A Debtor To Grace

Recently, I was asked the following question: "Do you think that the reason so many of our young people (saved) have gone or are going astray is because we talk and teach so much about grace?"

I thought, and continue to think, that this is an excellent, but exceedingly sorrowful question. I don't think that the teaching of Grace is the issue, as much as the simple, beautiful freedom of Grace itself. If God the Father was really the big, fearful puppet master in the sky, He could just stretch out His hand and throw a bolt of lightening every time one of us sins, and, "Zing!", we'd be obliterated down to a burnt lump of charcoal. And I'll betcha that after that happened a few times on each continent, well, the old sin problem would probably be under control. and we'd all be a well trained bunch of puppets, wandering around down here living in fear. Now, we'd still have choice, but it would look like this: Sin=Immediate Death, or Don't Sin=You Get to Keep Living. And sometime I think it would just be so much better that way. It sure wouldn't be as complicated. But God didn't want to be a controlling master; He wanted/wants to be a loving one. He gives us our freedom in order to better show us who He truly is: Loving, Giving, Protecting, Almighty, Merciful, Gracious, Gentle, Caring, and the list goes on and on. But with the freedom comes that choice to do things His way or the way of the world.

There's nothing easy or cheap about His grace. We were bought at an incredibly great price: the death of His Son. The only way that sin could be atoned for was through the sacrifice of One who Himself was sinless. And that debt that He paid for us set us free(those who believe in Him) from the penalty of sin, gives us the ability (through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit) to be free from the power of sin, and ultimately has guaranteed freedom from the presence of sin in our glorified bodies. But right now, while we're living this life, we have choices to make. Each and every one of us(regardless of age) decide to ignore, or take advantage of Grace each and every time that we choose to sin. Regardless of the "size" of the sin, we're saying somewhere inside of ourselves, "God will forgive me. He promised He would."

What will it actually take for us to truly grasp what Grace is and live it out in each aspect of our lives? A tattoo on the hand, a catchy song, a little saying on a social networking site? Why isn't the Gift itself enough that it's seared in our brains and displayed in everything that we do??

Grace. May we not take it for granted, ignore it, or take advantage of it. May we choose to live in grace and act out of the grace that was given to us through the ultimate sacrifice of our Redeemer.

"Oh to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be,
Let They goodness like a fetter bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love.
Here's my heart,O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above."

"Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" by Robert Robinson