Obstacles To Grace

Maybe you’re sitting there wondering what this man is talking about. What is an obstacle to grace anyway? Well, men, it’s anything that keeps you from enjoying that loving relationship that God offers you through Jesus Christ.

You know the real life of us human beings takes place in the real world…a world that is affected by the consequence of sin.

Sin is nothing but self-centeredness rather than God-centeredness. I like to call it I-trouble.

Sin is all about you know making yourself the center of the universe and the standard for supreme goodness instead of acknowledging God as the rightful center of all creation.

Sin is also alienation. Man, that’s a big word. What does it mean? Well it means that you are foreign, or distant from God.

The Greek word for sin is an archery term that means, “To miss the mark or target.” We can miss the target in any number of ways. We can aim too high, too low; we are off course to the right or to the left.

Sin is anything that causes you to miss the target of God’s will for your life. It is anything that separates us from the love of God and the love of our neighbor.

In a broader sense, sin is anything that diminishes life. Sin can be an abuse of any part of God’s creation—the land, water, or the air, as well as plants, animals, and people. For Christians, anything less than the new creation in Jesus Christ falls short of the biblical vision. The Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come.”

There are two primary types of obstacles to grace; those that hinder our relationship with God and those that hinder our relationships with other people.

But through Jesus Christ we can overcome the obstacles to grace.

The cross of Christ is made up of two lines. One of the lines is vertical and the other is horizontal. The vertical line in the cross reminds us that Jesus Christ restores our relationship with God. In Christ we:

Remember our reconciliation—Jesus’ ministry began with the call to repentance, the offer of forgiveness, and the promise of eternal life. Mark 1:14-15 tells us: “After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee preaching the Message of God: ‘Time’s up! God’s kingdom is here. Change your life and believe the Message.’”

Remember our baptism.

Recover our identity as children of God—we center our faith in the cross of Jesus Christ because it stands as the most powerful witness to the central message of the Bible: God created us, God loves us, and God have his only Son that we might have eternal life. Somehow John 3:16 comes to mind here.

Receive the power to walk in the Spirit—The Christian life is possible if we accept the life of Christ as our model and rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to lead us in our relationship with God.

A life of grace involves the daily practices of piety, study, and action that we have learned about this weekend.

Resist evil and renounce the forces of the evil one. James 4:7-8 says: “Let God work his will in you. Yell a loud no to the Devil and watch him scamper. Say a quiet yes to God and he’ll be there in no time.”