Have you ever walked out to the garage, or driveway, hopped into the car, turned the key….and nothing happens? Everything was fine when you left it there last night, no problems, no warning, but now…dead silence.
That’s happened to me and I’ll bet it has happened to you as well. You think, “Thank God, I’m home, not at some parking lot, with groceries, in the rain and no cell phone!” None the less, you and the car have a communication problem.
With grace…there are times when our supposed success, our “morality”, our virtues, our rule keeping, our “relationship” with God is broken to the degree that we think we don’t need unconditional justification, or perhaps even to the degree that we think we are going to use God to achieve our own ideas of sanctity. The relationship is broken precisel
y because we think it is our holiness that keeps it all together. When in fact no amount of our effort will ever translate into grace or holiness; grace is a gift.
The problem, while generally approved in human eyes because it is advantageous and socially useful, is more dangerous before God because it is praised and sought after. It is the kind of hypocrisy Jesus criticized so vehemently in the gospels: “like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean (Matthew 23:27).
Not a pretty picture to say the least. Like the “dead car” example where we’ve placed so much confidence in “our” vehicle we overlook any possibility unexpected failure. The same is true with our walk with God. If we’ve placed confidence in our spirituality, our holiness, our brokenness, if, we believe our efforts are what is keeping us running we are just as dead as the car and we are headed for a spiritual let down.
The moment, we think we no longer need the unconditional justification of God’s grace is the moment we need it the most.
The problem, while generally approved in human eyes because it is advantageous and socially useful, is more dangerous before God because it is praised and sought after. It is the kind of hypocrisy Jesus criticized so vehemently in the gospels: “like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean (Matthew 23:27).
Not a pretty picture to say the least. Like the “dead car” example where we’ve placed so much confidence in “our” vehicle we overlook any possibility unexpected failure. The same is true with our walk with God. If we’ve placed confidence in our spirituality, our holiness, our brokenness, if, we believe our efforts are what is keeping us running we are just as dead as the car and we are headed for a spiritual let down.
The moment, we think we no longer need the unconditional justification of God’s grace is the moment we need it the most.
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