Grace Tension

Grace:    Unmerited favour or goodwill towards someone or something.

Work:     Exertion or effort directed to produce or accomplish something (labour, toil)

Tension:  Two balancing forces causing rigidness and stretching.

If grace is the one end of the tension balance, then what is the other end? Works, of course. Before you stone me, know this: Grace is the biggest part of my Christian walk and is infused into every area of my life (read other posts on this blog).

We are born again by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:9) and we are called to walk our Christian lives in the same way (Colossians 2:6). Grace is His favour extended to us and faith is us taking hold of this favour; believing it and receiving it.

It’s quite clear that there is God’s part and that there is our part. The problem comes in, as we walk out our Christian life, that our part gets reduced to a bunch of activities we perform, in order to try and earn God's favour. Anything that we do to try and earn God's favor is legalism, it's a works-based faith that has fueled religion (not in the good sense) for centuries. Bottom line, we cannot earn God's favour by what we do, it is all about what He has done, through Jesus, on the Cross. However there might still be some work involved, but it's not the kind we immediatly conjure up in our heads; let's take a look.

If grace is just receiving what God has done, how do I receive and understand fully, what God has done for me and apply it to my life? This is where the tension comes in: I like to call it positioning. We need to position ourselves to fully comprehend His grace in and through our lives. It doesn’t just happen, it takes intentionality and purpose. We have to intentionally and purposefully position ourselves in such a manner that we receive everything that God has for us, everything that Jesus made available through the atonement. How do we know if we have access to something if no-one has told us, or if we haven't read it or seen it? We will never know.

Sometimes grace takes work; we have to work at understanding it. This is the tension, the paradox if you will. Two, seemingly opposite, truths and passions, raging alongside one other, both being exceedingly necessary to make sense of what we believe. It is across this tension-bridge that revelation knowledge, relationship and trust can be delivered, flowing from the cross, flowing from Grace, flowing from Jesus to us.

Let’s not underestimate the work it takes to be fully submerged in grace. Organised religion tries to sell us a works based Christianity. But, instead of trying to earn His favour through good works, let’s strive to understand that His grace is sufficient for us (2 Corinthians 12:9) and rest (Hebrews 4:11) in the knowledge that, we labour into Jesus and not for Him.

Rest: It's a good thing





     "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" - Matthew 11:28

     When people hear the word rest, most would conjure up ideas of sleeping, sipping a cocktail on the beach or just relaxing with a book on your couch. In Christian circles rest is used to describe a day in the week which we are supposed to put aside our day jobs and take time to focus on family and God. Rest is an important part of living a productive life because, after all, we are not machines and need to take time out to gain perspective and re-charge our batteries, so to speak.

     But, I believe there is more to rest than just the physical and psychological advantages. God has instituted a state of rest for all believers to live in, not only on a certain day or at an allocated time, but rather as a permanent spiritual state.  When we are at rest in the spirit it affects every area of our lives, as everything we see in the physical is preceded in the spiritual.

"There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His." - Hebrews 4:9-10 

     The state of rest is available to every believer. The writer of Hebrews compares the rest that we have access to, to the rest that God entered into after the six days of creation. That we have no right in relying on our works any longer, but rather on everything that God has done for us. A place of rest, for every believer, is in fact a place of faith. It takes the onus off us to perform our religious duties to please God, rather placing the emphasise of our walk on putting faith in what God has already done for us; redeeming us from our sins and giving us everything we need to live a victorious Christian life.

"Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience" - Hebrews 4:11

     Entering into His rest doesn't happen automatically after we get saved, it is a deliberate attempt to live a life of faith. Once we understand that there is nothing that we can do to make God love us more, then we realize that we need to have faith in what He has already done. This is the most productive place we can be in our spiritual lives, where we realize our efforts are futile and His provision is more than enough

"Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls" - Matthew 11:29

     Jesus is our rest. It is not a day or an idea, it is a spiritual reality, one that is imperative for us as Christians to walk in if we are going to finish the race strong and make a difference along the way. For too long now, we have relied on our own efforts and have gotten worn out quickly, dropping from exhaustion along the way. Let's be diligent to enter His rest by His grace, let's take Jesus up on His offer to take up His yoke. Rest in Him and you will be surprised at how productive you'll become!

*All scripture quoted from the NKJV