Radical Grace

Some of my bloggerbuddies and I have talked about this book before, and I decided to post what Steve Brown says about the book and other things, such as his (and MY) favorite subject, GRACE.

It took me a long time to find out what God had called me to do. That's not too difficult for a lot of people. They just know, but for me it was a slow and painful process. I knew I was a teacher/preacher, but didn't know what I was supposed to teach and preach.

There were times when I felt that I had been called to admonish people to get better. Do you have any idea how difficult life is for someone whose purpose in life is to get people to stop doing what they clearly do not want to stop doing? People like to sin or they wouldn't sin. And if my job description was to get them to stop, I would do it...I wouldn't like it, but I would do it.

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On the Friday broadcast of Key Life, Pete Alwinson (my pastor) and I answer some of the thousands of questions we get at our ministry. As a part of that, we always answer a question from one of the "forum" members. (On our keylife.org website there are a number of forums where people from all over country have built a sort of community of discussion.)

The forum question we're going to answer this week is from a woman who writes:
"Steve and Pete, I leave church every Sunday feeling whipped. The message is always a 'run faster' kind of message. The motivation always seems to be guilt...I feel like I'm running as fast as I can and then the pastor stands up and tells me I must run faster. My pastor is a good man with a heart for God, but I don't think he knows any other way to motivate the congregation. What do you think I should do?"

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I understand that woman's pastor. I've been there and done that. Not only that, I probably would still be doing it except I realized that I was running as fast as I could too and, frankly, wasn't making much progress. My trying to get people to stop sinning was the moral equivalent of my trying to sell hair restorer. Bald people don't make good hair restorer salesmen.

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I'll spare you the details. Part of it had to do with my own sin and pain; part of it had to do with what I was finding in the Bible (I am a Bible teacher, if you hadn't noticed); and a part of it had to do with some friends who loved me enough to say that I was a lot worse than I thought I was and that God's love was bigger than I thought too.

So I became a teacher of "radical" grace.

After I realized what I was supposed to do and after I had gotten over the initial shock, I thought, Cool! I'm supposed to tell God's people that he isn't mad at them and that his love isn't measured by how much they can earn it.

I thought, Is this a great job, or what? People will love me!

Wrong, wrong, wrong!

I started getting the criticism. They said that I was a hawker of "cheap grace" (if it weren't cheap, I couldn't afford it); that I didn't care about holiness and sanctification (I care deeply); and that I was encouraging sin (sin doesn't need encouragement) and would have to answer to a holy God.

They said that I had compromised; that I had failed in presenting the "whole counsel of God"; and that I had betrayed God, country, motherhood and the flag.

I almost stopped and would have if God had not told me to do it. He was a lot bigger, scarier and far more intimidating than the critics. I figured that I could choose to offend him or them.

That's a no-brainer.

But the criticism still bothered me. Why did people get so angry at the message that God wasn't angry at them? What was so offensive about the doctrine of grace to people who said they believed it? Why did people become so unloving when I told them that God loved them?

Over the years I've come up with some answers to those questions and have shared what I've discovered with you. For instance, you can't accept radical grace unless you know you are a radical sinner and most people don't want to go there. For instance, people are so obsessed with their need to get better when they are actually getting worse that giving up would be a compromise. They are working so hard at it. For instance, others simply said, "It just doesn't sound right." (My friend, Tony Campolo, said, "Steve, it isn't that they don't think God loves them...it's his love for those 'other people' that bothers them.")

While I do think that some of those reasons are accurate, I've come up with another one.

Back during Holy Week, Erik Guzman, our producer, took his two oldest children to school one day. Hannah (7) asked her father about Holy Week and what it was all about. Madeline (5) listened from the back seat.

Erik took the time to explain about Jesus, how he had died on the cross and how he had gotten out of his grave. Then Erik told Hannah about the ascension and how a cloud had taken Jesus into heaven. Erik said that one day Jesus was going to come back to earth the way he had left.

"Daddy," Madeline exclaimed, "who made this stuff up?!"

Madeline didn't know it, but she was saying something not dissimilar to what was said by Freud. He said that we created stuff (God as Father, elements of our faith, etc.) from our desires and our needs.

Freud was a twit and Madeline is a delight, but I can understand them both and what they were saying.

I recently read Don Piper's book 90 Minutes in Heaven: A True Story of Death & Life. It is not the kind of book I often read. It's the story of the author, a Baptist pastor who died and stayed dead for 90 minutes. He reports (with great integrity and power, I might add) what he experienced in that time in heaven. The book is factual, verifiable and has the "feel" of reality about it. Piper is a man of great integrity and truth, and his story has haunted me.

When I put the book down, do you know what I said?

I said, "Nah. That's too good to be true."

What? Too good to be true? That's neurotic! I realized that my cynicism, my low expectations and my "stuff" had robbed me of the Good News.

Sometimes early in the morning when I'm praying I'm overwhelmed with a sense of God's love and acceptance. I see his hand in so many experiences of my life and the lives of those I know. I pray for those I love who are going through hard times and then sense that God is in control and, even when it doesn't feel like it, he is good all the time. I remember my sin and my sins, and think about his absolute forgiveness. I think of how he has guided, controlled and gently led me from my earliest memories.

Sometimes I think about heaven.

And then I think, That's so very good! Maybe Freud was right. It could be too good to be true.

That comes from the pit of hell and it smells like smoke.

I'm running out of space here, but let me give you a couple of verses that I read this morning: "As it is written, 'What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him'?these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit" (1 Corinthians 2:9-10).

The point? One should never sand down the truth of God's Good News to fit one's neurotic and spurious view of "reality."

I can understand those critics of my (and others') message of God's love and grace...radical freedom, infectious joy and surprising faithfulness. They just don't think anything can be that good.

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If you've ever thought that, let me say that it is even better than you ever dreamed!

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(This was originally posted on blogworship.com)