Tradeoffs of Grace

Categories: Straight from the Word

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Friends Magazine Hong Kong
By Bro. Eddie C. Villanueva
April 2012 Edition

When someone messes up, we all know the drill. We tell them things are going to be fine because God can turn around their messes into miracles. And this is not unfounded.  Joseph, the second most powerful man in Egypt next only to Pharoah, after he was reunited with his brothers who had sold him to slavery in Egypt, testified: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people” (Genesis 50:20).

God, in His divine wisdom and sovereignty, causes everything to work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose for them (Romans 8:28).

Does this mean, therefore, that it is okay to live lousy lives since God can still turn our losses into gains?

Let us probe deeper.

We are totally amiss when we take the LORD’s acts of grace, compassion, and forgiveness lightly. We cannot go on sinning, compromising shamelessly and living our lives carelessly, just because we can always ask God for forgiveness. Galatians 6:7 warns, “Don’t be misled–you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant.”

While God may forgive us, sin has its own power to set in motion a chain of consequences that we have to face inevitably.  The previous passage underscores, “You will always harvest what you plant.” This is exactly what happened to David.
When David hurt the heart of God by committing adultery and murder, God meted out His judgment: David’s child out of an adulterous relationship with Bathsheba would die.  Second Samuel 12 records this account: “He has forgiven you, and you won’t die. But your newborn son will.”

This should be enough warning to us: David, the very man called by the LORD as the man after His own heart (Acts 13:22), was not spared by the LORD from His corrective dealing.  Forgiven, yes. Off the hook, no.  What we sow, we will reap.

In the same manner, we are mistaken when we think that we can shortchange God and get away with it. We cannot go on promising Him our total surrender and absolute obedience, only to bail out from our commitments to Him just because we know He’d understand. God’s all-sufficient grace isn’t a license for us to lead double-standard lives. On the contrary, His grace compels us to remain solidly committed to the Lord, to remain true to the Lord with all our hearts (Acts 11:23).

In the simplest of terms, we cannot go on continuously messing up just because, somehow, we find the grace of God readily available to cushion our guilty conscience. God has never intended His grace to work this way. On the contrary, His grace is meant to lead us to repentance. Romans 2:4 asks us, “Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that His kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?”
There’s no truly repentant man who isn’t broken by his own transgressions.  This is the very reason why he needs the grace of God – to make him whole once more. And a man who grasps the work of God’s grace understands that there are tradeoffs between heaven and earth when God chooses to forgive.

Pastor John Piper put it simply, “Everything bad that God turns for the good was purchased by the sufferings of Christ.”

Alas!  May we never forget this beautiful work of grace!

Let us always meditate on the LORD’s amazing love for us that is manifested in His sacrifice on the Cross.  Let us remember that everything is made easy for us by the hardships that Christ, our Advocate, has endured.  To quote the familiar lines of an old hymn:  “He paid the debt He did not owe.  I owe the debt I could not pay. I needed Someone to wash my sins away.  And now I sing a brand new song, amazing grace! Christ Jesus paid the debt that I could never pay.”

Let us live intentional lives for God.  We may fumble and stumble and mess up once in a while, but we must continue to aspire to do His will. His grace is more than sufficient to keep us going.

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