All Sufficient Grace for Even Me

Dear Trekker,

I was recently at one of my favorite retreat sites for a few days. So refreshing to visit retreat sites! We live often in the valleys, metaphorically and literally…rarely on the retreat mountain tops. But a retreat escape is needed from time to time by all trekkers. Get away from the hurly, burly of daily routines. Refresh and renew! Do it as a family!

The last night, with family and friends, we got into quite a discussion on the meaning and nature of grace. I had lost my cell phone for a couple of days and had become convinced it was lost…and then I suddenly found it. My question prompted the discussion. “Was it there in the back of the car all the time (or did the Lord place it there)?” We never did “answer” that question, but we did have a lively discussion on elements of Calvinism versus Arminianism. I won’t try to recap the discussion, trekker, but it did lead me to focus on the nature of God‘s grace in the ensuing days.

I am so thankful God‘s grace is sufficient for every need I have…true for us all, trekker. We all need help, and grace is the answer to our falling short. In Ephesians 2 the apostle Paul sets the stage: “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”

Now a few thoughts on mercy and grace: mercy, grace, love, and kindness all flow from the nature of God. God can’t be non-loving, non-merciful, non-graceful, unkind…He lives out of  his nature. Though He freely created  us like Himself, we are dead in trespass and sins through our earthly father, Adam. It is “our” original sin to turn our back on God as did Adam. But God is rich in mercy, as Paul reminds us in this passage. Mercy and grace are two sides of the same coin. Grace is receiving what we don’t deserve because of God’s love and accompanying mercy. Mercy (on the flipside) is not receiving what we deserve because of God‘s loving grace.

The discussion that night was so interesting because I am somewhere in the middle of a strict Calvinist and a full-fledged Arminian. Raised Arminian in Methodism back in Marion, Indiana, my strict Wheaton College Calvinist professors moved me to a more centered position.

Let’s note some characteristics of grace no matter where we may be on the spectrum: 1) God acts freely and is the initiator of our grace-filled salvation. We can do nothing to bring this about. We can only accept it and believe it to be true. 2) We humans have no part in bringing about grace. It is uncaused by any human origin. It, grace, acts as it pleases. 3) Grace therefore needs no help. It is not present where there is the slightest of deserve or achievement of human effort. Grace requires no help – it is absolute! 4) The discovery by the human that he/she is the object of divine grace begets humility in the human heart and mind. Yes, He paid it all…all to Him we owe! 5) The will or flesh of man has no part in grace. The fallen heart of man, bent on justifying self, “hates” grace, because “he (man) didn’t earn it himself” by his own actions. Oh, the alien self, before grace, emerges in a myriad ways.              

A Dallas Willard quote says it all concerning the “dawning of God‘s grace” in the heart and soul of man, woman, boy or a girl! “It turns out that what you believe about Jesus (read His saving grace) is revealed in what you do after you realize you don’t have to do anything at all.” I would add…if one did anything other than believe it to be true, it would no longer be grace. And this is the crux of the Calvinistic/Arminianism debate! What role do we play in grace? Nothing…It is almost too good to be true. But it is!

A song has been floating in my mind and heart these last few days which captures my sentiments. Wonderful Grace of Jesus written a century ago by an Arminian, Haldor Lillenas, founder of Lillenas Publishing Company, says it all. Here are the first verse lyrics and the chorus:

Trekker, let’s show by our lives our grateful thanks to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!

I close with the words of another song: “Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow!”

Your friend,

Jim Meredith