unadulterated grace

If we think we deserve grace, whatever we have in mind is not grace. If you believe that you should receive God's gracious mercy, then you un-define what grace means. The nature of grace is that it is purely unmerited and undeserved. If grace can be merited, then it is no longer grace. If grace is earned, it is not grace; it then becomes the same as that which you receive from a whore after you give her money.

If this seems too flagrant or blatant, then perhaps we are on the right track. There is no reason for grace except grace.

EPHESiANS 4-6

The Apostle Paul wrote 13 epistles. Some might say fewer, but my point will hold. Just bear with me. In these 13 epistles, we have created 86 chapter divisions. In these 86 chapters, there are 448 imperative verbs. This averages out to 5.2 imperative verbs per chapter in all of the Apostle Paul.

By the way, what I'm doing here is very unscholarly. So, don't go showing this to your pastor who has a bunch of letters in front of his name, thinking that you will impress him.

Paul's letter to the church in Ephesus has 40 imperative verbs. 39 of these 40 are found in Eph 4.25-6.17. That is about two chapters of material if you average out chapter length, etc. So, to end Ephesians, Paul averages over 19 imperative verbs per chapter. This is, without competition, the highest concentration of imperative verbs in the whole Bible!

So, how does Paul have warrant to command them to live so poignantly? Is he just being a good x-Pharisee and stacking up the rules? What's his deal? How can he call people to such precision in living? I thought that was legalism or something?

Here's why I think Paul can do this under the inspiration of the Spirit:

Paul can so directly and powerfully call the people in Ephesus to live a certain way because he has already spent three chapters directly and flagrantly describing grace [1.3-14, 2.1-10, 2.11-22, 3.8-12, 3.14-21]. These people already know that Paul's exhortations are about the good works which God prepared beforehand for them to walk in [2.10]. Paul's commanding them to walk [2.2, 2.10, 4.1, 4.17, 5.2, 5.8, 5.17] so specifically is because they understand mercy so blatantly [2.4-10].

GRACE iS DANGEROUS

Paul knew it in Romans 6. "Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? May it never be!" What's interesting, though, is that Moses understood this in Deuteronomy 6 as well.

Then it shall come about when the Lord your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you, great and splendid cities which you did not build, and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you eat and are satisfied, then watch yourself, that you do not forget the Lord who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

Deuteronomy is a series of three "sermons" by Moses on the plains of Moab before the people enter the land. In each sermon, Moses is reminding the people of what God has done and wants them to do. You can sense that the people are not getting it like they should. Still, Moses is relentless in depicting God's gracious dealings with them.

Later, in Dt 30, Moses says that he has set before them life or death and blessing or curse. He pleads with them to choose life/blessing. In Dt 31, God pulls Moses aside and essentially tells him that the people are going to choose death/curse over life/blessing. They are going to forget and neglect the grace of God. They will not remember the extent of His promises to their fathers. They will will not cherish that He brought them up out of bondage and freed them. 

What is even more bothersome is the fact that in the land, they persist in this. Then, under their judges, they become even more selfish [Jdgs 21.25]. Under their kings, the nation is divided! When the prophets preach, they don't listen. And when their Messiah comes, many reject Him. 

Of course, we are never like this?

But there is something different about this New Covenant grace in which we stand. We don't necessarily get it all the time [see Apostle Peter], but we have been given the Spirit in a way that they had not. God's covenant people are no longer physically, ethnically, and/or geographically defined. So now, by the Spirit and because of the work of the Messiah, we, as his people, can now see and experience further grace when we don't fully understand grace. There is something humbling, odd, sweet, and dangerous about that. This kind of grace must birth faith, hope, and love. This kind of grace does not yield apathy, passivity, and pride.

May it be so with us.

Finally, JESUS is here! Grace upon Grace!

I've been teaching Redemptive History since August. Walking in the sandals of our spiritual forefathers has been quite a haul. YHWH continually promises to send someone to fix humankind's stupidity, selfishness, rebellion, and pride [Gn 3.15; Gn 12-17; Gal 3.16; Dt 18.18; 2 Sam 7.12-13; Is 7-12; Is 52-53; Jer 23.5-6; Ezk 34.23; Ezk 37.24; Dan 9; Zech 13-14; Mal 4.2; etc]. My students' test over the return from exile and the intertestamental years is on Tuesday.

And then, He comes [Gal 4.4].

I even feel a sigh of relief typing this. It has only been eight months of teaching for me and I've been waiting for Jesus to get here! John felt the same way, but probably 100x stronger:

For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

Here's what I love about our long-awaited Jesus bringing this grace. The word "upon" is a fine translation. The Greek preposition is "anti." This is the same as when John says "Antichrist." A healthier rendering of this preposition is "in the place of." The Antichrist will attempt to act "in the place of" the true Christ.

So, John says that in Jesus we have "grace in the place of grace." If you get what John is telling us here, you'll know that he could have easily said that we have "grace upon grace upon grace upon grace upon grace upon grace upon grace upon grace upon grace upon grace upon grace upon grace upon..." 

To those in Christ, the infinite reservoir of grace can never be drained of one drop. If an ounce of grace be usurped because of our sin, there is found in that same place just as much or more grace than there was before!

He has come. The peculiar, yet glorious, marriage of grace and truth has arrived.