By the end of what would have been my second year
of college, I had earned a D average. I was a total slacker in high school, and
college served as a rude awakening for me.
Fortunately, one of my sisters offered to tutor me.
However, this wasn’t going to be the average kind of tutoring one experiences.
If I was willing to meet her demands, she would mold me into a competent
college student. I would learn the skills I failed to develop in middle and
high school – how to take notes, study for tests, compile research for papers
and become organized.
Here were her stipulations: 1) Each course's syllabi had to be submitted to her at the beginning of the semester. 2) I must
come to her apartment once a week for tutoring throughout the entire school
year. 3) All class notes must be submitted at the beginning of the week. 4) All
graded assignments must be submitted at the beginning of the week. 5) If at any
time I refused to comply with the stipulations, she would rescind her offer of
help.
It was humiliating at first, but I’m so glad I
accepted her offer of help. I made all A’s that year for the first time in my
life, and was able to transfer to Houston Baptist University where I began
making the Dean’s list.
This
story illustrates a theme repeated over and over in Scripture. “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace
to the humble (James 4:6).”
Do you believe that, though? Do you believe that
choosing to humble yourself under God’s hand will bring more of God’s grace
into your life? Can grace sometimes be, in a sense, merited? The early
Christians did.
Seeing,
therefore, that we are the portion of the Holy One, let us do all those things
which pertain to holiness, avoiding all evil-speaking, all abominable and
impure embraces, together with all drunkenness, seeking after change, all
abominable lusts, detestable adultery, and appalling pride. “For God,” says
[the Scripture], “resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Let us
cleave, then, to those to whom grace has been given by God. Let us clothe
ourselves with unity and humility, ever exercising self-control, standing far
off from all whispering and evil-speaking. … Let us cleave then to His
blessing, and consider what are the means of possessing it. – Clement
of Rome 95CE, Volume 1, p. 24-25.
You may be thinking that the early Christians didn’t quite grasp the
concept of grace. Bless their little hearts.
Before you go down that road, first consider that this guy named Clement
of Rome was the Clement who Paul wrote about in Philippians 4:3. Paul said Clement was a fellow worker of his who
struggled in the cause of the gospel and whose name is in the book of life.
Clement was a personal disciple of the Apostle Paul, so it’s safe to say he
understood the doctrine of grace better than a modern American Christian.
Second, I’d like you to consider why you have the definition of grace
that you do. I was taught by pastors and professors that grace simply means
unmerited favor. There’s a problem with that definition, though.
If you look up grace in Strong’s Concordance, the idea of grace being
‘unmerited’ is only one of many ways grace is used in the New Testament. Here
are some ways that grace (charis) is
translated: grace, thanks, credit, favor, blessing, kindness.
Maybe you’ve heard grace taught as: God’s
Riches At Christ’s
Expense. Take that definition
of grace (charis) and the definition
of unmerited favor and tell me what to do with this verse:
The Child
(Jesus) continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the
grace of God was upon Him. –
Luke 2:40
Was God’s unmerited favor upon Jesus? Did Jesus need God’s Riches
at Christ’s Expense? Absurd questions, I know.
What definition of charis
would you give to this verse?
“Charis be to God through
Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 7:25)!”
Does God need God’s unmerited favor? Does God need God’s Riches At Christ’s
Expense? Ridiculous. Verses like these show why we can’t keep using acronyms to
define a rich and multifaceted word like grace. Clearly, the appropriate
translation in Luke 2:40 is simply
‘favor’ and in Romans 7:25 is
‘thanks’.
Do you
read the Bible with humility or pride? Do you exalt your feelings above the
scriptures, or do you bring your feelings under submission to the scriptures?
Our culture says adultery is fine. Our culture says divorce is fine. Our
culture says homosexuality is fine. Our culture says greed is fine. Our culture
says abortion is fine. Our culture says war and violence are fine. Our culture
says unforgiveness is fine. Our culture says materialism is fine.
Do you bring any of those feelings with you when you read the simple
words of Christ? Do any of those feelings cause you to not take Jesus and the
Apostles at their word?
God opposes the proud. That means He comes against them like two armies
lining up on a field to do battle. Do you believe that?
God also gives special grace to the humble. That means He gives extra
divine help to those people who depend on the Lord rather than themselves.
People who depend on the Lord’s understanding rather than their own, and obey
His counsel. Do you believe that?
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