As I started reading II Peter (the goal of getting another
book in the Bible read this year – I figured it would be an easy knock out),
the Spirit of God arrested me at the beginning of verse 2.
“Grace and peace
to you …”
The Lord’s impression to my spirit was “Paul, I want you to know (i.e. understand)/you need to know my Grace (i.e. what My Grace is about).
A little backdrop on my understanding and the influence of
the moment that transpired:
First – I had taken a senior level course on the Pastoral
Epistles in college and had been through the lectures from Dick Collier, whom
was an avid and competent Greek scholar.
I remember him taking the time (almost contemplative (which I will
discuss in moment)) to go through the Timothy’s and Titus – including the pause
and recognition he gave to the words “Grace and Peace” and did not merely shrug
them off as a quick greeting.
Secondly – after reading Jeanne Guyon’s, Experiencing the
Depths of Jesus Christ, my heart is deeply aware of chewing on one word of
the Word at a time and letting the power of the word soak in my heart. So to have a word get highlighted by the
Spirit (which does not happen all the time when I am just reading through a
book of the Bible), was no surprise either … as far as the manifestation of how
that occurs.
However, it was interesting that the unction, to understand Grace, (which is more than an
intellectual understanding; usually when God says He wants me to understand
something, I usually start by researching it out in part, then I undergo a
season of where the deficiency of that area of Him is revealed in me and then
filled through experience) came and halted my reading. Trust me –
although elated that the Lord speaks to my heart, I sometimes go “Oh boy – here
we go” as if I just got buckled into an amusement ride and the only way off is
through the experience.
It is so easy to have “grace” be a trigger word in the
Christian faith. Very few protestant
denominations veer aware from this topic and the understanding of this thing that God does to wash your sins
away is called the Grace of God … or
even more proclaimed is meh – your sins
are covered in Grace – and sure you shouldn’t sin – but make sure you don’t
feel guilty cause Jesus’ blood washed all that away. And more sad has been the recent two decades
of the extreme misuse of teaching that Jack Deere preached at the very first
Morning Star conference “The Religious Spirit” (aka: God offends the mind to reveal the heart) and
a lot of the generation of the youth from the Airport revival in Toronto just lived it up because they weren’t going to be religious and if you are
offended, well then – God is into offense.
And it isn’t that Jesus isn’t into whipping religiousness
out of His temple – because He is and the Spirit of God continues that
work. But the Grace of God isn’t
something that is flippant and just to be taken lightly. If anything – it is to be taken firmly and held onto … but knowing that
it is He who builds and sustains; it is His mighty right arm that has reached
out to us.
Starting with the Greek, Charis (χάρις), is
preeminently used of the Lord's favor – freely extended to give Himself away to
people (because He is "always leaning toward them"). So, it is seen in the gifts of the Spirit
(the”gracelettes”) , as God is giving “gifts” (root points to Grace), and
primarily in Salvation (Rom 3:23-24). I
just get the word picture/ vision of God leaning in – much like Michelangelo’s
painting, God and Man. This is our Father reaching out towards
us. It is central to the whole story of the Bible and can be
seen from the first time He creates us in His likeness to the resurrection of
the dead and the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven with Jesus and His
Bride.
Now, before I go further and talk of faith (which is man’s response (to things unseen) to God’s grace)
and finish the full picture of the painting I mentioned above, as well as the spiritual key to activating the power
of Grace, the Lord took me further back in Scripture to show me more about His
grace, and more specifically, about Himself.
I don’t know many passages of direct divine revelation,
short of the manifestation of Jesus, who is
the fullness of the Father, that come close to Exodus 34:6(7). This is the passage where God descends and
passes in front of Moses. And of all
things that God could reveal – as he
reveals Himself – He states the following:
Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, "The LORD,
the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in
lovingkindness and truth;
·
Compassion – i.e. Mercy;
·
Grace
·
Slow to anger – i.e. Patience
·
Lovingkindness – i.e. Goodness
·
Truth – i.e. trustworthy/a platform you can rely
on/support/faithful
This is the revelation of God. In these attributes, we see the face of Jesus
here on earth. All of these things are
an outflow from the Goodness of God which ties directly into the Love of
God. In other words – from God’s
abundant Love … or more importantly … and more accurately … since God is Love …
Goodness flows out of Him … and that Goodness manifests/looks like/appears in
Truth – Goodness – Patience – Compassion – and Grace.
Again – let it sink in – of all the things God could have
revealed – THIS is what He did reveal.
Take any one of those items out of the equation – and the
whole equation for “reaching out” (“leaning in” towards someone) falls out of
balance and bad stuff can happen. In
other words, what God has in balance, we
need. We need His Spirit to manifest
through us (and I believe that through sanctification towards maturity – we
grow in our capacity to allow the Spirit to manifest in His character through
us so that we can demonstrate Who He is (this is in part what Jesus’ prayer is
in John (John 17:17, 18, 20-26 “and I have made Your name known to them”)).
Lose Truth out of the equation. A) Can the reaching out be Good? And even if it is Good, B) will it align or will it be astray? Scripture says that “you will know the truth,
and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).
Good meaning people, without Christ, can in the general grace of God, be
patient (to a sort – within their will), have compassion, and reach out to
someone in need – but will not lead them to their Destination. (Now – God can use all things – and we must never under estimate the great Weaver of
the Tapestry of Time.)
Lose Loving-kindness(Goodness) out of the equation. A) Can the reaching out be True (Truth)? What does reaching out (providing Grace) in
patience, compassion in a wrong motive look like? Selfishness in making oneself feel good
because the motive is guilt from within?
Or is it manipulative (again – the end motive is guilt – but this time
external) so that someone “owes” one for the act that they reached out?
Lose Patience out of the equation. All I see is a frustrated individual who had
compassion and reaching out – then withdrawing and not completing the enabling
towards/platform for strength to an individual.
The word picture reminds me of parenting, when a parent cares (or maybe
they don’t) and they try to help their child in something, and the child
resists. Then the parent loses it,
because of the lack of patience, and compassion and grace, and ultimately,
goodness drain out. Patience is like an
oil plug for an oil pan in a car. It
holds the oil in and keeps the car running right (not having the cylinders
overheat and cease up).
Lose Mercy out of the equation. Without compassion, the “reaching out” or
grace to change aspect becomes nothing more than a “fix-it” man. Even if someone were able to tap into truth
in this state, and have the right motivation (in the sense of seeing the end
goal of goodness), and be as patient as they could, the very Heart of the
Father would not be in the midst of the act.
“Compassion, a form of love, is aroused within us when we are confronted
with those who suffer or are vulnerable.” (Baker's, Evangelical Dictionary
of Biblical Theology). And I
Corinthians is very clear, in chapter 13:1-3, that apart from love, it
(whatever the gift (grace)) may be, we gain or are nothing. Compassion is the motivation that moved Jesus
Christ in the gospels and is the place where one touches the human spirit and
soul. It was out of his Mercy that he
healed the sick (He healed them with the power and authority of the Spirit and
the Father). Reaching out, in this
manner, turns one into a “noisy gong” of pointing out “what is wrong” and “how
it should be fixed”.
Lose Grace (graciousness) out of the equation and there is no change. Reaching out in this manner, turns into a patient
person, full of compassion, knowing the truth, but not evoking the platform
or ability for one to step onto to get
out of the mire from where they sit.
It takes the full nature of God, the Spirit of God, lifting
Jesus up … to draw men/women to the Father.
And God not only revealed this to Moses, but through Jesus, as a
demonstration of Who He Is. And further
more – I believe this is how … but
more importantly … Who … should be
living through and in us.
So how does one activate, reach back towards, God, to
ultimately take hold of this
Grace? That is, the grace of restored
relationship, which implies son-ship and ambassadorship, with authority and
power?
James 2:23 states that Abraham believed God (he put his
faith in action) and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, and he was called
the friend of God (2 Chron. 20:7|Isa. 41:8).
Hebrews 11, the famous faith chapter
details the action of faith (of those who saw and didn’t see the results in
this age). It is the conviction of
things not seen. That means – stepping
out and towards something even though you do not see the solidity or
manifestation of the path you are stepping onto (Prov. 3:5-6).
Faith is us reaching back out to God – to lay hold of Him reaching
out to us – to activate the Kingdom of Heaven (i.e. let it (God’s will) be on
earth as it is in heaven). Jesus only
did what he saw the Father doing. And
the promise of Abraham is to those that
are of the faith of Abraham (Rom
4:16). That is – the same kind of faith
as Abraham (the faith that believes God).
Romans 10:9 is very clear – that this
faith – activated by the declaration of your mouth (which is the outflow of
your heart) – reaching out to God reaching out to us (through His Son being raised from the dead) – that we are
saved.
Furthermore, it is this
faith (not the faith in faith – but the faith that reaches to the Grace of
God when God reaches to us) that activates the graces of God and releases God’s gifts/favor on mankind. And now the essence of the key: it is faith
activating the very nature of God,
in accordance to the attributes and motivation of the Father – that manifests
God and His kingdom on earth. As many
brothers and sisters have said, we are “reaching into Heaven and pulling it
(part of it) down”. (Matt. 10:6-8, Luke
9:2). This is the ambassadorship – the
son/daughter-ship of the Father – that we proclaim the Kingdom of God, through
the restoration of relationship (redemption) of the free gift of His Son-and
demonstrate to the world that He is and is here now. God’s
grace to us is that He has leaned in – to impart Himself to and through
us! It is our responsibility, to
activate Him through us, by faith!
