Galatians the 13th….
Monday, June 27, 2011
Apparently our Gospel appetite is about 13 weeks long.
After week 13 in Galatians the dam broke. I have heard rumors, whispers, grumblings from every corner of Southwood. They have come from long-time members and newcomers alike. They range from blatant disgruntled comments about my preaching to subtle fears that by preaching ‘so much’ grace we will never ‘turn the corner’ to obedience. It seems that grace has been viewed as an ‘appetizer’ and the church is ready for the meal.
The comments generally go something like this, “Okay, enough already. Enough of this verse by verse, section by section consideration of Galatians. Get us to the REAL meat of the Bible! Get us at least to Galatians chapter 5! Get us past the indicatives of Paul’s preaching to the imperatives of the Gospel where we finally DO SOMETHING!”
I’ve heard that I just don’t care about holiness at all. I’ve heard the accusation that I am over-emphasizing one aspect of Pauline theology at the expense of the rest of Scripture. I have heard that I don’t preach in a way that is exegetical enough to feed some members of my flock and then I’ve heard that I am preaching in a way that is too detailed and doesn’t consider the ‘broader’ picture of the Bible.
Like a pastoral Dorothy trapped in an exegetical Oz, which way should I go?
License and Law and the Gospel, Oh my!
Grace and obedience and fears, Oh my!
Luther and Calvin and Paul, Oh my!
What should I do?
How should I respond?
What am I going to change?
Honestly, NOTHING.
The reason is this: I love you and I love this church too much to change anything. Grace and the gospel isn’t simply one of the facets of the Christian life that can be considered as a 13-week appetizer to Galatians, but rather a truth about the character and nature of God which we see reflected from Genesis to Revelation. God is a God of Grace. He has pursued us from the moment we disobeyed and pursues us to this day. The story of the church and the Gospel is a cover to cover story of grace. Our church must therefore preach, teach and proclaim that same grace every week. Grace is, after all, the substance of our mission at Southwood: to experience and express grace.
This means that our church is a place for recovering addicts. Not only the alcohol and drug kind, but the self-righteous kind too! We are addicts to performance, behavioral modification, legalism, self-justifying obedience and personal piety. We are allergic to dependence, weakness, helplessness and personal trust and rest in Jesus. In short, we are allergic to grace. It is the very thing we need, but the last thing we want.
So hear this: the more grace unnerves and scares you the more you NEED it!
I know that some of you have consulted other pastors, friends and churches. I know that there are many ‘concerned conversations’ happening. I know that some of you are just holding your breath and have had about all you can handle. Please know this: there was a day in the not so distant past that I was just like you. When I would hear people talk about grace my blood boiled. These were the thoughts that went through my mind:
“Liberals! This is EXACTLY what is wrong with the church today. This type of ‘feel-good’ grace-oriented preaching is giving people license to do ‘whatever they want!’”
“These people just don’t love holiness. Of course people would FLOCK to churches that allow them to live and believe anyway they want! Sometimes you’ve got to love people enough to tell them what they NEED to hear, not just what they WANT to hear! God loves holiness, so should we!!!”
“These grace preachers are just what the Bible warns us about. These pablum preachers are only saying what the tickling ears of people want to hear. I am going to be a prophet like Elijah, not like one of these modern, 20th century, ‘tell people what makes them feel good’ sandal-wearing, seeker-sensitive, pseudo-Presbyterians who claim to be Reformed, but are really aren’t!”
Do you believe me?
Think I’ve been there?
You’d better believe it.
The same things you have heard said about me, I’ve said about others.
The same things you may have thought about me, I’ve thought about others.
So what happened? Grace happened.
Something dawned in my life that I never expected. It was grace. I had heard ABOUT God, but in the Gospel I MET God. I was acquainted with Him, but I didn’t know him. As Job said, ‘my ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you!’ I had mistakenly understood the Gospel to be the door by which I entered the Christian life instead of the oxygen I had to daily breathe to live the Christian life. I had misunderstood Jesus as being the Savior who simply opened the door to Heaven instead of the Savior who provided all I needed, every moment of every day. In encountering grace, ‘justification by faith alone’ went from being a cold, sterile doctrine that I read about from the pages of the Westminster Confession to a TRUTH that fueled my daily life and my personal sanctification.
If you are one of the many who may have fear and angst about the perceived ‘over-emphasis’ on Grace at Southwood then hear me well, what you need is not LESS grace, you need MORE grace. Yes, MORE. I understand your fear. Your fear is that the preaching of grace will cause others (or you) to dismiss holiness. It will not. It is actually the preaching of grace that LEADS TO holiness, not the other way around.
If you fear that the preaching of grace is a licentious ticket for weak-willed Evangelicals who just won’t embrace holiness then you don’t understand grace at all. Grace isn’t a ‘ticket punch’ to grant us admittance to the den of iniquity, it is the unshackling of our souls from sin and death and the shackling of our souls to Christ! Anyone who claims grace has set them free to sin is not simply confused about grace they are confused about their own salvation! Grace, as an excuse for sin, is not an invention of Paul; it is an invention of Satan!
The grace being preached at Southwood isn’t designed to set us free to sin, it is designed to set us free to love something more beautiful than sin: God himself! Grace sets our hearts free, not to feast on sin, but to rest in Him! The problem that so many face is that you cannot REALLY see grace like that until you see the HORROR of your own sin. Until you have scraped the bottom of the barrel in your own soul and then seen the beauty of a God who will not abandon you there then you will NEVER appreciate or crave true grace. A light view of your own sin will create an appetite for a lighter view of grace.
Until you see the propensity of your heart to feast on your own merit and righteousness you will never love grace; you will never appreciate grace; you will never ‘get’ grace. When you see the poverty of your own soul, the tendency of your own heart to go ‘prodigal’ and the desperate need you have DAILY for the grace of God then you will will have an insatiable appetite for the Gospel and God’s amazing grace. So if you want a ‘recipe for holiness’ here it is: stop praying for the strength to conquer sin in your own life and pray that God will conquer you instead. Ask Him for the ability to see your sin and the ability to see why you are sinning. Ask Him to show you how you have been trying to avoid Him by getting better, sinning less and ‘maturing in your walk.’ Then ask Him why even reading sentences like that last one make you so vehemently angry that you can’t even see straight? I can remember well the frustrating conundrum of being ‘righteously angry’ with people like me who seemed so loose in their theology, but then concurrently convicted that these ‘slackers’ seemed to be more patient, kind and loving that I was. I didn’t know why I was so angry, but nonetheless it made me hate them more. If you feel like you are at the end of your rope then maybe what you need is…ahem, grace? When we are confronted with our amazing sin and our amazing need of grace daily, then the Gospel of grace will be the oxygen you need for every moment of every day and it WILL change you.
That’s right, I said it, it WILL change you, but not in the way you think. A ‘gospel’ of reduced grace, let’s call it grace ‘light’ will never change you. Only the deep, unmerited grace of God, as Paul preached to the Galatians, will change you. Grace ‘light’ will only get you to change your behavior, not your heart. Grace light will transform your music preferences from ‘rock’ to ‘contemporary christian’; your political views from ‘liberal’ to ‘religious-right’ or your willingness to drink a glass of wine depending on the crowd who sees you, but it won’t transform your soul. Only TRUE grace does that. True grace fundamentally changes the heart, not just behavior. Unfortunately many churches and Christians just ‘tip their hat’ at Grace. Grace ‘light’ treats God’s grace as ONE OF the tools in the Christian’s tool box to accomplish the goal of getting ‘better.’ To reduce grace to a tool of behavior modification is a betrayal of what true grace is all about. Grace ‘light’ plunges you into accountability groups that don’t work; Bible studies that make you more self-righteous or venues of service where you minister from personal strength and righteousness, TRUE grace plunges you into Jesus’ blood again and again because you’ve failed at accountability, you forget to read your Bible and every time you think about ministering to someone else you realize it’s more about you than them!
Grace, true grace, changes you and I’m not talking about just the visible you. It changes the you no one else sees. Grace ‘light’ might convict you to stop your car and buy a homeless man a hamburger for lunch. You might have even had one of those ‘christian radio’ songs convict you to adjust your day to do so. But TRUE grace doesn’t show you a ‘pitiful man’ on the street corner who needs your intervention; true grace shows you yourself, a ‘pitiful man’ on the street corner of his own life who needed God’s intervention! The captivating thought going through the mind of the man who has been feasting on true grace is one of empathy and identification. He sees his own spiritual poverty and need, so he therefore moves toward the homeless man, not as a project, but rather as a person, just like himself. Grace ‘light’ turns the homeless man into your trophy of benevolent outreach. True grace sees ourselves as God’s trophy and that man as an image bearer of the Triune God and our brother. True grace allows us to see that man, not as a someone we are ministering to, but as someone who may actually be there to minister to us! True grace causes us to estimate ourselves as beneficiaries of the relationship with that homeless man not as benefactors toward him.
But Jean, what about Galatians 5, the Fruit of the Spirit? Paul isn’t going to preach ‘grace, grace, grace’ forever, he IS going to tell us to ‘put off the deeds of the flesh’ and ‘put on the fruit of the Spirit’! You cannot avoid this! You MUST deal with it! You CANNOT explain it away! I agree, but let’s make a deal first——let’s make sure that if we are going to argue for ‘all of Paul’ then we also argue for ‘all of Jesus’ and while we’re at it ‘all of the rest of the Bible’! Ask yourself one question: What is the single-most common misunderstanding that has plagued the people of God from Genesis to Revelation? It is very simple: the people of God have often falsely believed that God was more concerned about their EXTERNAL behavior than their HEARTS. If you read your Bible you will see that Scripture is most critical of outwardly-performing, pious, religious people who get their behavior correct, but their hearts are far from God. He is often harder on the church people for missing it than for the pagan nations who never got it!
Grace ‘light’ makes the Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 something which should be cross-stitched and put on the walls of your home, visible for everyone to see. True grace writes love, joy, peace, patience and kindness on the walls of your heart visible for everyone to see Christ in you. It does not take true grace to ‘make a stand’ on election day, listen to Christian radio or hide the Chardonnay from your neighbors. It takes true grace to love those neighbors instead. It true grace to see the glory of God, not just in an Amy Grant song, but also in Lady GaGa as an image bearer of God. And it takes grace, true grace, to look at that Chardonnay and remember that it is NOT what goes into a man that defiles him, but rather what comes out of his heart.
Grace light will deal only with your behavior.
True grace will deal with your heart.
Grace light will deal only with your observable actions.
True grace will deal with your motivations.
Grace light will only deal with what you do.
True grace will deal with why you do what you do.
Grace light will lie to you and convince you that you are malnourished without the ‘meat’ of the law, but true grace will show you that the only lasting nourishment comes from Christ’s work alone.
Lastly and emotionally, Grace light makes you angry, critical and disappointed. The reason is simple. It is because you see other people’s sin and your own righteousness concurrently. True grace makes you humble and gracious. This is because you actually see YOUR own sin and God’s love for you concurrently.
I know you are protesting right now. I know you have been striving for humility. I know that you wrote and re-wrote that email to me five times to make sure it didn’t sound ‘proud’. Make no mistake, grace light gives lip-service to humility but it cannot resist being the critic of the choices, spiritual condition and behavior of everyone around you. Sadly, this is actually pride masquerading as Christian discernment. True grace gives us the humility to see ourselves, critique our own choices, our own spiritual condition and our own behavior. True grace produces Godly discernment about my own life and refuses to stop at the modification of my behavior until there is mortification for the sin in my heart.
If you find yourself despondent and frustrated, seeing your sin, but still mad at me, then ‘cheer up’ you may be in a really good place: messy, unfixable, mean and tired. You may be ready for….ahem, grace. Aren’t you glad that it isn’t really ‘grace light’? That would hardly work on a heart as perplexed and frustrated as yours and mine. We need heavy cream, half & half, pure, unrefined TRUE grace and we need it poured over our heads week after week. A sip here and there will never suffice.
I have no doubt but that this will have served to frustrate some and encourage others. Press on, deeper and farther into grace! It is in wrestling through these issues that the elusive beauty of the Gospel often dawns in the hearts and minds of self-righteous Pharisees like you and me and we are convinced of the present value of the blood of Christ for today!
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Recommended Listening
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- Key Life Ministries
Steve BrownSteve Brown is not the most subtle guy you will ever meet. If I were to write an S.A.T. question about Steve this is how it would go: Steve Brown is to legalism what a child hopped-up on cake and ice cream is to an pinata! I love this guy. Check out his website and fair warning: you are not heading to a ‘SAFE’ little Christian site!
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Tullian TchividjianAs one comment on iTunes said: “Tullian preaches the Gospel in an unadulterated and undomesitcated way…The way it should be preached!”
Recommended Links
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Tullian TchividjianWilliam Graham Tullian Tchividjian (pronounced cha-vi-jin) is a Florida native, the pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, a visiting professor of theology at Reformed Theological Seminary, and a grandson of Billy and Ruth Graham.
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Comments
David Clark | June 27 2011 at 10:08 am
Whoo…boy!
Frustrating.
Exhilarating.
Puzzling.
I really need Jesus. That much is clear.
And I’m sure glad you are the Senior Pastor, not me! For a variety of reasons. One of which is that if I were, I would probably, with at least some nominally good intentions, end up preaching some damnable doctrine.
Dang it.
I sure hope you are praying for God to give wisdom to your…what? Parishioners? Laity? Communicants? (not to mention “visitors”)
Peace and strength to you.
I’m listening.
Jay | June 28 2011 at 6:39 am
I love what John Bunyan said to his critics (paraphrased from Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners):
Critics: John, you can’t keep assuring people of God’s love… because then they’ll do whatever they want.
Bunyan: Yes I can… because if I continue to assure God’s people of his love for them, they will do what ever HE wants.
William Plott | June 28 2011 at 8:25 am
Excellent, Jean! There is a reason why the indicatives come BEFORE the imperatives…and not only in Paul. The Exodus (grace, redemption…whatever you want to call it) came before the 10 Commandments. We must emphasize Christ above all, and he emphasized grace above all.
Ken Leggett | June 28 2011 at 9:14 am
“5 Stars”
“...a must read”
“Someone’s been talking to Jesus”
“God help us; no seriously, help us!”
“Luther called and he wants his passion back!”
“this should be read often and lately”
“Jean should get an EGOT for this!!!”
“I think I see Jesus”
Anonymous | June 28 2011 at 9:49 am
Could it be that some folks consider your focus boring? Are we blinded by riches, or lust, or busy-ness, or by trying to build God’s kingdom on earth through politics? (I’m guilty on all counts.)
I don’t consider Jean’s focus boring now, because I’m such a broken person. And I don’t mean “broken” like a wild mustang - I mean “broken” like I don’t work right or think right, and have this constant nagging that I’m a pariah (even around God’s people). Note that this is 35 years after receiving Christ, and being in Reformed churches.
Paul wrote about a lot of things, but one of his main “across-the-board” ideas was that we “may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge…” Im beginning to think that if I’m to comprehend this, I must know how broken I am. This fallen world and my own sin have affected every area of my life. I hear that God’s grace can affect every area also, and I trust that will happen. And I hope it will happen to some extent BEFORE Jean gets around to preaching on Galatians 5.
Anonymous | June 28 2011 at 9:54 am
Your sermons have impressed upon me how simultaneously simple, yet PROFOUND grace is. And we are a “fast-food” society, so we always want to hurry up and get to the point. I like the slow, methodical examination of Galatians and hope to soak it in to lay a groundwork for whatever comes next. Surely people don’t think that you will never connect dots and discuss the Christian life in the context of grace? Everyone needs to slow down, soak it up, adjust their mindsets, before even talking about “works.”
Chris Heaton | June 28 2011 at 12:34 pm
Well spoken.
Even though my family has not been in the pews we have enjoyed untying the knots here and through the podcasts.
Stephen Hampton | June 28 2011 at 12:43 pm
Amen & Amen! We are saved “by grace through faith”, but we are also called to live “by grace through faith”. Then & only then is it “not I, but Christ” who is seen & heard & radiated through me.
Anonymous | June 28 2011 at 1:12 pm
This discussion reminds me of the “ruler” who asked Jesus: “What must I do to be saved?” We can ask it a bit differently: “What must I do to be better, more effective, holier, less sinful?”
Jesus exposed that man’s heart.
Anonymous | June 28 2011 at 1:53 pm
I can’t wait to hear you preach grace on Sunday. The unconditional love of Christ for me is the only thing that sustains me. I don’t understand why He does and often don’t “feel” like He does and more often, looking at difficulties in my life, don’t see His love. However, I believe that He does love me. My struggle is my inability to see His love changing my heart.
Brock Warner | June 28 2011 at 2:23 pm
As a member who thought I got it, I am finding my life completely undone by Jean’s preaching and while I don’t like it, the timing is evidently perfect. I truly thought I understood the Gospel. I have been through Sonship on three different occasions, I read the “right” books and I teach what I have read. When we brought Jean here, I was so glad that he would preach to everyone else. I have experienced grace both through my own salvation and through Southwood, my wife, kids and friends over the years.
All that to say that on every Sunday, when the Word is preached…...preached not taught, that I hear my Lord, feel the Spirit and fall more deeply in love with my Savior. And I am undone.
I want to be a better Elder, a better Father, a better Husband and a better Friend and I am learning to relax. If the Word is true and Jesus is committed to completing his work in me then that has to be my hope and not my own works, knowledge and abilities. I am finding myself closer to Christ the more I release my worrying, anxious hands.
Signed,
A Recovering Grace Legalist Addict Who Use to Be Mostly Right
Anonymous | June 28 2011 at 2:28 pm
For over a year now I have been sneaking in to the service late and leaving early. Only a handful of people have said a word to me. But all week long I can’t wait to get back because I long to hear the words of my King. The immeasurable grace that he has demonstrated to me!
Don’t EVER stop preaching it! Teach the truth, without compromise, without dilution and without regard to the audience or the nature of their response.
νερουλός εὐάγγελος, επιπρόσθετος χάρισμα!!
Thank you.
Brock Warner | June 28 2011 at 2:41 pm
Hey Anonymous,
Hang out with us some
Blake Rymer | June 28 2011 at 3:51 pm
Jean,
Can’t tell how encouraging your words are to me. This is the message I’ve given the last 28 years of my life to communicate, 20 or so here in Huntsville. Don’t let up my brother. There’s no such thing as taking grace too far!
Blake Rymer, Grace Link International
Jeremy McNeill | June 28 2011 at 4:17 pm
Just when I think I get it, I don’t. My issue… applying my understanding as a supplement of clarity (false clarity, of course) to the enormous content of grace. My Pharisaical tendencies come not in behavior modification, but it right thinking and ideals. This is where the inner turmoil of true grace battles my prideful “right thinking”. I now understand more fully Spurgeon’s teaching that sanctification is not a forward movement away from justification towards holiness, but a continual returning to it and our need of the cross. Keeping bringing it. My soul is in need of it.
Nate Kellum | June 29 2011 at 10:21 am
Wow… Jean, I was just minding my own business when I decided to check out your website and see what my ole’ pal was doing. And wouldn’t you know it, I read your blog and get smacked in the face with GRACE. I see you’re doing what you’ve done since the moment I first met you. Keep it up brother! “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.” Mark 16:15.
don admire | June 29 2011 at 5:33 pm
Great words Jean…The hardest thing for me is to see myself the way God sees me…and he sees Jesus…now i seldom believe that…Instead i focus on my past and current crap…without looking at the cross and the resurrected King…Like the Israelite’s my fundamental struggle is ‘God can’t be this good’...but thanks be to God who remembers our sin no more…Keep preaching brother…‘Brock’ really needs to hear your message…so does Rymer (g)
Blake Rymer | June 30 2011 at 6:54 am
Does Admire’s post befuddle anyone else besides me?
Brock Warner | June 30 2011 at 7:54 am
From Scotty Smith this morning. Scotty verbalizes his connection with the saints and their failures. How can I compare myself to Peter, or Jonah or Jeremiah, just read
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/scottysmith/2011/06/30/a-prayer-for-a-welcoming-and-accepting-heart/
Andes | June 30 2011 at 4:39 pm
I agree with Brock.
Anonymous please don’t be so…..anonymous.
Come early, stay late. Say hi. I’m a mess and may not say hi. But, if I don’t say “hi” back to you, shame on me, but I’m sure somebody will.
Jean, I love to check a box, follow the recipe, get the star, be praised for what I do….but, I’m learning more about grace and how to respond in love in the last 13 weeks than in my first 56 years. Plus I’m learning about God’s freedom for us.
THANK YOU!
Curtis | June 30 2011 at 5:28 pm
Jean, Keep your head up. God has you right where he wants you. I need to hear what God is saying through you more than anyone. Thanks for your unwavering faith and determination - it really encourages me.
Baptisterian | June 30 2011 at 9:29 pm
It will take a lot longer than 13 weeks of grace preaching to completely undo a lifetime of legalistic, self-imposed and dogmatic doctrine-driven self-sufficiency. Realizing you need a savior 24/7/365, not just when you think you’ve really blown it is a bit of a shock.
Lord, help me and Jean pass me more meat and potatoes, please.
Baptisterian | July 01 2011 at 10:29 am
It will take a lot more than 13 weeks to undo the dogmatic doctrine-driven, self-imposed, self-sufficient attitude in this heart of mine. To realize I need a savior 24/7/365 - not just when I feel I’ve blown it - doesn’t come naturally.
Amen, Jean, and pass me another helping of the meat and potatoes.
Anonymous | July 01 2011 at 3:26 pm
Oh come on. If you emphasize grace, it will eventually seep into college ministries. Then, instead of Greek fellowships of the movers and shakers, you’ll end up with geeks, socially awkward people, you know losers. The sort of people you’re nice to when they visit, but you have the comfort of knowing they’ll soon realize they just don’t belong in the winners circle, and they’ll move on to college fellowships of their own kind. How then will the work of discipleship go on? How can the torch of leadership be passed to the next generation of successful Christians, when the group is bogged down with folk who think frat parties are worldly? Who would sooner become overweight than develop anorexia or bulimia? Who can’t even afford the wardrobe necessary for rush, even if they had a clue how it works?! You could even end up with blue collar workers and technical school students, in a fellowship all consumed with ideas of grace. Please. You’ve got to have performance standards.
Hal Blackwell | July 12 2011 at 8:17 pm
Dude, you can’t stop preaching grace (said with a Scottish because that’s the way God sounds, according to John Lynch and me) because once started you’re toast. They are going to say those things about you. Its part of the deal. Satan is going to come after you as well. I’ll be praying for you. Hardcore sinners like me tear up when we hear your words. That’s part of the deal, too.
Thanks!
Hal Blackwell | July 13 2011 at 12:13 pm
Dude, you can’t quit preaching Grace (pronounced with a Scottish accent since that’s the way God talks according to John Lynch and me) once you start. You’re toast. The grace lighters are going to say those things. Its part of the deal. For a hardcore sinner like me your words put a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye. That’s part of the deal too. In the famous words of Steve Perry- Don’t Stop Believin’.
Hal
Anonymous | July 17 2011 at 7:44 am
My issue with all of these discussions is not that I am “over” all this grace talk. I enjoy the sermons and have come away from them with a new found respect for the Gospel and my need to experience and express grace. Quite frankly, I’m frustrated with being told that if I have a problem with anything going on or preached about at Southwood then I have the problem. I would love to see just a small amount of humility from the leaders at our church. Just a small amount? I don’t think that is too much to ask from those called to lead a church of many not just a few. These rumblings should be addressed gently and with care. We are losing way too many elders and Godly women and men that are tired of being told how bad we all are. Maybe a small amount of self examination wouldn’t hurt instead of blah blah delete. It seems to me that the only people who post comments or possibly even read this blog are those that are so like-minded that you may not even realize the enormity of the concerns of your congregation.
Anonymous | July 20 2011 at 6:43 pm
Jean,
I am one of those who believes that it is time for something beyond “Grace, grace, grace.” I do not worry that your preaching the gospel of grace is some “licentious ticket.” I just don’t get it. I never heard of grace until I came to Southwood. As best I understand it, grace is “unmerited favor” or “God loves us and nothing we do or say is going to change that love.” I love my wife and children, but I don’t always treat them out of pure love. It seems hardly possible that I would do that even when my love is reinforced by sight, smell, touch and hearing on a daily basis with my family? Conversely, God’s love is conveyed to me fairly obliquely through the 2000 - 4000 year old words of the Bible. Somehow, even with the Holy Spirit, a love expressed only by the written word, is not easy for me to grasp and internalize. I don’t observe Christians around me that are so full of God’s love, that I know it and can feel it as soon as I talk to them or see how they interact with people. So, one reason why I think you should move on from grace, grace, grace is that it is impossible for most (all?) of us to truly grasp grace.
A second reason that you should stop preaching on grace is that I believe most of us are tired of hearing that we are no better than the worst sinner around. I am an observer of people. It is my conclusion based on a lifetime of observing people, that most people do not have a very good self image. They don’t like how they look, how smart they are, what they have accomplished, etc, etc. They just don’t feel like they measure up to their own internal standard of who they wish they were. A poor self image is a major reason that so many people fear getting up and speaking in front of a group. For most people, fear of public speaking is ranked higher than fear of death. All you have to do is observe people and how they treat their spouse, co-worker, neighbor and you can tell how they feel about themselves. I struggle with self image the way that I believe most people do. Anyone who is honest with himself knows that he is not perfect in his own eyes, let alone in God’s eyes. He does not need to be reminded week after week that God thinks he is no better than the worst sinner around.
A third reason that I think you should stop preaching on grace is that it apparently doesn’t work even if you grasp how much he loves you. As best as I understand, you have truly grasped grace for some period of time, but you still are no better now than before you understood grace. And the same apparently goes for everyone else who attends Southwood. No matter how “saintly” I might think some of us to be, deep down inside, we are still as bad as the pimp and the murderer and the worst of sinners. If I believe what I think I have heard, it sounds to me like grace doesn’t work. However, I presume that you are giving us a judgment of people on God’s scale and I would agree that on God’s scale, we are all a terrible mess. But, on a human scale, are you quite a bit better than you used to be? Are any of the saints in Southwood any better than they used to be? I live in a human world, and I judge my children on a human scale and there is a clear understanding of good, bad and getting better. I know individuals who have engaged in terrible sin and through God’s grace and hard work, they are no longer in the grip of that sin. To me, they are better than they used to be and I believe on God’s scale He sees that improvement as well. Although this overcoming of sin does not merit salvation, I believe God is pleased. However, your message week after week seems to be that He loves us, but He sees us all as one uniformly bad group of the blackest of sinners.
A fourth reason I think you should stop preaching on grace is that grace is a “Presbyterian Insider Word.” Why not use plain English and talk about God’s love for us? Why make the newcomer first learn the language before he can understand the message?
A fifth reason to stop preaching grace, grace, grace is that I find it disingenuous to continually say God loves you so much that nothing you do can destroy that love. At the same time, somewhere in your mind, you believe that that same God has predestined some huge percentage of the world’s population to go to hell for all eternity.
I conclude by saying, I love Southwood. It is my church home and I do not plan to leave. I loved Barney and Mike and I love you, Jean, as my brother in Christ and my pastor. I have been accused at times of writing more harshly than I would speak. I apologize if I have done that this time. It was not my intent. As I pray for my own spiritual walk, please believe that I continue to pray for you as you lead and shepherd all of us at Southwood.