folks who downgrade the crucifixion of Christ and living by the Spirit in favor of group-speak and fighting the culture wars.  Lord, have mercy, Christ have mercy.
 

 

            Gracious God, you are merciful and save all who come to you by faith in the name of Jesus.  Help me to see grace for what it is – scandalously free and exorbitantly wonderful – bought with the price of Christ’s blood.  Amen.

Lamentations 3:1-9, 19-24

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
            Even in the darkest of moments in time there is still the remote possibility of hope.  On this Holy Saturday while we remember the darkness in between Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection, one of the important angles to keep in mind is how the original disciples must have felt on this day.  We, of course, know the end of the story.  We know that Christ is about to be risen from death and that the tomb will be empty.  But Peter, James, John, and the rest of Christ’s followers had no idea this was going to occur. 
 
            Let’s take the thought even a bit further:  what was Jesus experiencing during this time in the grave?  I know it is a crazy thought, but Jesus completely and fully entrusted himself to the Father.  Did he ever have a doubt or wonder if things would shake out as we now know they would?  Sometimes we might lose sight of the reality that Jesus is quite fully a human with all of the limitations that go with it.  Christ knows full well how difficult it can be to live life on this earth surrounded by sin, evil, and trouble.  He knows what it feels like to be afflicted, to be forsaken, to be profoundly touched by the sin of others.
 
            But suffering does not have the last word.  “My soul continually remembers it [affliction] and is bowed down within me.  But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:  The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” These are not just words from the prophet Jeremiah; they are the thoughts of Christ himself.  Jesus placed his faith and hope in the Father.  The disciples placed their faith and hope in Jesus.  We, as well, must discover that darkness and death never have the last word.  The last word is always and forever GRACE.  It is the mercy of God that trumps death and every evil practice and each sinful agenda.  Wait for it… wait for it….
 

 

            Almighty God, grant that in your mercy I might obtain the result of your passion:  forgiveness of sins and new life in Jesus Christ, who loved me and gave himself for me.  Amen.