On Grace and Mercy Combined

Posted on April 15, 2016 Written by Mark McIntyre Leave a Comment

I read the following paragraph in Learning Evangelism from Jesus by Jerram Barrs and thought I would share it with you:

“But Jesus was a different kind of holy man and teacher. We have already seen that Jesus did not seek to keep apart from sinners. He also did not turn sinners away. Jesus did not abuse sinners, single them out for condemnation, or avoid them. Rather, he was a teacher who spoke words of comfort and grace to them, a teacher who showed them such respect, honor, and love that many of them responded by happily turning away from their sin. This, of course, was what happened in the life of Zacchaeus. Grace and mercy are far more effective means of creating love and devotion than condemnation. A new affection for Christ has a much greater power to drive out sin and bring lasting repentance than any sermon on moral improvement, or any program for straightening out one’s life.”

The problem with this is that to follow in Jesus’ footsteps in this regard will get a little messy. The lines of demarcation will get a little blurred. People might criticize us for associating with the wrong kind of people.

But messy and blurred are poor excuses for doing what we are called to do. Yes, it is uncomfortable to interact with people that are different from us. But that is what we are called to do.

Perhaps one of the reasons we shy away from interacting with “sinners” is because they remind us of our own failures. In reality we are all sinners, but some of us are better at hiding it than others. We are all just one poor choice away from a moral train wreck.

If we are honest, the fact that we are not moral train wrecks has more to do with God’s grace than our ability (Tweet this) to live out the Christian life. So why not extend that same grace to others?

Grace combined with even a modicum of mercy will have a powerful effect.

What if we followed Jesus’ example?

Posted on March 29, 2016 Written by Mark McIntyre 1 Comment

In reading through the Gospels, I am reminded that it is possible to take a strong stand against sin while honoring and loving those who participate in it. A paragraph that I read in Learning Evangelism from Jesus captures this thought well:

“But Jesus was a different kind of holy man and teacher. We have already seen that Jesus did not seek to keep apart from sinners. He also did not turn sinners away. Jesus did not abuse sinners, single them out for condemnation, or avoid them. Rather, he was a teacher who spoke words of comfort and grace to them, a teacher who showed them such respect, honor and love that many of them responded by happily turning away from their sin. This, of course, was what happened in the life of Zacchaeus. Grace and mercy are a far more effective means of creating love and devotion than condemnation. A new affection for Christ has a much greater power to drive out sin and bring lasting repentance than any sermon on moral improvement, or any program for straightening out one’s life.”

What would our world look like if the whole Church followed Jesus’ example in this?

What would the world around me look like if I followed Jesus’ example in this?

Ashley Madison and Matthew 5

Posted on September 13, 2015 Written by Mark McIntyre Leave a Comment

There have been many articles responding to the release of names associated with the Ashley Madison web site, a site where prospective adulterers could find connection.

Some have expressed surprise and dismay that Christian leaders have been found to have their names on the list. But I don’t think that we should be surprised. The church is not filled with people who have it all together. We know this because they let us in and we do not have it all together. Whether our failures are obvious to others or not, we all fail.

So let’s put down the stones before someone gets hurt. There is not a person alive that has not had his or her mind taken to places that it should not go. As Christians, we have to learn to “take every thought captive” and redirect the trajectory of our thoughts.

Why is this important? In Matthew 5:27-30 Jesus tells us that adultery starts long before any physical activity takes place. Adultery takes place first and foremost in the mind. Adultery begins with lust and lust is the real problem.

Rather than our condemnation, we should offer to those on the list our sympathy and prayers. Certainly, they were wrong to flirt with or commit physical adultery. But every human has crossed into territory that he or she should not go whether the thought was acted upon or not. Knowing our own hearts, and how easily our minds can be driven off course, we should have some understanding of how those on the list got there.

The problem is essentially one of idolatry. Lust takes place when we seek something that provides a distraction or what we think will be lasting satisfaction. Lust is essentially trying to meet a legitimate need by illegitimate means. Any desire for sexual fulfillment that is contrary to the prescription of Scripture is harmful and wrong.

Rather than worship God through the legitimate means of meeting a need, we worship a false god when we turn to the illegitimate. That false god can be a person or an experience.

Now that it is all in the open, the illegitimate desires can be addressed and help can be sought. Let us as a group of believers skip the condemnation and offer the needed help. A few thoughts come to mind:

We can create an environment where it is OK to be not OK. In other words, we need to develop church cultures where brokenness and failure can be admitted without shunning or other ostensibly anti-Christian behavior.
We can more accurately teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Some well-meaning Christians acknowledge that salvation cannot be earned and they try to earn it anyway. They then turn around and teach others to do so. When we understand the Gospel, then we can let ourselves and others be where we currently are, knowing that God is in the process of making us better.
We can do a better job of understanding how the Gospel speaks to the issues in the culture around us. Scripture speaks to our motivations and our need for transformation.

When Hootie and the Blowfish agree with Jesus on something (John 8:7) then we should pay attention.

You without sin, pick up that stone

Intentional about Grace

Posted on February 28, 2015 Written by Mark McIntyre 2 Comments

Recently I had a dialog with a pastor friend about the tendency for churches to have correct teaching about grace and have their practice of it break down. My friend made the observation that “works-righteousness is the default mode of the human heart.” After observing myself and others, I am forced to agree with him.

The Church of Jesus Christ should be the most gracious place on the planet but often it is not. If we are not consistently preaching the Gospel, if we are not reinforcing our need for a savior, if we are not intentional about living under grace, then we will become what the world thinks we are.

A definition of the Gospel, which I got from Tim Keller, is this (this may not be a word for word quote, but it is how I remember it):

We are more deeply flawed than we ever dared imagine,
But we are more deeply loved than we ever dared believe

If visitors to your church do not come away with the impression that you believe this, then you have missed an opportunity to present the true Gospel to people who desperately need to hear it. All of us need to hear this message reinforced on a regular basis.

Failure to believe the first part of Keller’s definition leads to spiritual pride and a false sense of superiority. Failure to believe the second part leads to despair and the feeling that I will never measure up.

The point is that we don’t need to measure up. 2 Cor. 5:21 tells us that Jesus did the “measuring up” for us. So why do we try so hard to do so? Jesus loved us, the entire God-head loved us, before we were even born and despite the mess we’ve made.

I need to acknowledge that my heart rebels against the first part of Mr. Keller’s statement. I don’t want to admit that I am flawed beyond self-repair. My pride wants to think that I am better than I am and I am less in need of grace than I really am. I want to appear to others better than I really am.

This is why we need to be intentional about preaching the core of the gospel and we need to be intentional about demonstrating grace. If we are not intentional about it, works-righteousness will cause us to veer off course and before we know it we will have a Pharisaic congregation who despises the tax collectors and sinners. Rather than a loving one which embraces those who are willing to admit their need for a savior.

The question is, “How is it that we can sing about grace and look down on our brother?”

We need to be honest in answering this question. Because if we are not honest, the world will continue to think we are judgmental and pompous, only because we are.

Tim Keller on Freedom

Posted on April 12, 2014 Written by Mark McIntyre Leave a Comment

“Luther preached that there was nothing more important for a person than to see that he or she could contribute nothing whatsoever to one’s own salvation. We can be fully accepted and counted legally righteous in God’s sight through faith in Christ, solely by free grace. To understand and grasp this is to finally know freedom from the crushing burden of proving yourself – to society, family, other people, or even to yourself. It means freedom from fear of the future, from any anxiety about your eternal destiny. It is the most liberating idea possible and it ultimately enables you to face all suffering, knowing that because of the cross, God is absolutely for you and that because of the resurrection, everything will be all right in the end.
The belief that we are saved by our virtue, the state of our hearts, or our good works injects a heavy layer of uncertainty and insecurity in our lives. If God’s treatment of us is conditioned by the quality of our lives, and the quality of our lives is always far from perfect, then we can never be sure he is completely for us, loving us. To escape this uncertainty requires that you dispel any illusion that through your wisdom and strength you can either create a safe and good life for yourself or put God in the position of owing you such a life.”

Tim Keller in Walking with God through Pain and Suffering

Selective grace in the church

Posted on May 22, 2013 Written by Mark McIntyre 24 Comments

Grace is a word that Christians frequently use, too often glibly and without proper thought. For example, I have been in several churches with Grace in their titles who offered very little of it to the people who attend.

We all want grace, but sometimes struggle to give it when it is most needed. Perhaps this is why Jesus placed such an emphasis upon forgiveness, going so far as to say that He will not forgive those who refuse to forgive others (Matthew 6:15). Offering grace must be intentional and is sometimes difficult because it goes against our natural inclination.

What is even more bothersome to me is that in some churches, selective grace is offered. Selective grace is in operation when some people receive grace and others do not. Often this is due to the background of the person who needs grace.

In a denomination that I formerly attended many of the pastors would often refer to their drug abuse in their “B.C.” days. They would use their former behavior as an illustration of God’s grace, and rightly so. They did indeed receive grace and despite their past failures God uses them in ministry.

The problem comes in when some other sins are less likely to receive grace. In some churches, those who have experienced divorce, those who struggle with same sex attraction, those with mental illness and those who might disagree on minor points of doctrine receive anything but grace. Even in that denomination with the formerly drug addled pastors, selective grace was a struggle and some people were treated in a manner inconsistent with grace.

Let’s be honest and admit that sometimes we encounter Christians who make us uncomfortable. If we do not make a conscious effort to build bridges with those who make us feel uncomfortable, then we are likely to withhold grace from them.

Some make us uncomfortable because of their background or lifestyle. It is as if we want everyone cleaned up completely after becoming a believer. The problem is that we are all in the process of being cleaned up, yet sometimes we hold others to a standard we can not meet.

I have been in churches where those who came out of a “sinful” lifestyle continued to be suspect, no matter how they progressed in their relationship with Jesus or their understanding of Scripture. Sexual sins in particular seem to put people on the suspect list. I have also known of churches where divorce was treated as if it was the unpardonable sin.

Perhaps even worse than this is to withhold grace over a difference in belief or practice. Examples of some issues over which we might withhold grace are these:

How the gifts of the spirit are manifested
How prophetic portions of Scripture are to be interpreted
Whether a person is liberal or conservative in their politics
The preference or abhorrence of liturgy in the worship service

This is not an exhaustive list, we could find many more issues over which Christians have divided.

We cannot be selective in how we demonstrate the grace of God in our lives. We need to follow the example of Jesus in the way he was gracious to everyone, including the Pharisees. Ephesians 2:8-9 is often quoted as indicating that we are saved by grace, yet the verses preceding verse 8 set the correct context.

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:1–9, ESV)

Apart from Christ, we were dead in our trespasses and sins. In other words, we crossed boundaries that should not be crossed and we fell short of the standard we know was in place. Yet, God gave us grace, the very grace that saves us.

How can we do anything less than offer that same grace to others? We must put an end to selective grace.