‘Let us then
approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and
find grace to help us in our time of need.’ (Heb. 4:16)
‘You then, my son,
be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.’ (2
Tim. 2:1)
Reading: Matthew 5:43-48 and Luke 6:27-36
One
of the most important – and indeed vital! – lessons that we all as believers
need to learn as we continue through life in our walk with the Lord, is that of
learning to experience the overcoming
grace of God as we need it in different situations in life. This again is not a lesson that we should
understand only in theory, and so pay mere lip service to in practice, as
though we have learnt all about the overcoming grace of God once we have heard
some teaching on it. No, this is a
principle that works and proves its power and truth in practice as we actually
learn how to experience overcoming grace when we need it.
An interesting experience that I had
in regard to overcoming grace happened early in my missionary career when I was
living in a particular country in Eastern Europe in the period before the
Berlin Wall fell. At that time these
countries were still police states and their ruling regimes were communist and
atheistic. I was living with an extended
family, renting a room in their large house.
With all the economic problems of the time and with several mouths to
feed, they needed some extra income, and my living with them provided them with
this.
Although I could not yet communicate
properly in the local language, yet it was not long before I discovered that
there was a marked degree of lying, deception, overcharging and manipulation in
the local culture, particularly when it came to money. In those early days, I was often the
vulnerable, unwitting and frustrated victim of other people’s rapacity. Other local ex-patriates were also having
similar problems, so there were others in the same boat that I was in.
I tried my level best wherever I went
not to get ‘ripped off,’ but these things continued over several months and
reached a climax one day when yet another financial injustice was laid upon me
which led to a confrontation between me and another local person. In my heart, I was upset, angry and resented
these kinds of things. I was fed up with
people simply and shamelessly looking upon me as a gullible source of easy
money.
However, I was aware that I had
arranged to go to preach the following weekend in a church (up in the north of
the country) in which an old friend of mine was an elder. With all the resentment and hard feelings I
was carrying within me, I knew that I was in no fit state to preach to
others. So, over the next few days, I
began to seek the Lord, both to help me in the state I was in and to prepare
myself for preaching.
As I sought the Lord, he led me to
the passages in Matthew 5:43-48 and Luke 6:27-36 and began to challenge me to
love my enemies and to pray for those who mistreat me, or at least those people
who I perceived were such at that moment.
I came face to face with the fact that in my own natural human weakness
and in the state that I was in in my heart, I could not love them, neither pray
for them nor bless them. Indeed, all I
was thinking and wanting was just the complete opposite of these things! And it was no good thinking of simply running
from the situation and moving away, as the same problem would undoubtedly occur
again elsewhere. No, I had to stay and
sort this thing out properly within myself.
If this was part of what it meant for me to be a cross-cultural
missionary at that time, then I had to get victory over it.
As I continued to seek the Lord and
stay in his presence over the next few days, confessing my own strongly
resentful feelings and attitudes, and asking for his forgiveness, I began to
experience the Lord strengthening me within and beginning to free me and wash
me clean from the negative things in my heart.
Within a few days of seeking the Lord for a set time every day, I found
that he had freed me from what was in my heart and had replaced it with his own
enabling grace and love, and I began to pray freely and genuinely for the
person who had offended me recently, that the Lord would truly bless and reveal
himself to that person. It was the Lord
ministering his grace to my heart, and I was freed and cleansed within,
harbouring no ill-feeling. Through the active working of God’s
grace within me, I had overcome the resentment and negative feelings I had
within. So I decided that,
because these passages in Matthew ch.5 and Luke ch.6 were so fresh in my own
heart and life, I would preach from them the following Sunday.
When Sunday came, I set out early in
the morning and travelled up north, arriving at my friend’s home in the early
afternoon. As was their custom, I was
ushered into the room where they often met with guests and friends. I sat down and was given a coffee to drink
while I waited for my friend to come.
However, when he walked into the room, I got a real shock. I had never seen him in such a state. He had a broken nose and two black eyes, and he
looked very discouraged indeed.
After we had greeted one another, we
sat down and he told me what had happened to him. As he was travelling around in his car a few
days before, he had been stopped by a couple of plain-clothed police officers
who dragged him out of his car, and, without any reason at all apart from the
fact that he was a well-known local Christian leader, beat him up before then
driving off in their own car, leaving him lying on the road. As he spoke, I could see how shaken he was by
this experience, and how hurt, frustrated and angry he was within himself. He trembled physically and wept as he told me
his story, and I could see just how difficult it was for him to speak calmly
about it. I spoke little, words seemed
cheap...
I began to ask myself how could I
possibly preach on those passages in Matthew ch.5 and Luke ch.6, when my friend
would be on the first row of the church right in front of me, in just an hour
or so? I knew that the believers in the
church would think that I had only decided what to preach on, after I had met
my friend and seen what had happened to him, and that I had chosen this
particular message just for him. I was
challenged within myself. Should I
preach it, or not? It was certainly a
relevant message to give, and yet it seemed inappropriate and too direct in
view of what he had been through. Let
someone else preach this message today, I thought, just don’t let it be
me! Although my own experience that week
had been very real, and certainly I had needed the Lord’s grace to minister to
me, yet my friend’s experience seemed much, much harder than my own.
However, I decided to go ahead and
preach what I had prepared. And it was
so relevant. Everyone understood it, and
many of them were looking over at my friend as I preached it. I told them what I had experienced myself
that week, so that they did not think that I was preaching it just for
him. He listened with tears in his eyes
and knew that it was the Lord’s word for him.
He too needed the overcoming grace of God at that time, and in a deeper
way than I had experienced it myself, but still the same grace of God working
in his heart at his own point of need, to free him and heal him from the inward
hurt, anger and resentment that he was feeling at that time.
God
is a God of grace
God’s grace, his unmerited favour
towards us, is the moving cause by which he makes his salvation available to
us. Without this grace, there would be
no salvation. God’s grace moved him to
act to overcome our sin and to pour out his love and mercy on us in Christ:
‘For the grace of
God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.’
(Titus 2:11, cf. Eph. 2:4-5,7-8)
Where our sin increased and abounded,
God’s grace towards us did much more abound so that we might be saved:
‘But where sin
increased, grace increased all the more.’ (Rom 5:20, cf. 1
Tim. 1:13-14)
God chose to freely give and indeed
lavish this incomparable, glorious grace upon us, overcoming and washing our
sins away completely through the redemption that Jesus provided for us (Eph.
1:3-8), so that, just as sin had reigned in our lives, now grace might reign in
us:
‘…so that, just as
sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ (Rom. 5:21)
So, when we experience this grace of
God working in our lives, it changes
us, and its results are evident for others to see. When Barnabas arrived in Antioch, he ‘saw the evidence of the grace of God.’
(Acts 11:23). Similarly, the life of the
early community of believers in Jerusalem was characterised by ‘much grace,’
and we are told that this grace was demonstrated very practically amongst them
as they freely gave to help one another in their needs (Acts 4:32-35).
Furthermore, God’s continuing grace
towards us sustains us in our walk with him.
The apostle Paul emphasised this repeatedly in his short greetings at
the beginning and ending of his epistles (see Rom. 1:7, 16:20; 1 Cor. 1:3,
16:23; etc.). Through his grace, God
continues to forgive our sins and failures in daily life, as we confess them to
him (1 John 1:9).
However, in order that grace might reign
in our lives, we need also to come to know his grace empowering and enabling us
within, through the inward presence of the Holy Spirit, in situations in
life. The Holy Spirit is the
Spirit of grace (Heb. 10:29). So we need to grow in our experience of the active working of
God’s grace within us:
‘But grow in the
grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.’ (2
Peter 3:18)
The
grace of salvation and forgiveness has to become also the grace of overcoming
in situations of life. Experiencing this overcoming grace of God is
the secret of many spiritual victories in daily living.
Grace:
the authentic mark of Christian living
It
is the presence and power of God’s grace working within us which is the
authentic mark of Christian living. This is clear from the use of the Greek word charis (meaning ‘grace’) in Luke 6:27-36
(which parallels Matt. 5:43-48), where Jesus repeats the same question about
grace three times in different ways (vv.32-34). To live in such a way that we
love only those who love us, and so on, is essentially to live in a way which
is no different to unbelievers, and it is therefore not a mark that we are
walking in Christ. We do not need grace
to live like that.
This passage in Luke 6:27-36 makes it
clear that it is the presence of God’s grace working powerfully in and through
us that enables us to love our enemies, etc.
Our initial natural reaction, even as believers, to those who are our
enemies, or who mistreat us, curse us, hit us on the cheek, or steal our cloak
(vv.27-30) will normally be one of resentment, hatred or wanting revenge,
etc. We would never love our enemy in
our own human strength; it is impossible.
Jesus is saying that the way
in which to overcome these kinds of natural feelings and responses is to
experience the grace of God actively working in and through us, the
same grace that God himself expressed towards us when we were unbelievers
ourselves.
This powerful inward presence and
working of God’s enabling grace is the key to loving people, doing good to
them, blessing them and praying for them, in such situations
(vv.27-31,35). When the sin of other
people abounds towards us, then the grace of God working powerfully within us
can abound even more to overcome their sin and its effects on us, so that we
can keep our heart free and respond to them out of love, goodness, blessing and
prayer, etc. It is then that we
reign in life, through the abundant working of God’s grace within us (Rom.
5:17,20-21). Of course, this takes us
beyond the limitations of our human nature, and it is the authentic mark of what
it means to be a Christian.
Living
out of God’s inward, enabling grace in this way is the secret of living as
Jesus did.
It helps us to act and respond like our heavenly Father would, and we
are then shown to be his children, as we are responding as he would respond:
‘He is kind to the
ungrateful and wicked… He causes his sun
to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the
unrighteous.’ (vv.35-36 and see Matt. 5:45)
The
key verse
The key verse regarding overcoming grace
is found in Hebrews 4:16 below:
‘Let us then
approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and
find grace to help us in our time of need.’
Experiencing overcoming grace in
different situations is not something which works automatically. It is not at all enduring something in our
own human strength and with a false smile.
It is not a theoretical concept. It involves an actual deep change of our
internal spiritual condition.
There are four steps in this verse
which are the pathway to experiencing overcoming grace and the deep, internal
change which it brings about.
Firstly, we must be consciously
aware that we are in a time of need, i.e. we are in a situation in which we
are being stretched beyond our human limitations and need God’s grace and
strength.
Secondly, we then come to God
confidently as his children and seek to get into his presence through prayer.
Thirdly, we confess our human weakness and failings, and perhaps our
sinful responses in the situation, so that we receive God’s mercy and
forgiveness for these.
Fourthly, we stay in his presence,
communing with him for as long as it takes, until the grace that we need arises
within, diffused within us by the indwelling Holy Spirit of grace, to
strengthen and enable us, and to overcome the subjective internal effects of the
situation upon us.
As this happens within us, fear melts
away and is replaced by faith; worry and anxiety are displaced by trust and
deep peace; resentment, criticism and a desire to get our own back, are
displaced by God’s love for people; human weakness is changed to spiritual
strength (Isa. 40:31), and so on. This
deep subjective change in our inward spiritual condition shows us that we are
experiencing God’s overcoming grace within:
‘It is good for
our hearts to be strengthened by grace…’ (Heb. 13:9)
Receiving God’s abundant provision of
grace in this way enables us to overcome and not to be trapped by such
negative, subjective responses within ourselves, and so we then reign in life over these (Rom. 5:17).
These
steps of Hebrews 4:16 outline to us an experiential principle which we must
learn to practise as believers whenever we need to. There will be occasions when we will need to
go through these steps perhaps several times before the overcoming grace we
need arises and strengthens us within.
This lesson is so vital that
believers who do not learn it or who are not self-disciplined enough to
practise it when they need to, leave
themselves bereft of the very resource of enabling grace that they need,
and leave themselves with only their own weak and failing human ‘strength’ to
rely on. This, of course, is not the
Lord’s intention for us. He makes
overcoming grace available to us, because he knows that we need it often
enough. We should keep in mind D.L.
Moody’s words:
‘A man
can no more take in a supply of grace for the future than he can eat enough for
the next six months, or take sufficient air into his lungs at one time to
sustain life for a week. We must draw
upon God’s boundless store of grace from day to day, as we need it.’[1]
Some
areas of application
The apostle Paul commended the
believers in Corinth on how they were excelling in different areas of their
Christian lives, and he exhorted them in particular to see grace working in
their lives in the area of financial giving: ‘see that you also excel in this grace of giving.’ (see 2 Cor.
8:6-7). Grace can change natural, self-preserving tight-fistedness into free
generosity.
He then enlarged on this by making an
all-encompassing, comprehensive statement that, in fact, God can
‘make all grace
abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need,
you will abound in every good work.’ (2 Cor. 9:8)
Put simply, we can know and experience God’s overcoming and enabling grace in
any and every area of our life.
He is the God of ALL grace (1 Peter 5:10). Paul exhorted Timothy to not only learn this
principle of overcoming grace in practice, but also to so grow in it that he
became strong in it (2 Tim. 2:1).
a. When you are in
difficult circumstances
Reading: 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Paul explicitly stated this lesson of
overcoming grace when he related the experience of his ‘thorn in the
flesh.’ Three times he prayed that God
would take it away from him, but, rather
than simply doing that and giving him an easier life, the Lord exhorted him to
learn this deeper lesson of proving the sufficiency of the overcoming grace of
God in his circumstances:
‘My grace is
sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’
(2 Cor. 12:9, underlining my own for emphasis)
Paul accepted and embraced this
exhortation, and he evidently found that it worked in his own life and
ministry. Indeed, he seems to have
mastered it so well that he even said he boasted ‘all the more gladly about my weaknesses’ and that he delighted
‘in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships,
in persecutions, in difficulties.’ (2 Cor. 12:9,10).
He had learned that, whenever he was
weak and in need, he had a secret source at the throne of grace where he could
seek a renewal of Christ’s grace and power within himself, making him
spiritually strong again and helping him to overcome (2 Cor. 12:10). So
he proved in experience that God’s grace could always be sufficient for him
whatever his circumstances:
‘For when I am
weak, then I am strong.’ (2 Cor. 12:10)
b.
When you are hurt or wounded
The antidote to wounds picked up in
life or ministry is not running away from people or becoming bitter, and it is
certainly not resenting God. Neither is
it gossiping around and pouring out your hurts to other people. That would be to miss the grace of God. It
is learning to come and seek the face of God for as long as you need, and as
often as you need, and pouring out your heart to him until the inward hurt is
healed completely by his grace in his presence. Jesus is and always will be the only one
whose face and presence you need to seek and stay by. He can heal you completely. There
are simply too many wounded soldiers in the body of Christ whose hearts remain
unhealed.
‘See to it that no
one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble
and defile many.’ (Heb. 12:15)
God’s abounding grace is ALWAYS there
for us, and it will never be taken away.
When we are hurt, taken advantage of, ignored, or wounded by whoever or
whatever, we must learn to practise the steps of Hebrews 4:16 and to do this whenever and as often as
we need. Otherwise, we simply
end up falling into Satan’s trap of licking our wounds in bitter isolation,
until we do eventually humble ourselves and come to the throne of grace.
Knowing
healing grace in this way is a lesson for a whole lifetime
and it enables us to keep our relationships open and ongoing, rather than
closing up and distancing ourselves from people in our hurt. When we learn to deal with bitterness by
getting rid of it at the throne of grace (see Eph. 4:31), we are then in a
position to follow Paul’s exhortation to respond to people with grace:
‘Let no corrupt
communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of
edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.’ (Eph.
4:29 AV, underlining my own for emphasis)
The apostle Peter also referred to
this all-sufficient power of the grace of God to minister deeply to our inward
hurts, when he highlighted its power to restore and heal the inward soul hurt
that we experience when we undergo persecution for the faith. God’s grace can restore and strengthen our
hearts, and make us once again firm and steadfast in our faith:
‘And the God of
all grace… after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and
make you strong, firm and steadfast.’ (1 Peter 5:10)
He then exhorted his readers to stand
fast in the experience of this overcoming grace:
‘…this is the true
grace of God. Stand fast in it.’
(1 Peter 5:12)
c.
In the church family
People who come to church are all
different. They have different
circumstances and backgrounds, and they struggle with different issues. We need to learn to see people with the eyes
of God’s grace and love, and not judge them superficially or show prejudice
towards them. God loves people deeply. Other believers are just as much ‘in process’
in their walk with God as we ourselves are.
Similarly, when other believers fail, it is not the eye of criticism
they need, but the heart of God’s grace within us to minister to and pray for
them.
Furthermore, our attitude towards our
church leaders should be one of grace.
They are never perfect, but are indeed appointed by God to lead us, care
for us and teach us for a season. Maintaining
a humble, learning posture and living in grace, will cause us to pray for them,
rather than criticizing or gossiping about them behind their backs when we see
their weaknesses or when they fail us.
We need to pray for them, that they will have all the grace, wisdom and
endurance that they need to lead us (see Eph. 6:18-20 and 1 Tim. 2:1-2).
d.
Sin in society
As Christians we need to know grace
towards unbelievers in society around us, the same grace which God expressed
towards us, rather than giving in to the temptation to judge people for their
lifestyle or for the particular sins that characterise their lives:
‘Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.’ (Col. 4:6, underlining my own for emphasis)
The Pharisees tended to judge
people’s lives, but Jesus told them that they themselves were simply hypocrites
(see Matt. ch.23). God’s grace is for sinners, as Paul himself experienced:
‘Even though I was
once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because
I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The
grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love
that are in Christ Jesus.’ (1 Tim. 1:13-14)
So we need to remember that, where
sin in society increases, God’s grace within us as believers needs to increase
all the more to overcome any negative responses we may have within us towards
their sin (Rom. 5:20).
A negative attitude of criticizing
and judging people will cause us to withhold the message of God’s grace and
mercy from them and, as a consequence, we may not seek people out to tell them
about Jesus. Our message effectively
turns into one of condemnation, and then, of course, people’s lives do not
change. However, God loves people
deeply, he is gracious towards them and his kindness leads them to repentance
(Rom. 2:4). His grace can overcome the shame of any sin in their lives. So
our call as Christians is to be channels who can minister God’s grace into
people’s lives, whatever their condition or sin. The only antidote to
people’s sin is the good news of God’s grace in Jesus Christ (Acts
20:24).
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