The grammar of grace

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The grammar of grace

Grace lies at the heart of Christianity. It is the defining feature that distinguishes Christianity from religion (even if that variety of religion has Christian shadows in it).

God’s grace note is sweet music. When humanity sang I did it my way and rebelled against God, the most natural thing was an irreversible act of judgement. Destroy them and abandon the earth experiment. God judged, but even as he did so, the grace note was played. He promised the descendant of Eve who would crush the serpent’s head while taking a severe wound (Gen 3:15) and in the interim he provided animal skins to cover sin’s shame (Gen 3:21).

It was grace that chose to save, whom to save, when to save and how to save. And it was grace that provided the means of salvation in Jesus who is the only mediator between God and humanity (1 Tim 2:5).

How does grammar fit into that? Grace is a balance between indicatives (words that say that something has happened or is happening) and imperatives (words that say what should happen). Indicatives without imperatives and imperatives without indicatives equally undermine grace.

Indicatives without imperatives – cheap grace

Our sinful hearts readily mean that we hear of God’s overflowing grace and quickly reason … if I sin more grace, abounds more. Paul faced this when he asked What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? (Rom 6:1).  Bonhoeffer summarised it in his phrase ‘cheap grace’ that speaks of a distortion in which God gives and gives but without any cost or response from us. This is a view that presumes on grace and makes it an excuse and license for whatever sin we want. If God will forgive anything after a quick prayer invoking the blood of Jesus like a mantra .. well, why not so as we please confident that God will grant us indulgence?

Who doesn’t like a religion like that? Do as we please, play the amazing grace card, get off scot-free and then go and do it all again?

No way! Once we detach what God has done from what we must do it is no longer gospel grace. Listen to what Paul goes on to say in the above text: What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (Rom 6:1-4).

Get it? Grace is to be lived, not presumed.

Imperatives without indicatives - legalism

Pride makes pure grace offensive to us. Many of us manage most life quite well by ourselves and have a ‘can-do DIY’ mindset. Applied to religion, this means that we are happy to have God’s help but act as though God helps those who help themselves. (Let me save time by saying that’s not a text we find in the Bible).

Grace undermines our DIY mindset and the pride that goes with it. The necessity of grace (all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God – Rom 3:23) and the nature of grace (Christ dying for his helpless enemies – Rom 5:5-8) teach us that we cannot help ourselves when it comes to the greatest life challenge. That is offensive to the proud human heart.

And so we embrace the grace that forgives. Well, we at least do that with words and cheerfully sing songs like Amazing Grace. The Trojan horses then start sneaking in as we live the Christian life. Rather than live good lives as a response to grace and enabled by grace, we start living as though we earn grace and can live without it.

This is seen in the ‘try harder’ kind of preaching, prayer or personal mindset. We find ourselves trying to be good enough for God and maybe even bargaining from our goodness in the ‘low hanging fruit’ areas of life to indulgence in the ‘high up’ fruit.

Either way we drive ourselves to despair (I can never be good enough for God) or pride (I am good enough for God). Once we detach what we must do from what God has done, grace is gone and the gospel is denied.

Once again Paul has an apt word: So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!  (Rom 6:21-25)

Indicates and imperatives – gospel grace

When indicates and imperatives come together (and in that order) we have the gospel of grace. This is the gospel of God’s free and generous love coupled with a  worthy response on our part.

Look at this text:  I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Rom 12:1-2)

Now let’s break it up:

·      What God has done: I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God …

·      What we must do: … present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Notice the word ‘therefore’ in the first line (I love it when Paul gives these big word clues as to how his argument works). The Christian is called to a constant living sacrifice in which all of all we are belongs to God all the time – there is no cheap grace here. However, the only reason and basis for that is the Christ-provided atonement for our sins and the Spirit -empowered sanctification that is his theme in Rom 3:20-11:36. The gospel of grace is in the ‘therefore’ as our imperatives are grounded in God’s indicatives.

Get it? Christians are called to believe in Jesus and live a good life (the imperative of trust-obey) but only because of what God has done for us in Christ (the gospel indicative). Let’s believe it, live it and preach it.