Degrees of Grace

A few weeks I was asked a question it went something like this...
'Isn't the idea of any one person going to hell infinitely worse than the idea that Jesus could have gone to the cross and died for us?'
Now my answer to this question revolves around one central difference.
Hell is the place where people get what they deserve.
The cross is the place where Jesus takes something which is diametrically opposed to what he deserves.

This led to some development of some rambling thoughts I have been struggling to keep in check and articulate for a while. You see the Bible repeatedly talks about judgment in ways which show that one of the central characteristics of God's judgment is that people get what they deserve. Often the picture is of things being reversed (for example the plunderer is plundered, the one who abuses creation finds that creation turns on it etc - see Habakkuk 2). Now if this is the case I want to suggest that perhaps we need to re-evaluate our view of hell. People have talked about hell as the absence of God, as natural consequences of the lives we lead, of penalty from God for our rebellion and so the debate rages. This got me asking the question of what, if like the gospel itself, it is all about grace.

What if in essence life comes down to what grace you receive?
1 - Partial Grace - The life we all lead now. We experience some of God's grace but not all of it. We do not suffer the consequences (be they natural or supernatural) for all the moments of our lives but nor are we spared from them all. We enjoy God dealing with us graciously to a degree.
2 - Complete Grace - This is what historically people have called heaven. This is where we enjoy God's grace in it's fullness. We enjoy his blessing, his forgiveness, his pardon and his acceptance absolutely. Here we live as recipients of grace and practitioners of grace in an existence where grace is the norm.
3 - No Grace - This is what historically people have called hell. This is where God ceases to pour his grace on us in any way and we stop relating to each other with any grace at all. As a result what do we end up with? Well we end up in an existence where all we get is precisely what we deserve. Having rejected God and seen grace as unnecessary, impossible or offensive then we no longer enjoy even the partial grace God blesses us with during this life.

This may be heresy for all I know but I think this seems to reflect the way the Bible talks about this world, heaven, judgment and the gospel. Perhaps this can help us re-evaluate our view of God's judgment and start to realise just why understanding and accepting grace is so crucial, not just for now but for forever.

Striving after mediocrity

The gospel, by which I mean the good news of a God who makes a way for us to come into his family, is incredible. Not only is it incredible but it achieves incredible things. The gospel is the news of a God who came to earth and died to rescue us. The question is what did he die to rescue us from? Now if you are a Christian I guess a few answers will have sprung to your mind.
Death?
Sin?
Hell?
Well they are all true, however, I wonder if sometimes we focus so much on these things that we forget what we has rescued us from now in this life. Every now and then I get a glimpse of my heart and when this happens I cannot help but be grateful at how often in my life God has saved me not from some future fate but from my self.

The natural inclination of my heart is to want to be good. Now I think everyone has this to a degree but I have it in spades.
In work I want to be a success. I find myself comparing myself to other people. I find myself looking for promotions and for how to make it bigger and better.
In sport I want to win. I want to be good at it. I want people to look at me play and say 'Wow he's pretty good at that isn't he'.
In conversation I want to be seen as witty and intelligent.
In home life I want to be seen as a role model as the kind of guy people want to be.

You see whatever it is I want to be good. But the fact is I'm not great. I work in an average sort of job, I play sports to an average sort of level, I'm not mute but I'm also not Stephen Fry. When I get a glimpse of my heart I see what Jesus has rescued me from. he's rescued me from a constant striving for mediocrity. He's rescued me from a life where I devote myself to promotion after promotion after promotion only to realise that in the end I still end up just somewhere in the middle. He's rescued me from a life where I pursue physical fitness and sporting prowess only to at the end of it realise that I'm no better than passable at it all. He's rescued me from a life of reading and socialising and moralising and faking only at then end of it all to realise that I'm nothing better than a decent guy to chat to for 10 minutes and a decent enough kind of bloke.

Without Jesus my life would be a constant straining to achieve mediocrity - I am so thankful that he rescued me from this and pulled me into a life which says stop striving for mediocrity and instead strive for insane brilliance. You see rather than striving for my own mediocrity the gospel shows me how to strive after God and his brilliance. When I get the gospel I am freed from this constant striving after mediocrity to pursue the God who made everything around me and in whom is life itself. When I forget the gospel I get a glimpse of life without that and find myself scrabbling around trying to make myself a little more average. I thank God for this little, tangible glimpse of salvation.

Science, Suffering and Sex

Recently I was asked to do a number of talks about common issues people have with Christianity. Again it seems like people see these three issues as huge stumbling blocks to Christianity. I want to suggest that these three issues are more often than not mere smoke and mirrors or red herrings. It never ceases to amaze me how often these three come up in conversations about Christianity so here I am going to spend a few lines just seeking to explain why I see these as fundamentally non-issues.

Science - OK so here's my issue with science - the Bible rarely if ever deals with science. Genesis 1 and 2 look nothing like the Origin of the Species. In fact the Bible encourages people to explore the world, to seek to understand it and through that to understand something more of the God who created the laws and environments which make that possible. I'm not here arguing that science will drive you to God but rather that science is not ultimately the reason you're not a Christian.

Suffering - So we move onto suffering. I have spoken to a number of people recently who have said 'I would believe all this Christian stuff except that if there was a God like this there would not be all this suffering in the world.'. Yet again it seems to me impossible that this could be the demonstration of Christianity's impossibility. You see for a start suffering has been around for a while. It's not like in the 21st century people suddenly started suffering and as a result of this suffering concluded that Christianity could not be true. People have always suffered. People in the Bible suffered and yet Christianity has never previously found this to be an insurmountable problem. Suffering may be difficult but that'd because it's suffering. The Bible talks about suffering a lot. The Bible is willing to face up to suffering and give some explanations for it. If suffering creates a problem with Christianity for you it's not because it's the question the Bible can't answer but it's because you don't like the answers it gives. If suffering was such a powerful barrier to believing in Christianity then the Bible would have to look very different, Christianity would not have survived millennia of suffering and the Christian life would not be one so often linked to great suffering.

Sex - And finally we move onto sex. How can you believe something which has such outdated views about sex. 2 consenting adults - why on earth would God care about that? So people go on and so many people are unwilling to even consider Christianity because they feel it would impact on their sexual experiences/expression. Yet again this cannot be your problem with Christianity. Just think for a minute about the calls Jesus makes on your life?

He calls on you to stop ruling your own life and let him do it.

He calls on you to love God with everything in you

He calls on you to love other people like you love yourself

He calls on you to not cling onto your money but see it all as a gift from him and as such rightfully his

He calls on you to love people who hate you

He calls on you to sacrifice your money, your comfort, your popularity, your time and all sorts in loving and joyful worship of God and service of others

He calls on you ultimately to take up your cross (be willing to die) and follow him.

Jesus calls on you to completely hand your life over to him and you think his big demand is about your sexual expression. People get hung up about Jesus' demands over their sex life as if this is a huge problem for Christianity when this is peanuts compared to the demands he makes over what remains (however promiscuous you are) the vast majority of your life. By all means get hung up over Jesus' demands. They are huge but to get hung up on sex is to get hung up on a detail and miss the truly radical stuff.

So science, suffering and sex - they are not your problem with Christianity. They often seem to be but in my mind it seems unlikely that they actually can be. However, all of Christianity's claims and calls only make sense when you get to see a God who became a man, who loved you enough to die for you and who then wins your heart. It's only then that you understand the sheer wonder of Genesis 1 and 2, of what the Bible says about suffering and of the radically demanding, but ultimately freeing, calls of Jesus.

Boardwalk empire - legalistic, graceless, joyless hypocrisy

So I've been watching boardwalk empire and kind of enjoying it (although fundamentally I think there's something missing from it for all its obvious effort and style). However, what has really struck me is the character of the Fed in charge of enforcing prohibition in Atalanta City, Nelson. Nelson seems to me an accurate portrayal and study of the nature of legalism. Nelson is portrayed as a Christian of sorts and is undoubtedly very religious. However, fundamentally he is not a Christian but rather a legalist. Someone who sets some laws and then uses those as his central way of viewing the world. Many people the world sees (and who see themselves) as Christians are nowhere near the Christianity of the Bible or Jesus but rather people who have latched onto some laws and now use these as their way of judging life. What we see in Nelson is that legalism creates a number of fruits none of which make him a likeable character.

The first fruit of legalism is gracelessness. The problem with legalism is that this becomes your truth through which you view the world. Therefore is people fail to keep your standards they are failures and obviously inferior to you. This leads Nelson to look down on and despise people who fail to meet his standards. This is perhaps most clealy shown in is relationship with his wife where any love or compassion or feeling is completely absent. However, this also impacts his view of himself. When he fails to meet his standards he despises himself and physically punishes himself to atone.

The second fruit of legalism is hypocrisy. Because we all fundamentally fail, legalism forces us towards hypocrisy. Either we hold standards we ourselves don't keep, like Nelson with sex and alcohol. Or we only make rules we can keep and therefore become hypocrites by doing things worse than those things we have made laws about. Legalist don't simple make laws they see as good they make laws they see as good but which they can also keep.

The third fruit of legalism is joylessness. As a result of legalism Nelson is not a happy person and those around him are not happy. Legalism becomes a weight over him and over those around him which creates a crippling pride which (as with all pride) at times inevitably leads to depression.

All of this is a million miles from the gospel and a million miles worse and yet many people in church exchange the grace, transformation and joy of the gospel for petty human legalism. The problem with this is not only does this fail to brings to God but whereas the gospel creates good fruit, legalism creates bad. Bad for us and bad for those around us. Nelson acts as a warning for all of us.

Pray for Muamba

Saturday was a strange day. As news of Muamba broke and you realised how serious it was I was reminded of the two players in leagues I have played in who have died whilst playing football on a Saturday morning. I too pray that Muamba will make a full recovery and that his family and friends will find comfort in a difficult time.

What has really struck me about this whole event is the host of people who have been calling on people to pray for him. everyone seems to have been talking about prayer and saying things like 'God willing he makes a full recovery'. Footballers who I have heard a lot of suddenly start talking about prayer and God.

It is striking how when disaster and suffering strike people are suddenly reminded of their own weakness and impotence and end up crying out to a God who they never normally seem to talk about. Suffering is a terrible thing and something which God undoubtedly hates. However, it is striking how in his mercy God uses suffering to remind people of their need for him. It's as if it takes something as dramatic as a heart attack to make people recognise their need of someone bigger and better than them. But in the midst of trouble, heartache and shock we get reminded of what we all know - that God is out there and we desperately need him. Just look at the reaction to Muamba and you will see that the sense of God is perhaps more present than most of us let on most of the time.

I don't want to be rescued

Having recently blogged on films such as The Wrestler I decided it was time to show that I was a modern man and in touch with my sensitive side etc by blogging about the period drama 'Upstairs, Downstairs'.

I am a bit behind and so am just currently watching the first season. In it you see the sister of someone (who is welsh) who has married into money talking about how her sister with her new found money wants to rescue her. She responds to this as follows,
'I don't want to be rescued. If I'm to be rescued I have to admit how ghastly my life up to now has been' - Or something equally posh but with the same sentiment.

I have no doubt that the people who wrote this knew how true this was. None of us like to admit that we have failed at anything never mind at life itself. To admit that we have failed to live the kind of rewarding, meaningful and enjoyable life which everyone is telling us we should have is basically impossible. To accept rescue is not only to say that we can't help ourselves but in this context to say that we have not been capable to live the sort of life we hoped to. It is to admit to having been a failure at life.

The heart of Jesus' message was that all of us make a failure of life. All of us fail to live the lives we ought and as a result fail to find the satisfaction and meaning we desire and fail to build the kind of relationships and world we long for. The problem is that to admit this is to write off huge portions of our life (10,20, 50 years) as a failure. As us failing to find what we were looking for and achieve what we wanted. Jesus offers rescue for all people. He offers the relationship with God we all long for and with it life in its fullness. However, in order to accept this we have to first recognise that we need rescuing. The problem is that like the woman in Upstairs Downstairs we don't want rescuing because to do that we have to admit that we have failed to do life adaquetely ourselves.

I wonder how many of us refuse to admit this and so refuse to turn to Jesus for rescue. Of course the problem with this is that denial doesn't make the problem go away. In fact it just makes us incapable of accepting the solution. It makes us incapable of accepting the rescue.

What happens on Sunday?

O.K. so a few months ago I suggested that treating Sundays as simply a time for absolution and a bit of warming our hearts up ready for the week ahead was not really where it was at in the Sunday world. However, I failed to offer any wisdom (or folly) about what should happen when the local church gather together on a Sunday. If it's not about absolution and firing ourselves up then what is it about? Is it just another ceremony? Another thing to go to? A way to make ourselves (or if we're lucky God and others) feel a bit better? Well here are my somewhat rambling and certainly not profound thoughts on what Sunday Gatherings need to be.

1. Sunday Gatherings need to reflect the wider life of the church. Too often Sunday's bear no relation to the lives of the people there. Until Sundays are a place where a people come together and reflect the values, relationships and passions of that people then they will always be either

a) an event which is there to contribute to life instead of a natural outflow and part of the life we lead.

b) an event which is separate to the rest of life and seems distant and unrelated to life.

2. Sunday Gatherings should function as a demonstration of the people God is calling into his kingdom. God is calling to himself a funny mix of unimpressive people and giving them new life and new relationships. A Sunday Gathering should be a demonstration of this as a wide range of people come together to show the unity which the Holy Spirit gives and to demonstrate the new values of the kingdom in the way they relate. We can do this outside of this gathering but by very definition a gathering is a great opportunity to demonstrate the gospel community.

3. Sunday Gatherings are a great opportunity for training and equipping Christians. As we come together around God's word, to hear him speak and to relate to him and each other we have a great chance to equip each other for our Christian lives as God uses these gatherings to grow us into the likeness of his son. This sounds incredibly obvious but I think there has been a move away from this within many churches as we attempt to free wheel our way towards godliness. I wonder to what extent we now only seek to inspire people on Sundays rather than using these opportunities to train and empower people to know, serve and love God better.

I am willing to be convinced that I've got all of these wrongs and happy to rethink how the Sunday gathering of God's people should function. I certainly have not got this nailed yet so feel free to comment or offer thoughts. However, my concern is that it's very easy for Sunday Gatherings to just happen and keep happening without any real thoughts regarding what actually they're there for.