Grace

Introduction

"Amazing grace! how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. 'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved; how precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed! Thro' many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come; tis grace hath bro't me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home. The Lord has promised good to me, His word my hope secures; He will my shield and portion be as long as life endures." i

Oh, what wealth we find in this simple, yet beautiful song. God's grace is truly amazing. Most certainly reaching the blind, the wretched, and the lost. Leading us through fear and the relief of such fears - through immense dangers, laborious toils, and inevitable snares yet powerful enough to see us through and to see us home. A heavenly wonder sent to give and sustain the greatest of hopes. It sits, as most I suspect would see it, at the pinnacle of Christian doctrine, religion, and life. And yet, do we understand it today as fully as those who first wrote of it? We begin here what I hope will be a journey as rewarding to the reader as it has been for the author. In hopes of understanding and grasping the gravity of the amazing reality of God's grace, we must first understand and embrace the eternal perspective that sets up its necessity. We need then to submerge ourselves in the efficaciousness of this eternal free gift. Moving from there, I pray that together we may open an ancient yet contemporarily fresh look into the dualistic aspect of this grace - the very heart of God's eternal revelation. Then hopefully close with an open door toward the vast expanse of exploration into the manifold applications of God's amazing grace.

The Eternal Perspective:
The Crisis Begging the Answer of Grace

"The LORD also said to Moses, 'Say this to the entire community of Israel: You must be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.'" (Leviticus 19:1 NLT)

"Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:48 NIV)

"If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him."
(1 John 2:29 NKJV)

Wow! What a command. "You must be holy, perfect, righteous." Perhaps the most religiously abused command ever given from God to His children, and yet it remains the command in which all others are encompassed: "Do not worship other gods" - "Be holy, perfect, righteous"; "Do not make idols" - "Be holy, perfect, righteous"; "Do not commit adultery" - "Be holy, perfect, righteous"; "Do not steal" - "Be holy, perfect, righteous"; "Love the Lord your God with all your heart" - "Be holy, perfect, righteous"; Love you neighbor as yourself" - you guessed it, "Be holy, perfect, righteous." Upon hearing such a command from the Almighty God, we have two roads on which we may travel.

The first, and most journeyed, is a venture into the art of excusing the Bible and God's commands revealed within. This way begins with self-focused questions such as; "How could God expect this of us?" or "How could we ever possibly attain such?" with tones of "surely not" and "that's impossible." Unfortunately we see the inevitable destination of this highway in so much of our modern theology that seeks to explain away the reality of God's holiness. "It is less injury to [God] to deny His being, than to deny the purity of it; one makes Him no God, the other a deformed, unlovely, and a detestable God...he that saith God is not holy speaks much worse than he that saith there is no God at all." ii

The second way, as glorious as it is strait, is to embrace holiness - not only as God's righteous command but also as the revelation of His very character. If His command was all we had it certainly would be enough to demand compliance; but we have so much more. Holiness serves not as an arbitrary command from an intolerable god, it is in fact the very nature of God. "You must be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy." "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!" (Revelation 4:8 NKJV) Holiness/perfection/righteousness certainly stands as a command, but a command that is necessitated by God's nature. "Your eyes are too pure to behold evil, and you cannot look on wrongdoing." (Habakkuk 1:13 NRSV) "Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?" (Amos 3:3 NKJV) "...What fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?" (2 Corinthians 6:14 NKJV) "A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will not know wickedness." (Psalm 101:4 NKJV) "As He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct" (1 Peter 1:15 NKJV) "...Without holiness no one will see the Lord." (Hebrews 12:14 NIV) "I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless." (Genesis 17:1 NKJV) The Almighty Creator God is holy, thus all who would draw near must be holy as well. This is by no means an optional career track for the supposed, heaven-bound masses. Neither can it be seen as merely a whimsical command from an insufferable deity. This is the very nature of the Living Creator Holy God.

At this point in the unfolding of the eternal perspective another realization begins to settle into the queasiness of our spiritual gizzards. God's holiness stands in direct and uncomfortable contrast to our total depravity. Scriptures such as, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way," (Isaiah 53:6 NRSV) "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked," (Jeremiah 17:9 NKJV) and, "There is none righteous, no, not one...There is none who seeks after God...There is none who does good, no, not one...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3 NKJV) echo with deafening silence down the corridors of God's eternal command and nature. It is here, historically, that many have followed pharisaical heritage, excusing God from His equation of Holiness.

On a beautiful, yet somewhat cool, spring day, from the porch swing just outside our front door, my wife called our eldest son to her side. With my own ears, I heard her ask him to go inside and retrieve her jacket. Seconds later in a genuine spirit of eagerness he returned sporting an ear-to-ear grin of satisfaction and hands his mother a two liter bottle of Pepsi. His puppy-like eyes overflowing with immense joy for this small yet vital contribution to his mother's happiness and general well-being was shadowed only by my wife's gaze of absolute confusion. Upon further inspection, we realized that our willing and even excited son had listened only to the first three important words: "inside," "get," and "my." In his intoxicating fervor, he had taken the liberty to complete his mother's sentence for her. On a spring afternoon, sitting on a porch swing, debating the importance of a jacket verses a cool drink, we enjoyed the humor of the situation and dismissed it by celebrating his "A" for effort.

We cannot enjoy such latitude in the similar picture of God's children and His command to be holy. The Pharisees, especially in comparison to their contemporaries, must be commended for their fervor and excitement for God and His commands. Yet, they essentially thanked God for His edicts, excused Him from the equation, and promptly set out to define and attain their version of God's holiness. In essence, they brought Him a Pepsi, when His very nature required a jacket. Many, today, have followed in these enthusiastic footsteps, finding it all too easy to create their own understanding of holiness, rather than embracing God's. We excuse it as unattainable - denying the reality of holiness/perfection/righteousness seen in those who have gone before us: Enoch, Job, Noah, Abraham, David, Zacharias and Elizabeth, and Jesus. (cf. Genesis 5:22, Job 1:8, Genesis 6:9, Romans 4:3, 1 Kings 15:5, Luke 1:6, and John 17:15-19, Hebrews 5:8-9, and Matthew 3:15) We vainly explain it away as positional - in affect affirming that God's holiness is also positional. Or, we build a small comfortable box of theology through which to view God and His holiness. But we must not, we cannot. God is Holy. It is Who He is. Denying this, explaining this away, or belittling this makes it no less true. It only places the embracing of God's holiness just out of our reach.

The third, and perhaps most important, reality surfacing in the eternal perspective is that well within both the liberating confines of His holiness and the haunting veracity of our depravity, God longs to be with us. Not just allows it or makes it possible, but longs for it. "For God so loved the world..." (John 3:16 NKJV) "The Lord...is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9 NKJV) "'For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,' says the Lord GOD. 'Therefore turn and live!'" (Ezekiel 18:32 NKJV) "I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life." (Deuteronomy 30:19 NKJV) The very nature of His salvation extended through Jesus Christ our Lord, is that of knowing Him; "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." (John 17:3 NKJV) Not just a positional exoneration of who we are - a relationship of fellowship with The Holy God.

How then do we rectify such dialectical truths? God is Holy and we are not. Holiness cannot draw near to unholiness and God longs to be with us. This is the crisis within the eternal perspective of truth that begs the answer of grace. But until we come to the place in theology and life that we accept, unconditionally, God's nature, God's command, our inadequacies, and God's desire, we cannot embrace the magnificence and effectiveness of God's amazing grace.

Efficacious Grace:
The Eternal Power of Unmerited Favor

Once the reality of holiness is embraced, we can move open-eyed and willing-hearted toward understanding God's amazing grace. What is grace? Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary defines this term as, "favor or kindness shown without regard to the worth or merit of the one who receives it and in spite of what that same person deserves." iii This, being a good representative of the generally accepted definition, will serve as our jumping off point. In short, grace is understood here as unmerited favor. Although the concept of grace must be viewed in and from a New Testament perspective, it is very prevalent in the Old Testament as well. As Moses, sheltered in the cleft of a rock, looked upon the back of the Lord, "The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, 'The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious [channuwn], longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth.'" (Exodus 34:6 NKJV) This Hebrew word, channuwn, according to James Strong, comes from the primitive root, chanan, meaning "to bend or stoop in kindness to an inferior; to favor." Interestingly, it is closely related to a second primitive root, chanah, meaning "to encamp, to dwell," pointing toward the intimacy of the future New Testament understanding. iv So we begin to observe semantically as well as in YHWH's dealing with Israel (cf. Deuteronomy 9:6) the emerging concept of unmerited favor. This then forms the seedbed from which our New Testament picture of grace will begin to take root.

As the Holy Spirit, through Christ and His disciples, began to unveil more of God's self-revelation, we see grace flower into the very heartbeat of the New Testament gospel. Here we find the Greek word, charis, stepping forward as the sole linguistic tool from which to reveal God's amazing grace. This word is used over 170 times by New Testament authors and nearly 100 times by Paul alone. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia defines charis "when directed toward a particular person or persons," as "favor." v Here we see the Old Testament roots helping us to understand this favor as unmerited. Millard Erickson supports this with his concise understanding of grace: "Grace...means that God supplies us with undeserved favors." vi This is evidenced in many of the scriptural usages of charis: "...Those who through grace had become believers." (Acts 18:27 NRSV) "They are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." (Romans 3:24 NRSV) "...To the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace." (Ephesians 1:6-7 NKJV) Gleaning then from both Testaments, our understanding of God's amazing grace is viewed in a word picture of the Almighty Creator God stooping down to dwell with His creation by way of the unmerited gift of His favor.

This amazing unmerited favor stands as the solitary power possessing the practical effectiveness to reconcile the eternal crisis. Grace, and grace alone, can bring together the dialectical truths of God's nature, God's command, man's depravity, and God's desire. But what is so amazing, perhaps more than its unmerited nature, is the immense power of grace. "Rabbi," Nicodemus pleaded, "we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him." Jesus then replied, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:2-3 NKJV) This gift of God's unmerited favor provides for us an actual rebirth. As Paul would write, "He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son." (Colossians 1:13 NASB) And later, he would expound on this truth in his letter to the church at Ephesus:

"God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God...put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness." (Ephesians 2:4-7 & 4:24 NKJV)

The beloved apostle would add to this concept in his pastoral letters: "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! ...Dear friends, now we are children of God." (1 John 3:1-2 NIV) The efficacious power of grace, though unmerited, has brought us through an instantaneous transformation. All who, by faith, will repent and surrender to the Holy Spirit's call of salvation are once-and-for-eternity given new birth into the very image of God, providing a relationship with the Living Creator God as His holy children. We are His children. At the point of surrender, it is not who we could be or who we should be. It is who we are. His holy children, transferred from the power of darkness into the eternal Kingdom, made alive with Jesus Christ Himself, and recreated into the image of the righteous and holy God. Through grace, this beautiful unmerited gift, we are brought to be in forever relationship with Almighty Creator, Father God.

Two Birds with One Stone:
The Twofold Picture of Grace

Oh, that we could embrace the life-giving warmth of knowing that we are born-again, holy children of God. Oh, to dwell in the peace that our relationship with God is forever sealed. But we must also embrace the reality that this was not the entirety of God's desire or the full extent of His eternal plan in grace. Eternal life is not merely to be in relationship with God, for it is to know God that defines eternal life. (cf. John 17:3) God desires fellowship with His creation. This is impossible outside of a relationship, which is by nature eternal, but the relationship cannot be viewed as the goal or conclusion of grace. The unmerited favor of God instantaneously, and completely, gives us new birth into relationship with YHWH. But, God desires more. God longs for intimacy with His children. "Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me." (Psalm 50:15 NKJV) "A better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God." (Hebrews 7:19 NKJV) "Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart." (Hebrews 10:22 NIV) This heart of God is illustrated in the sadness of such passages as Exodus 33:8, 1 Samuel 8:7, and Isaiah 29:13, but is seen clearest in the parable of the prodigal son, found in Luke chapter fifteen. In the story, the father and son never cease to be in relationship. But what the father looks for on the horizon, and eventually sees from afar, is the restoration of their fellowship. There can be no fellowship with God outside of relationship as we have seen due to God's nature, God's command, and our depravity. But God's desire is for the fellowship afforded through this relationship. Here, unmerited favor seems to fall short of reconciling the eternal crisis.

In conjunction with this apparent breakdown in the ability of grace to answer the eternal crisis, comes an apparent breakdown in the semantic boundaries of charis. The first of these inconsistencies can be seen in Luke's first use of charis. In Chapter two of Luke's gospel, he describes the early years of Jesus: "the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him." (verse 40 NKJV) Defining charis here as "unmerited favor" renders this passage too difficult to swallow. How could the Holy Son of the Trinity be undeserving of God's favor? Again, we see some distinction between charis and favor in Ephesians chapter two: "That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." (verse 7 NKJV) Here Paul speaks of the richness of God's charis brought to us by favor - or kindness, setting charis apart from simple favor. John gives for us an extremely interesting verse in his gospel: "And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace." (John 1:16 NKJV) "Grace for grace." It is somewhat entertaining to see the trouble this little phrase has given interpreters and commentators. Remaining slavishly committed to "unmerited favor" the New International Version has rendered this, "one blessing after another." Slightly more subtle, the New American Standard and the New Revised Standard Version state it as, "grace upon grace." The Phillips Paraphrase, however, translates it beautifully as, "there is a grace in our lives because of His grace." Grace for Grace - charin anti charitos. The point of this phrase is found in anti. This is a primary participle used here alone in the New Testament. Its etymology is bathed in the market place as an exchange of one good for another. James Strong defines this very specific little participle as, "opposite, i.e. instead or because of (rarely in addition to)...Often used in composition to denote contrast." vii It simply cannot be translated "unmerited favor upon unmerited favor. For, there stands in this short phrase a distinct contrast between the Greek word charis and the Greek word charis. There is a thing called grace that brings to us a different thing called grace.

Before we give up on the Bible as being nothing more than confusing, or give up on grace as being vague at best, let us look to yet another New Testament usage of charis. Romans chapter five, verse two reads, "Through [Jesus] also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Here we see Paul describe charis as an actual place in which we stand. Most of our modern theology would prefer this to read, "Because of the grace of God, through Jesus we have access by faith to salvation in which we sit." But Paul describes grace as the very place that we gain access to because of God's holy covenant of salvation. A place. Certainly not physical, yet a tangible place nonetheless. Recognizing this repeated Biblical usage of grace, James Strong adds to his definition of charis, "The divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life." viii So we do not see an ambiguity, rather a second distinct yet inseparable definition of grace. The Biblical writers (especially Paul) chose to reveal both of these aspects of God's workings with one word. While their individual contexts demand distinct appreciation, their semantic fraternity speaks to their inseparability. Grace for grace - by way of God's unmerited and efficacious grace, we have access to a place within which we experience the divine influence on the heart and its reflection in our lives.

So, just what is this second charis? It is a place, in fact the only place in which the fellowship, God so richly desires, can ever be realized. It is the one tangible existence in which we find the intimacy of drawing near to God. Recall the monumental language used in Romans chapter five: "through Jesus" and "by faith." Here are the two key words that encompass our understanding of God's covenant of salvation. God's part is seen in His unmerited favor bestowed upon us through His Son, Jesus the Christ - a gift freely given, completely undeserved by its recipients, and infinitely effective for giving us new birth. Our part is seen in our acceptance of such a gift through faith - believing, repenting, and surrendering to the revelation of God. And this covenant provides us with access to a place called grace, in which our relationship to the Almighty allows us fellowship with the Father.

Amazing Grace:
The Garden Experience

This two-fold revelation through the single word charis can be viewed best from within a picture. Imagine a garden, cool and lush. The ground is damp with the sweetest dew, the air crisp with the most engaging aromas. The fields are like rolling waves, the thickets inviting. Inside this garden is the only place that God has provided for us to realize eternal life (i.e. to know Him the One, True God...). It is the only place in all of existence in which we can draw near to God in pure fellowship. For this garden, there is but one gate and one gatekeeper - Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord. As we walk along outside in the deserted wastelands of this world's sub-par best, God's Holy Spirit beckons those with ears for hearing to freely receive an instantaneous transformation brought to bear because of and directly through God's unmerited favor. Those who would hear and respond, are forever transferred from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of the beloved Son, given new birth as holy children of God. Their relationship to the Almighty Creator God, is sealed for eternity. But, God desires fellowship, and so He creates a garden just outside the physical in which we can walk with Him in the cool of the day. We did not or could not create such a place. We did not or could not open the gate to such bliss. Yet we do have an intricate part in this covenant. Though compared to the whole it is barely minuscule, it does in fact make up the entirety of our part. It is obedience of faith. (cf. Romans 1:5 NASB) Through Jesus, by faith, we have access to the garden of grace.

Here we must pause to briefly discuss faith. Faith is not merely "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1 NKJV) This serves better as a description than a definition. Faith is believing, "that [God] is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." (Hebrews 11:6 NKJV) It is to believe that God is big enough to fulfill His every promise. (cf. Genesis 15) Faith is not a blind jump off a pinnacle of a temple (cf. Luke 4:9ff), but a life-altering belief that God is Who He says He is, that He and His word represent truth, and in Him all true reward is found. Sadly, it is Wall Street that provides the best contemporary model for such faith. We see repeatedly, those who believe that western consumerism is the provider of all, selling out their families, their time, their health, even their happiness in pursuit of such belief. Their sad lives stand out as living martyrs to a lifeless god. The God, the one and only True God, calls us to life-altering, all-consuming obedience of faith. It is this faith that stands in violent opposition to the wisdom of the world and fulfills our ongoing part of God's covenant for fellowship.

As we begin to trust in God with this intense and radical fervor, we have access through Jesus Christ into God's garden of grace. It is here that God has divine influence on our hearts, reflected in our lives. It is here that we draw near to God in eternal fellowship. It is here that we "offer [our] bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God" and position ourselves to "be transformed by the renewing of [our] mind." (Romans 12:1-2 NIV) Within this precious garden God has full reign to lead us through any and all circumstances that would bring us closer to Him. Some seasons may be like a cool spring walk across a mountain prairie. Others will be steep climbs up treacherous assents. Still, all will be hand-in-hand with our loving Father God. In the garden, we will come to welcome the wonder of God's sovereignty, embracing its seemingly difficult scriptural representation: "I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the LORD, do all these things"(Isaiah 45:7 NIV); "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it" (Hebrews 12:11 NIV); "We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22 NIV). And all the while, celebrating that God, "has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us" (Acts 17:26-27 NKJV), and holding to the promise, "that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28 NKJV) Not the good of our physical lives, that merely forms the backdrop for the spiritual reality, but for the good of our fellowship with God. All things are available to work for the furtherance of our knowing the one true God. No matter how rough the path, no matter how steep the climb, we grow to appreciate God's plan to show us more of His garden - more of Him.

But, outside this garden of grace, we excuse ourselves from the divine influence of God and are left to wander in a wilderness not intended for God's children. Jesus never changes. The holy and precious gatekeeper never ceases to allow us access. But our access is dependent on a covenant - a covenant in which we have an active responsibility. We must perpetually respond to life in obedience of faith. Our actions following a true belief in God and His decrees allow us access through an open gate into God's garden of grace. But so often we choose the worlds wisdom over simple faith in God. God leads us to a steep climb, a strait path, a dark thicket - we lose a job, our child is diagnosed with cancer, our national defenses are compromised, and scared we pull our hand from the Father's and run for the gate. We look for answers in worldly and fleshly wisdom. We deny the authenticity and effectiveness of God and excuse ourselves from His influence. Paul spoke of such crises when facing life's struggles: "For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God." (2 Corinthians 1:12 NKJV) Paul chose faith over worldly wisdom and remained in the garden of grace. The entirety of our fellowship covenant with God is to walk hand-in-hand with Him in continual obedience of faith, giving us access to grace - the grace that, "teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope--the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ." (Titus 2:12-13 NIV, cf. verse 11) The unmerited favor that gave to us freely our rebirth into holy children, provides us access to God's divine influence on our hearts, training us to live out who we now are. Grace for grace, that we might have access through Jesus, by faith into God's precious garden of fellowship.

Searching through Shadows:
An Old Testament Perspective

"...The prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care..." (1 Peter 1:10 NIV)

If this picture of grace is true, and if it holds the eternal value as stated earlier, it would be my hope that we would see some hint of it in the shadows of the good things to come. (cf. Hebrews 10:1) And well we do. Surely we see hints of such a walk in the lives of David, Moses, and Enoch (cf. Acts 13:22. Exodus 33:11, and Genesis 5:21-24) Perhaps the most beautiful vista from which to observe the physical picture of such a glorious walk through God's garden of grace, is found in the capricious life of Joseph. Such physical turmoil, yet such spiritual harmony: "You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good." (Genesis 50:20 NKJV) But by far, if there is an archetype to be found for God's garden of grace, we must return to the very beginning of physical existence.

"The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed." (Genesis 2:8 NKJV) At the outset of God's eternal dealing with man, He created a garden. Not just a garden, but a garden in which God walked with them in the cool of the day. It was a place for the utmost intimacy, as both Adam and Eve walked naked before God unashamed. But it was also a place in which God created a path of testing, a crisis of faith, a tree of knowledge. Man, and woman, were given access to this most holy of places - a place of intimate fellowship with Almighty God. Their only responsibility in this God-given covenant was obedience of faith. They in no way participated in the creation of this garden, they did not earn their placement within, their hands had no part in forming themselves from the dust and from the rib. They had only to believe that God, and what He said, was absolutely true, no matter what fleshly wisdom told them. And when they chose the world over God, they removed themselves from access to God's garden, settling to reside in a wilderness never intended for His children. Our holy, righteous, perfect God began His eternal plan in man with the epitome for His coming dispensation of grace (cf. Ephesians 3:1-7) - a garden of divine influence on the heart, reflected in the life.

Just Taking it For a Spin:
Plugging Two-fold Grace into Theology

Perhaps even more can be seen through this picture of grace as we take it for the preverbal spin around some theological corners. Like any good test drive, this is in no way meant to be exhaustive or conclusive, rather it intends to wet our appetites to the fresh experience of living within God's two-fold revelation of grace. First, let us get a fill for the handling with a simple look at heaven. Both Peter and Paul speak of our transition into the next phase of life as shedding our earthly tents. (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:1-4 and 1 Peter 1:13) We've already seen that eternal life is not merely heaven, but the fellowship of knowing the one true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent. And we have seen how this fellowship of relationship begins here. What then is in store for us when our physical life comes to a close and we shed this earthly tent? Praise God it must surely be more than we could ever comprehend on this side. Still, the two-fold understanding of grace can help point us toward the possibilities of what it might be like.

Imagine this physical world we live in as a panoramic photograph of a city. In this image, God's garden of grace would be similar to a transparency of a lush garden, placed over the picture of the city. For those who have ears to hear and eyes to see, we would recognize the garden as home and the city as a mere backdrop. When our time comes to leave this earthly tent, God simply lifts the transparency from the photo and those who are born-again children of the garden go with it. For many, I fear this transition will be severe and hard to grasp - for their focus is centered on the city photograph for the majority of their physical lives: "He himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames." (1 Corinthians 3:15 NIV) For others it will be a mild speed bump, a bit of unsuspected turbulence. And yet, for the glorious few, there might only be the slightest of change, as their focus even upon this earth was consumed by the wonder of God's garden: "Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away." (Genesis 5:24 NIV) I suspect we would all join John in his exuberant celebration of the unknown, "What we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." (1 John 3:2 NIV) But it helps to see this understanding of grace engaged with the concepts of theology.

Second, we head into a straight stretch of road, hoping to open her up, with a look at Paul's letter to the Galatians. In chapters three and four we see a discussion concerning our adoptions as sons through the effective working of the Spirit who cries "Abba, Father!" This correlates with our first understanding of grace as the efficacious unmerited favor of God to give us new life in Christ. Then, chapter five's discussion of "liberty" more than accurately describes the condition found in dwelling within God's garden. In verse two through six, Paul's warning against returning to the fleshly wisdom of righteousness through circumcision stands as a direct parallel to our responsibility in obedience of faith. By choosing once again to trust in the world's wisdom and ability to make them holy, they have denied the supreme Lordship of God and have removed themselves from His divine influence: "You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace." (verse 4) Honest commitment to the whole of scripture will not allow us to see this passage as supporting a fall from unmerited favor. For how could one un-merit what was unmerited to begin with. Or, how could death or life, angels or demons, the present or the future, any powers, height or depth, or anything in all creation separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord? (cf. Romans 8:38-39) Nothing can take us back and undo the rebirth that has been given us. Nothing can remove us from the unmerited favor of God, but we have the freedom to deny ourselves access to God's garden, thus falling from His divine influence on our heart and the reflection in life. Especially as we choose the worlds wisdom for attaining righteousness. But if we would chose obedience of faith, we could join Paul as, "by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope." (Galatians 5:5 NIV)

Lastly (at least for our limited intentions here) we really let the horses run as we venture into the open flats of 2 Peter chapter two, verses 20-21:

If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. (NIV)

Here, I must confess, that we come to a passage that originally threw me off in my understanding of grace, leading to an initial dismissal due to the inherent inadequacies of every analogy to exhaustively cage the revelation of God. For, how could any taste of such glory as found in the garden of grace be worse than never having tasted at all? But upon further inspection, I see a possible interpretation of this controversial scripture within the picture of the two-fold grace. I, like many others, assumed that God was speaking of the individual's eternal betterment. This is hard to swallow, for wouldn't one barely escaping the flames still be better off eternally than one who burns in hell. But perhaps, God speaks here of the duration of the individual's physical life. If this is the case, then we quickly begin to see the clear perspective behind such a statement. For those who have partaken of the free gift of God's unmerited favor and even dwelt in the garden of God 's divine influence on the heart, how could anything be more dreadful than to reside, for the duration of your earthly tent dwelling, in the wilderness of the domain of darkness? In such a state one would most certainly be worse off physically than a child of darkness living in the domain of darkness, for at least that child of darkness would be residing in a place compatible with his heart. But the child of God, would not only be residing in the arid desert lands of the world's system, he would be living a hypocritical life as well - masquerading as a child of the darkness. Unfortunately, it is my suspicion that many of us have witnessed such truth in the lives of family members, loved one, friends, and fellow church members. A life, once bubbling with springs of joy, now wasting away to spiritual cancer.

Here are the keys. Take this two-fold understanding of grace for a spin yourself. It can't answer all of God's seemingly dialectical pairs of truth, but it most certainly has helped this would-be theologian to see the light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel for some of God's more difficult revelation.

Practically Speaking:
What Does It Mean to Life and Ministry

In conclusion, I must return to the conception of my study on grace. When I began this study into the depths of what I know to be the tip of the iceberg of grace, I prayed that God would not allow this to be mere theological theory. I joyfully testify that He has already begun to answer that prayer, both through pleasant and not so pleasant experiences. I recognize and celebrate the Spirit's superior ability in applying this individually to our separate lives, however, I would be remiss to not at least attempt to place this theory where the rubber meets the road. In seeking to apply this scriptural understanding to our lives and ministries, we must first recognize the sufficiency of both aspects of Grace. Paul cries out, "May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word." (2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 NIV) Peter affirms that, "Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness." (2 Peter 1:2 NIV) And he prays that, "the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast." (1 Peter 5:10 NIV) God's unmerited favor and His divine influence on the heart is abundantly sufficient to bring us into both relationship and fellowship.

It will also serve us well, to grasp the basics in fulfilling our part of God's blessed covenant for fellowship. Though, as stated earlier, our part of this covenant is comparably miniscule, it still remains the entirety of our part. What then do we implement in our lives that will insure an environment conducive to successfully remaining within the garden? The eternal picture in a nutshell is this: Holy God desires fellowship with unholy man, thus He provides a rebirth giving us new life as His holy children through His unmerited favor. This allows for our entrance into the garden experience of fellowship with Him. As did our original ancestors, we have but one responsibility to remain in access to this garden - obedience of faith. In all of life's many choices and planned points of crisis, we must choose trust in God and His decrees over the pseudo-wisdom the world offers.

It is precisely at this point within the eternal scope, that perspective becomes everything. Yes, perspective. It is the one, encompassing element that will make or break our garden dwelling. If we come to the smallest of predetermined crises with a skewed perspective, we all but ensure failure to remain in God's garden. This is also the point at which Satan enters the scene. To return to our shadowy archetype, Satan did not create the tree. Satan did not even lead Adam and Eve to the tree. He met them at the predetermined crisis point to offer his interpretation of perspective. He is in fact the master misinterpreter of perspective. (cf. John 8:44) Later, at the infamous wilderness temptation, Satan comes to the place that God's Holy Spirit had led Jesus our Lord to skillfully offer his interpretation of perspective. Ever so subtly, he twists God's holy Word using it to his desired advantage. We must quit giving access to our flank by neither continuing to cartoonize the little red man in horns with endless name calling nor insist on giving him credit for bringing us to the points of crisis. We must instead, open our eyes to his weapons of warfare and prepare for a battle on the front of perspective.

Recognizing this, we now can fortify our defenses and offenses and diligently run the race before us of staying in God's garden. This is where the spiritual disciplines of old, only recently experiencing a glorious resurgence, step beautifully onto the scene. Not as mere religious pass times, or pharisaic legalism, or worse, as a debt owed to the unmerited favor of God. Rather they stand as a tried and true arsenal of weaponry ready for the battle at hand. Our desires cannot fall so short as to hope only to be well disciplined for the sake of discipline or religious compliance. But the spiritual disciplines can and must help us in our earnest desire to stay in that place in which we fellowship with God.

Let us first look to the defensive role of disciplines. I have discovered in retrospect that there are a few well-beaten paths on which I repeatedly run out of God's garden of grace. I can look back over the last ten times I found myself outside the garden and see that nine of those times I took the same trail. When the Lord's workmanship in our lives reveals these paths to us, it is time to call in the defensive disciplines. We locate the trail head and bring in the track hoes and bulldozers to build a hill so high and so steep, that we find ourselves exhausted before we can ever step foot on that trail. Eventually, Lord willing, that path will have time to grow back - first the grass, than the underbrush and eventually the trees, leaving nothing at all that would identify it as once being a trail. At this point, that particular hill of defensive discipline is no longer necessary and the dirt can be removed. What this looks like in the physical, for me, is a trail of erupting in prideful anger whenever my wife confronts me on serious issues. We have now brought in the dirt work of, "Tim, will you go and pray for five minutes and come back so we can talk." We have found that just five short minutes on my knees before God sets my perspective on Christ, and we together stay in the garden. Certainly, each person will experience both similar and quite different trails from one another and through different times in their individual journeys. Each mound of dirt will share its similarities and have its distinctions. But, the necessity for defensive discipline will remain continuous throughout them all.

Next we must implore offensive disciplines that target the feeding of our perception. Make no mistake, our perceptions will always perceive - it is the very nature of such a beast. The only question at hand is what will be filling that perception. Satan stands ready to volunteer for such a position of authority in our lives. At every tree, at every stone, he meets us to offer his interpretation of perspective. Here our defensive disciplines are of little use, for he will simply lead us down a new and deceptively exciting trail. We must be offensive. The one sure discipline for feeding our perception with truth has always been and will continue to be God's Holy Word. On September 11th [2001], our entire nation came simultaneously to the same predetermined point of crisis. It was blindingly apparent in the ensuing days that the vast majority of America's "Christians" received their interpretation of perspective from something well short of God's Holy Word. We must fight tooth and nail, amidst a world painted with interpretations of perspective, to submerge ourselves in God's self-revelation. Reading, studying, memorizing, celebrating, defending, in leisure and in work, individually and corporately, in the waking hours, the noon-time grind, and as the sun sets, if there is time to spend, if there be air to breath, we must wallow in the wonder and ecstasy of God's Word. Along with this comes the discipline of prayer, corporate worship, and endless others, yet the Bible stands center stage in our arsenal of offensive disciplines. With defensive disciplines strategically placed, and offensive disciplines on round-the-clock patrol, we set out, at all cost, to choose obedience of faith - to choose to dwell in the garden of grace.

Endnotes:

i John Newton, Amazing Grace, (in its original 4 stanza format, quoted from, The Baptist Hymnal, Nashville, Tennessee: Convention Press, 1991), Number 330.

ii Stephen Carnock, The Existence and Attributes of God (reprint edition, Evansville, Indiana: Sovereign Grace Book Club, 1958), Page 449

iii Herbert Lockyer, Gen. Ed. Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1986)

iv James Strong, A Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Hebrew Bible, (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990), Pages 40-41.

v James Orr, Gen. Ed. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (Electronic Database Edition, Biblesoft, 1996).

vi Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology, (2nd Edition, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 1999), Page 321.

vii James Strong, A Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament, (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990), Page 12.

viii Ibid. Page 77.