The Standard of Grace

Let me begin with a controversial theological statement:

The only standard to which those far from Christ ought to be held is their own.

Now, before you theological types rake coals over my head by saying, "don't preach liberal theology!" and, "Christ Himself said that He is the only way to God!", allow me to explain. This message (a foundation of the gospel) is not about what God will do from His throne on Judgment Day. Certainly He will be both Just and Merciful. This message is about how we should live, how we should act, how we should treat others.

I heard a controversial open-air preacher say once to an unbelieving crowd, "Of course you're fine with being fornicators, liars, and thieves. You're only doing what you see your father The Devil doing!" That got the crowd in a tiffy, of course. While I don't think his approach was full of grace (at all), at least what he said was true. Jesus said the same thing about His own Father, and those that are not sons of that Father are merely sons of darkness, doing dark things. The question then, unlike this preacher's tactics (and unfortunately, the attitude of much of the church today), is "what is our role as the adopted sons of God to those who are not in Christ?"

If I clarify the original controversial statement with the words "by us" after "ought to be held", then we've found our real place. Plenty of guilt-laden sinners responded to this preacher with Jesus's most famously quoted instruction: "Judge not lest you be judged!" Of course they stop there, and don't mention that it says "for by the measure you judge it shall be measured to you," and of course this preacher probably wasn't worried about being judged for being a godless sinner like his audience. I think that neither the guilty sinners nor the righteous preacher were ultimately correct. He was an admirable man, with an admirable goal, but he was missing something: grace.

We are held to a stricter standard. As Christians (literally, "little Christs"), we are held the standard of being like Christ. Of course, this is essentially impossible - even the Pharisees, who practiced their whole life keeping the entirety of the law AND the traditions that had been added "for good measure", were so far from being like Christ that they were more of a target than the sinners!

Of course, becoming like Christ is a process, and this process requires outside help. Grace (Greek: charis, a root for both "charity" and "charisma") is the help we need, to receive and to give.

The sons of darkness can only be held to the standard of darkness (which is no standard), and they will be convicted only by their conscience (which is God's law given to mankind, which keeps them accountable to the knowledge of good and evil). They will not be "converted" by our best preaching, and certainly not by our judgment. No, our job is first to live according to the standard we adhere to - that of Christ - which we can only do by receiving His grace (the energy to do what is right).

In this way, we can realize that we are no better than the lost sinner. In this way, we can meet those in darkness and they can see our light. In this way, we can meet a Buddhist and not be wary; we can meet an atheist and not be defensive; we can meet a homosexual and not be disgusted; we can meet a leper and embrace them; we can meet a Muslim and not fear. We can be the type of older brother who awaits his lost brother's return as fervently as the father, and who has compassion and runs to meet him while he is still far off. Not only meet him, but love him.

By grace, we are all saved. Through faith that He is full of more grace than we would ever give. Not of works, whether we labor lifelong or only at twilight. We cannot boast, for neither our adoption into light nor the return of the younger brother were on our own power. Grace is the only way any of us should be living or will be alive at the end.




There are plenty of questions I did not address in this post, such as "what about those who call themselves Christians but are not?" and "does this mean we should not speak the Truth to those that don't believe it?" The short answers to those are, respectively, "I Corinthians 5:9" and "no, but speak the truth in love, dripping grace." For further reading, see "The Prodigal God" by Timothy Keller.