Grace

It seems to me quite ironic that in the Christian world it is the concept of what grace is that separates groups.  Historically it has been East verses West, Luther verses Rome, Jansenist verses Jesuits, Calvinism verses Arminianism, Conservatives verses Liberals and so forth.  Throw in the differing companion views concerning what is the depravity of man and eternal security and you have a church not quite ready to sit down together at the communion table.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened,

so that you will know what is the hope of His calling,

what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,

and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. (Eph: 1: 18-19)

It was near the end of my 22^nd year when I asked Jesus to come into my heart as Savior and Lord. Until then, and despite growing up in a religious environment, I had walked in darkness. This darkness was not brought about because of my actions, rebellious as they indeed were. It was there because I did not know the Lord of light. My religion taught that my baptism as an infant brought into my soul sanctifying grace which canceled something I was born with, original sin, and that sanctifying grace would stay with me unless I committed a mortal sin. I was taught that because of baptism I was alive in Christ and would one day join Him in eternity.

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,

in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world,

according to the prince of the power of the air,

of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. (Eph: 2:1-2)

But I was not alive in Christ.  My spirit had not been reborn through baptism and I was the lord of my own soul.  Oh yes, I knew about God. I knew that my church taught that Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the world. I knew there was someone called the Holy Spirit. But I did not actually know Jesus or comprehend God in the slightest. I had nothing but theology to base hope on. My prayers then were not a conversation with Someone who later on had changed my heart and opened my eyes to a spiritual world that was just as real as the physical. Although I fell quite short of living a holy life I believed that I was as good as the next guy and that God, if He really existed, would give me full credit for being a nice guy.

But God, being rich in mercy,

because of His great love with which He loved us,

even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive

together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), (Eph: 2: 4-5)

It was finally when I realized that Jesus died for me, personally, that I asked Him to come into my heart and surrendered the lordship of my soul to Him.  That was over 40 years ago and everything in my life changed;  not because I adopted a set of religious beliefs but because it was now my desire to follow Him and be lead by his Holy Spirit where ever They would lead.  The Word of God became alive to me and I would read it and study it and meditate upon it.  In doing so I discovered that there were in my religion quite a large number of beliefs and practices that were not found in scripture, ran contrary to scripture, or were supported by certain scriptures used out of context. 

For by grace you have been saved through faith;

and that not of yourselves,

it is the gift of God;

not as a result of works, so that no man can boast. (Eph: 2: 8-9)

My original church's concept of grace was one of these.  To me it seems that in the above scripture grace simply means that God gave us salvation even though we didn't deserve it or work for it.  We believe that Jesus death and resurrection were personally for us and God responds by doing something.  Grace means that we have found favor with God.  

But beginning in the 5th century St. Augustine started seeing grace as being a substance that could be produced, stored and then transferred mainly but not exclusively through (drum roll please) the sacraments of the church (thus requiring a priesthood).  Grace was produced by the life, sufferings and death of Jesus (an immeasurable amount), the sufferings of martyrs, the anguish of Mary at seeing Jesus crucified and other like events.  This grace is kept in a storehouse located somewhere in Heaven but managed by the church in partnership with God.  Grace can also be produced through prayer and good works and doing religious acts that are proscribed by the administering church and these are credited to the account of the doer (but can be transferred to someone else).

Thus the view of salvation is that all are born with a soul that inherits the original sin of Adam and Eve.  At baptism a soul is infused with the substance of grace which covers (but apparently does not dissolve) original sin and as long as that grace stays there a person will go to Heaven.  All subsequent sin resides in the soul and needs an infusion of (actual) grace to cancel out or dissolve that sin.  Somehow the church has determined that grace is not transferred in sufficient quantity during one's lifetime to remove all sin and so a soul when it's body dies must go to a holding place until such time as enough grace can be applied.

For we are His workmanship,

created in Christ Jesus for good works,

which God prepared beforehand

so that we would walk in them. (Eph: 2: 10)

When I surrendered my life to Jesus it cost me everything.  I DIED IN CHRIST.  In return my spirit was reborn and I became a new creation and the Holy Spirit resides in me.  The struggle now is to yield my soul to what the Holy Spirit desires.  Every day I desire my own will but am confronted with the fact that I am no longer the lord of my life.  

I want to please Him.  I want to be in His will.  I want so desperately for others to know that all they see in this world is but an illusion and that there will be nothing better for them than to experience a life in Christ, free from the demands of this godless world.  There are crowns in Heaven and though I do not live to earn a jewel in a crown I am often comforted by the thought that there are rewards for those that hold fast.  Even then I am weak - but His grace is sufficient for me.