The Discipline of Grace

I lived in Florida between and air force base and the Space Center so we saw a lot of strange things in the air. Once I saw an unusual airplane. It looked like it was flying backwards. The little wings, the stabilizers, were on the front of the airplane, while the big wings were in the back. There was no tail. It looked like it could never fly, but it did.


It was an experimental aircraft—a prototype, according to the newspaper, It shouldn’t be able to fly. It should spiral out of control. But this plane was equipped with state-of-the-art computers that could make constant corrections in the speed and elevation faster than a human pilot. This constant correction enabled this airplane fly.

The Christian life is like this. Loving God and keeping His commandments isn’t easy. It’s so hard, in fact that no one can do it God, who is constantly correcting us to keep us straight

This constantly correcting process requires an element missing in most religions—the element of grace. It is the only thing that makes the Christian life possible.

Grace is the forgiveness bought with the blood of Jesus. It is the one thing that all believers have in common.

Not every Christian looks at grace the same way. Protestants and Catholics differ on this. Protestants look at grace as something we received once and forever. We don’t have to confess or go to communion to get more grace when we sin. We have all the grace we need.

Catholics believe that they get grace daily, not all at once. Every time the go to confessional, they get some grace. When they take communion, they get a little more. If you don’t get enough grace in this life, you go to purgatory to earn more after you die.

It’s not hard to see through this. If you have to earn it, it isn’t grace. It’s a scam. The church controls the flow of grace, so they can demand whatever they want. We don’t want to go down the Catholic road on grace.

But even so, there’s a kernel of truth in what they say? The Bible tells us clearly that salvation is based only upon the grace of God, and forgiveness is all from him. But do we need to receive grace a daily? In a sense we do.\

Read the great Christian writers Read Paul’s epistles. Read the church fathers. Read the great saints of the middle ages like Francis of Assissi and Thomas Akempis. Read the Reformest—Luther, Calvin, Cramner, Knox, and Zwingli. Read the Puritans. Read the great hymns of the church. Do we really experience grace in our lives the way the saints of old experience it in theirs? Are we as devoted to the Cross of Christ as they were in their day?

I confess that while I believe assuredly in God’s grace, I sometimes have trouble experiencing it the way church fathers and mothers knew it. Those people ate, drank and slept the grace of God. They lived in a state of permanent gratitude. The longer they lived the greater that gratitude become. I believe most believers lose their gratitude for the cross for one reason. It is not a constant part of their daily lives.

Suppose someone saves your life. You thank him with great emotion and sincerity. But as you grow older, you think less and less of that moment when a man saved your life. It fades from your feeling and your memory, as all things do. It would not become the guiding basis for your life. Yet that is precisely what the grace of Jesus is supposed to be for us. The longer we serve Him, the greater our joy should become. How is that possible?

Grace is a discipline, not a feeling. It is not a one time event something we must rediscover daily. For us to see it the way the old saints did we must stop seeing it as a one-time event and recognize it as being continually in our lives This is what we see in I John 1:5-2:1.

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.

6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

2:1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense Jesus Christ, the Righteous One

The discipline of grace is not about having eternal life, but living eternal life. God wants us to live gracefully in this life as well, so that when we come to the end we can look backwards and see a straight furrow behind us. That is why the old saints grew in the joy of the Lord from year to year..

The discipline of grace is three-step process. First, comes Confession. John says.

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness,

we lie and do not live by the truth.

Christians lives ought to be like glass or clear water, open and hiding nothing. There is no fooling God. He knows it all. So if we claim to be right with God and we aren’t He knows. If we say we are right with God and we aren’t we are liars.

Then John goes farther. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. In other words, if you think this doesn’t apply to you, it does. You are the sinner he’s talking about.

Some people’s dishonesty is obvious and inescapable, Others are much better at hiding theirs. But God knows it, nonetheless. He can see that you are lying. We have all been liars when it comes to sin. There is not one of us who have not been guilty of deception, both of ourselves and of others. We must readily and openly admit we are sinners.

We have been raised in the church, so we readily admit to sin in general. But admitting that we are generally sinners does us no good unless we confess to specific sins. Without specific confession, there can be no specific correction.

Second comes Repentance. Repentance means to change course or direction.

It’s one thing to make a life changing choice of repentance, to turn from Satan to God, from selfishness to love. But that’s not the only kind of repentance we need to make. Repentance is also all the small changes done every day. It is what we do when we take a bite of the cake we shouldn’t have ordered in the restaurant and leave the rest. It is slowing down when we’ve been speeding for the last twenty miles. It is when we turn off that show we shouldn’t have been watching. We hope we will not ever do these sins again. But we can’t guarantee that. We can only say that we won’t do it today. We repent today of what we have been doing today. And if when we find ourselves again turning wrong in the future, we will repent again as well

One of the most destructive attitudes we can have rigidity--the “all-or-nothing” approach. If we can’t guarantee that we will never do something again, we may as well cnot stop. We do not have to be perfect, just repentant when we we aren’t. John tells us.

“Little children, I write these things to you in order that you do not sin but if anyone sins, we have and advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous.” Don’t sin. He says, Turn and repent.

But remember what must come next forgiveness.

Forgiveness is what makes the confessing and returning worthwhile. We confess and repent, and Jesus pleads our case to the Father. We confess and repent again, and Jesus again pleads the case. This is how we constantly regain the path to heaven. We keep falling and keep returning, every turn coming closer, drawing ever nearer to the perfection of heart and soul that God wants for us. As we do, we find greater joy in the forgiveness of God the Father.

Imagine an orphan who is placed in a series of foster homes. First he is put in the home of a neglectful father. He stays drunkg, never paying attention the boy. The boy grows more and more wild.

The when the judge finds out about this, he removes him from the home This time, he puts in a home with a strict foster father. This man expects a lot out of him. So much, in fact that nothing the child does is right. Eventually the boy rebels.

Once again, the judge acts, this time the boy is placed in the home of a loving father who spends hours every day with the boy. When he’s out of line, he corrects him. But he also constantly and repeatedly tells him he loves him and that he will stay with him until he is on the right path. Gradually the boy grows in stature nd character. More than that he grows to love the third father more and more. The love he feels with him is greater than the love he feels at the beginning.

God is that man. He stays close with us, showing us the right way. We learn to walk daily in confession, repentance, and forgiveness before our loving Father.

You can’t be good without God. But with God, you can be better than you could even begin to imagine. God’ love protects and cares for you.

So confess and repent, and God will bring you back, and bring you home in the end.