The Danger of Grace
By John Boda
Let me start off by saying that God's grace is dangerous! It's very risky, full of unknowns, and potential dangers. But it's also the best place to be in the universe!
I have written before on the incredible blessings and benefits of grace, so I will not get into that here. Rather, I want to focus in on one aspect of God's liberating grace that is subtle and often overlooked. No it's not the obvious that you might expect such as it's disruptive nature in shaking us out of sin and legalism.
It's also not the "holy fear" that accompanies grace, "It is a fearful thing to fall in the hands of the living God" (Heb 10:31). Yes, grace is full of danger because it is disruptive...yes grace is full of danger because God is holy and by falling into his grace we usually also get a better sense of both his holiness and our lack thereof...resulting in fear, which can be very dangerous!
Just as the Biblical story of the Prodigal son has a surface meaning and a much deeper subtle lesson, (namely the prodigal, pharisaical, legalistic elder son who never left home), so also the danger of grace goes much deeper.
The danger that I am talking about has no name and few have written or talked of it, but it is very real and I have both seen it up close and experienced it as well.
The Danger
When a person gets liberated from sin, self, legalism or anything else that hinders grace, often, they are thrust headlong into an ocean of God's awesome grace!
For a while, and the time varies with everyone, you are submerged in this beautiful ocean of grace. But the time eventually comes when you surface. But often because of the initial strong thrust which sent you so deep, when you surface, it can send you hurling up out of the water very far from grace, even as far or further from where you were first found and set free!
To help clarify the problem and danger allow me a few illustrations;
Imagine a long straight line with three equally separated points on the line. The point in the center is called, LOVE, and represents God's grace and divine balance.
The point on the extreme right is called, LEGALISM, and represents all religious struggle and human effort without grace.
The point on the extreme left is called, LICENSE, and represents complete non-religion and pure humanistic life apart from any thought of God or his law.
Now also imagine that the center point of God's love and grace is a deep ocean, while the other two points on either end are more of shallow pits that hold people and have no outlet. God's center grace ocean has both inlets and outlets, but since God lives outside our four dimensional space-time cosmos, also imagine that this ocean is multi-dimensional, and its inlets/outlets are positioned on either side. Kind of like a door which opens or closes, one side it opens/closes to love/legalism, and the other to love/license.
Ok, got it?! I know I'm asking a lot of imagining with mind pictures, but we are in good company because that is exactly how Albert Einstein developed his theories of relativity! None of us may be an Einstein, but I believe mental images on difficult subjects can be very rewarding.
Now back to the setting....often when God liberates a person from either end, of license or legalism, they are thrust into the center ocean of love and grace. But they enter from a side inlet which propels them on a course toward the other door! Often, that initial thrust propels them both INTO and OUT OF God's ocean of love and grace! Let's say a person is set free from legalism. After spending some time submerged in God's ocean, they can either bob up to the surface and stay there and learn to swim and exist in love/grace, or they can do what many people do and continue through with that initial thrust and exit the other side into license, which is really not much different from legalism in that they are both apart from grace!
I have seen many people get set free from license, a life apart from God and living by their own rules, then after coming into God's grace and being set free from license, they move towards legalism and once again start making up their own rules, only this time under the guise of religion. Other people get set free from religious legalism and after a while become so enamored in freedom, they continue moving towards license and complete freedom, but not grace freedom, rather freedom from any connection with God. They completely stop reading the Bible and completely stop praying. They may visit church, but usually don't become involved. They are free from the Bible, from prayer and from any obligation that they previously distorted under legalism
I have experienced both these extremes! Please believe me when I say I know something of this! Not only myself, but I also have seen many others enter into these two pitfalls as well. Many that I know are still there living within either extreme and wondering why there is no freedom and grace in their life.
Is there any scriptural basis for this? Yes, I believe there is, and it is what I want to move into next.
Biblical support insight
"For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love" Galatians 5:6 NKJ
In the few verses previous to the above quote, we read about Christian liberty and those who had been set free. But it also starts chapter five with a warning about standing ground in that new found liberty and being cautioned against becoming entangled once again in (spiritual) slavery.
Then, focusing on verse five quoted here, we read of two useless things in themselves:
Circumcision, and uncircumcision.
This grace note is not meant to be an in depth study into the subject of circumcision, although I have done that before in my personal studies and in public speaking. There is much that could be said about it, but in context of my thesis, let me suggest a substitution. Try substituting the word LEGALISM for CIRCUMCISON, and LICENSE for UNCIRCUMCISON. Now I'd like to offer my paraphrase of Gal 5:6 with this suggestion:
"For every Christ follower on the journey, both legalism and license amount to absolutely nothing, the only thing that really matters are your personal faith working through God's love and grace. "
Please don't E-mail me with warnings of judgment for re-writing or tampering with scripture! I am not a Greek or Hebrew scholar capable of such a task! But I have spent considerable time and effort studying scripture, and was very careful in my brief paraphrase. I can assure you that my modern re-working does not take away or add to the text, it only makes it clearer,( at least to me!)
Legalism and license both amount to a big nothing! They are both on that line at either end that I asked you to imagine earlier. But in the center, we find God's love and grace. The only thing that matters as far as our spiritual journey and relationship to God is....our faith....and his grace! Isn't that how we enter into this journey in the first place?! Our faith simply reaching out for his grace, our faith is like the conduit, or electrical cord. God's grace is the power, energy or electricity which runs through it to us! Our faith alone is simply that...our faith alone. But once it is connected to God's grace, it is alive and we are connected and live in the center!
I have been guilty of getting a bit too deep in the past into scripture. Now I don't want to lose any of you, so I think it calls for another illustration with our minds.
( As God said to Moses; "let my people think....another paraphrase)
OK, imagine the cross. We all know what a cross looks like with two intersecting lines, one vertical and one horizontal. The vertical line could be considered God's grace, and the horizontal line, our faith. The point at which they intersect is the hot point, the point of grace, the energy zone, and the endless ocean of grace and love! Both license and legalism are at either ends of the horizontal line and are dead ends.
The natural inclination of the human heart is to go down the dead end road of either legalism or license. Apart from grace, we actually are on one of those two roads and accelerating in one of those two directions.
Again, the only way to stay and live in the center of grace and love is by faith and God's grace flowing through that faith to us.
In speaking of this, the same author, Paul, speaks of the futility of legalism and why God designed the Christian life like he did;
" If those who get what God gives them only get it by doing everything they are told to do, and filing out all the right forms properly signed, that eliminates personal trust completely and turns the promise into an ironclad contract......this is why the fulfillment of God's promise depends entirely on trusting God and his way, and then simply embracing him and what he does." Romans Five (The Message)
Putting another way, God has so designed the Christian life that if we decide to try any other route, like total freedom and doing anything we want, or total rules and heavy law religion, then we miss it! The only God- designed and sanctioned way to live in grace and love and have any relationship with him, is to live by faith...day by day...moment by moment...trusting in his grace!
Flip a Coin
Take any coin from your pocket right now and follow me for just a minute. Looking at that coin,( and any coin will do,) imagine one side is legalism and the other side is license. Now flip the coin in the air and let it fall to the floor. If you were making a bet like this, you would be betting on either heads or tails, you would never bet on a third alternative! Although there is
a third alternative, since it happens almost NEVER, you think it impossible to bet on it. The third alternative I am speaking of is the coin landing on its edge! Has that ever happened to you?! I doubt it! Now, getting back to my illustration, we are all very much like one of these coins.
As we go through life, we all gravitate naturally to one of the two sides.....legalism or license. like a coin flips and lands either on heads or tails every time! Now I suppose mathematically there are odds for occasionally how often a coin may land on its edge, although it is so rare, that I am sure it would be considered impossibility for all practical purposes. If you or someone could flip a coin and make it land perfectly on its edge at any given time, you could almost say that it would take some kind of miraculous or divine guidance! That's exactly what I'm suggesting that it takes to get us to live a life that is in the center of God's grace and love! The center of grace and love is like the edge of a coin! You cannot get there by chance, by luck, by skill or any other way except unseen divine guidance which requires one thing from us....faith! Once again it's all about our faith reaching out and igniting grace, to not only put us in the middle, but to keep us there daily!
Figure of Eight
OK, maybe it's still not clear, how about another illustration?!
Previously I had you picture a straight line with legalism and license on either end, and love and grace in the center. Now let's get back to this line, but I'd like to add something else. Imagine someone moving back and forth from one end to the other, from legalism to license over and over.
Instead of picturing the movement along the straight line, picture it moving in a figure of eight laid sideways. While moving in a figure of eight, you cross over the center point, but it's only momentarily in passing to the other side.
Paul McCartney has a great song which pictures this as well simply called "Figure of Eight". It's on his "Flowers in the Dirt" CD. In the song he sings of the frustration of being in a figure of eight, not knowing if he's coming or going, and really going around it circles without getting anywhere but dizzy.
Does this sound like you or anyone you know?! God does not want us to live in a figure of eight going from one extreme to the other and only briefly passing the center point of grace! We all should be in the center, that's the best place! So what is the more scriptural God designed geometric picture?
The Circle of Grace
I personally believe that God's grace is best realized and pictured as a circle. I have written of this before in my grace note entitled; "A View of Grace". But it bears repeating here as I believe it is very rewarding and illuminating to see it in this way.
Years ago when I embarked on a new look at grace, I became firmly convinced of three "truths" that underline grace, very much like the truth of the laws of physics underline everything we know of in the physical world. These three truths are:
1. Grace is three-fold
2. Grace is moving
3. Grace flows in a circle
Each one of these truths could be expounded upon scripturally, but that would take a lot more space and time than I want to take for this now. But let me say that first it is three-fold because all through the New Testament we see every reference to grace ( 156 times) falling into one of these three categories;
1. Saving grace to us
2. Sanctifying grace in us
3. Serving grace through us
Not only that, but it is almost equally divided into thirds, with one third speaking of each aspect of grace as revealed in scripture.
Picture the circle of grace with saving grace being the point at the top and the point of origin and initial engagement all coming from God with no help or involvement from us! Then at about three o'clock on the right, picture the point of sanctifying grace which occurs in us, and does involve our participation in our journey of faith. Finally, at nine o'clock on the left, picture serving grace through us, this also requires our involvement. This final grace does not end in some dark alley! It keeps moving within the circle and returns back to God, the point of origin in praise and worship!
Secondly, we must know and realize that God and his grace are always moving! It is not idle or stagnant! If God's creation is any reflection of who God is, ( and I believe it is) we find that everything in our created cosmos, from the micro to the macro, is moving. Not only is it moving, but everything, especially in the micro world of atoms and quarks, is extremely hyper-active! But that is a very good thing for us because without that mind boggling movement of the quantum world, there would be nothing solid, no matter whatever, including you and me! If you want a more in depth look at this analogy, please read my grace note entitled, " Cosmic Reflections of the Creator".
Now to the third truth of grace, that it flows in a circle. I have already touched on this briefly in its threefold aspect of saving-sanctifying-serving grace.
But now I want to go even further and show some scriptural support for such a claim and belief.
Remember that we are still in the subject of "dangerous grace".
One of the dangers of grace is getting caught in a figure of eight repeating loop, going from extreme to extreme and only momentarily passing by the center of grace and love. Rather than just pointing out the negative and dangers, I feel it is helpful to also move into the positive and show what the desired result should be as well!
Scripture Pictures of Grace Circles
Titus 2:14 (quote verse)
In the context of grace, we find a very interesting phrase, which in the original Greek is one word; "Periousios" ( pronounced pear-ee-oh-see-ohs).
This word is only found here in this text and it is made up of a two fold meaning, 1. Around, 2. To be. The Greek idea is that of a dot within the center of a circle, and its use in this text could be taken as the dot being us, God's people, and the circle being God's love, grace and protection.
We are placed there by grace and kept there by grace and nothing can touch us in the center of that circle unless it passes through the circle line itself! OK, that's too much of a stretch? Let's try another!
II Cor 5:14 (quote verse)
Some translations say that the love of Christ "constrains" us, others say "compels" us, still others say other similar English words. Why the confusion? Some Greek words are hard to translate into English! The Greek word translated "constrain or compel" is "synecho" Once again this is made up of two Greek words, 1. Together, 2. Holding tight. The idea is basically to intensely hold and press together from all sides, to encircle or hem in!
(There are other examples, but this is not an in depth study on why grace is a circle!)
Grace is dangerous because every scriptural indication is that it is circular. We only become dizzy, frustrated and worn out when we get off track and turn it into an endless figure of eight loop! Allow grace to get you out of the loop and into the center circle, but once again, you get there by grace through faith...and you stay there by grace through faith...not exercised once a week on Sundays, or once in a while in a bind, but in a daily, moment by moment living relationship with God!
"I'm leaping and singing in the circle of your love" Ps 31:7
" God's Angel sets up a circle of protection around us while we pray" Ps 34:7
(Both verses in The Message Bible translation)
Perfect Balance
Finally, grace is dangerous because it is perfectly balanced and requires maintaining this perfect balance, which of course, further deepens our dependence on God moment by moment in faith.
We should be cautious about using the word "balance" when speaking of Churches and the people within them. Because, from our perspective, balance is a very relative term. If we would have ever encountered John the Baptist two thousand years ago, we all would have come away with the conclusion that he was one extremely crazy and unbalanced guy! Yet Jesus had incredible things to say about him, namely that he was the greatest person ever born on earth! Once again, God's perspective is much different than ours. The same logic goes for many churches and individuals today. What may seem unbalanced to us, may be very much balanced and in the center for God. Likewise what may seem balanced to us may very well be out of whack and extreme to God.
But there IS a center place that is perfectly balanced in grace and love! But just as you get there by divine grace, and you stay there by divine grace, the very place itself is also defined by divine grace! God sets the parameters and keeps the perfect balance! We must resist the tendency to define it and describe any balance ourselves. It is rather a spiritual balance that can and does look quite different for each individual and church. So once again we are forced to totally rely on God's grace to get us there, to keep us there, and even if we tried to get there on our own, we couldn't even find that balance because it is a heavenly one designed by God himself!
In the first chapter of John it says that Jesus came to the earth full of two things, grace and truth. That is very interesting in the context of balance. He did not just come full of Truth, nor did he come full of only Grace, but both grace and truth. These are his fingerprints! It represents the very character and nature of God. If we ever hope to find that divine center balance, we too must focus on both grace and truth. Too many people and churches only know truth, they excel in great zeal against sin and evil and have long Bible studies on apologetics, but the other common companions to having truth- only are: legalism, control, manipulation, and churches full of Pharisees. For the Churches and individuals majoring on only grace, they are great on social issues and humanitarian causes, most are totally open to not only accepting gays and lesbians, but also validating that lifestyle and sin. For them, it's all good, and it's all about compassion, mercy and love. But along with the grace-only crowd also comes complete license and freedom to sin, in fact the word sin even becomes outdated and in appropriate for the grace-only culture. Also, absolute truth gets thrown out as well. It's not only all good, but it's all relative, your truth is yours, and mine is mine!
But Jesus came FULL of both grace and truth. Not one or the other. This is a divine formula for balance, but once again, a formula that cannot be arrived at by even the greatest mathematician in the world, but only by grace.
If you read the Gospels account of Jesus' life, read it again with this thought in mind and see if you can get clear glimpses of his life displaying grace and truth in action. One such occasion Jesus had a woman caught in adultery thrown in front of him to see if he would act in grace and just forgive her excusing her sin, or if he would act in truth and condemn her without mercy. Jesus did neither! He did not excuse her sin and neither did he condemn her as a person, two things that most of us would have done depending on which extreme we live in. Rather, Jesus did something amazing, he brought the realization of sin back upon her accusers. He made sure that they knew that they were all guilty before God as well when he said " let him who is without sin cast the first stone". Then, after they all left one by one, he turned to the woman caught in sin and told her that he did not condemn her. But the grace-only crowd would have stopped there, Jesus didn't, he added, " now go and sin no more". Grace and truth both offers forgiveness and at the same time recognizes sin as sin. This is God's perfect balance, the place we need to live in! It's the center of grace, love and truth but only allows us in by our faith reaching out to God's grace, not in just a one time act, but a moment by moment trusting every day.
In a previously written grace note called, "Cosmic Reflections of the Creator", I connect certain interesting truths in creation to see what they reflect and show us about their creator and his character. If you are interested in more, please take some time to read that also posted here. One of the things I mentioned briefly was the beautiful balance of our life-giving sun. Every second, our sun wants very much to explode into a huge fireball in space! It really is a huge Hydrogen bomb that wants nothing more than to continue it's eruption into a huge explosion and in doing so, consume Mercury, Venus and the whole Earth including you and me!
Have you ever wondered what is keeping the sun from doing just that? besides God) The answer is gravity! Just as the sun wants to explode outward, gravity wants very much to compress it inward and crush it to death! Our fate would be the same if gravity had it's way too!
But, fortunately for us, for about five billion years our sun has been in what is called the "main sequence", it has found that perfect balance between the crushing desire of gravity and the outward exploding desire of nuclear fusion! That balance must be perfect, and it is! Scientists also expect that cosmic balance to continue for another five billion years, so don't lose any sleep in worry!
What does this say about the sun's creator, God? It says to me that he knows how to create and maintain perfect balance! Not only perfect balance in physics and the cosmos, but perfect balance in the Kingdom of God and for us on our journey. We can find that balance, if we are connected to him, moment by moment in faith and trusting in his grace.
Grace is very dangerous! It must be in perfect balance, a balance that we cannot imagine or find apart from an active and living faith day by day.
I hope and pray that you ask God to position you to the center of his grace, love and truth. Even if you think that you may already be there, ask him once again, then begin to walk in daily moment by moment faith and trust in him. That is the only way to avoid either extreme of legalism or license, the extremes that all of us naturally want to travel if left apart from grace.
"Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you. I am emphatic about this. The moment any one of you submits to circumcision or any other rule-keeping system, at that same moment Christ's hard-won gift of freedom is squandered.
I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace.
It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Jus make sure that you don't use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom.
Scripture selections from Galatians in The Message Bible. Thanks for reading, see you along the journey. John Boda