Grace Under Fire

The Gospel is the death and resurrection of Jesus-- nothing more and nothing less (1st Corinthians 15:3).

We portray it as something more when we fail to acknowledge that Christ's death and resurrection is ALL we need to be put into right standing before God--- in other words, obeying the Law (10 commandments) in addition to believing the Gospel will not somehow improve upon our standing before God (Galatians 3:6-14).

We portray it as something less when we fail to acknowledge the offensive depth of our own sin and the lengths Christ went to in order to forgive us for failing to obey the Law: In other words, He not only took the punishment we deserved for breaking His Law, He obeyed it perfectly and gave us the credit for it (Romans 4:7-15).

When we portray the Gospel as something more than or less then Christ's death and resurrection, we are left not with a distortion of the Gospel, but with no Gospel at all (Galatians 1:6-10).

Many have a hard time with this, and seem to believe that if a person confesses Christ as Lord and Savior but doesn't have all of their theological ducks and ethical standards in a row, they can't be a Christian. Truth be known, I often feel this way. I struggle to believe that God could possibly love a continual lawbreaker like myself. It seems too radical to believe there is nothing I can do to earn God's love or to increase His love for me once He has given it. So, I revert to living by Law, because it is safer than letting God love me. It is less radical than falling upon His grace and believing that Jesus didn't preach to us from a distance but came and lived with us, eating with whores and rebuking theological nitpickers who believed the whores needed Law rather than forgiveness. It provides a deeper sense of pride in me when I can tell people they are going to hell without having to build a relationship with them and look into their eyes when they are feeling confused from the bad decisions they have made. I'm afraid that if I preach His grace to others, they will misunderstand it and think they can live in sin and not experience the consequences. I'm afraid that if I do not preach Law to myself, I will start doing really terrible things and enjoying it.

This mindset not only reveals that MY theology and ethical standards are not sound, but more strikingly it reveals that I don't understand the love of God in Christ.

I have disregarded the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 4:

For what the Law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.

I have made a mockery of William Cowper's words that appear in every church hymnal:

How long beneath the Law I lay
In bondage and distress.
I toiled the precept to obey
But toiled without success.
But to see the Law by Christ fulfilled,
To hear His pardoning voice
Changes a slave into a child
And duty into choice.


I have reveled in being a Protestant who upholds Reformed Theology, but have ignored the foundational belief set forth by the very one who launched the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther:

The greatest knowledge, and the highest wisdom of Christians is, not to know the law-- to be ignorant of works, and of the whole active righteousness, especially when the conscience wrestles with God. . . But it is a strange thing and unknown to the world, to teach Christians to be ignorant of the law, and to live before God as if there were no law: notwithstanding, unless you are ignorant of the law, and are assuredly persuaded in your heart that there is now no law, nor wrath of God, but only grace and mercy for Christ's sake, you cannot be saved; for by the law comes the knowledge of sin. Contrariwise, works and the keeping of the law is so strictly required in the world, as if there were no promise, or grace.


Thank you Jesus, for being "born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights on sons." I thank you that I am "no longer a slave, but a son." I thank you that since I am your son, learning to walk is not a burden. It's great to know that you don't get mad at me when I stumble and fall. Instead you pick me up, and are thrilled that I am walking at all. Amen.