My dad used to work as a lineman for a rural electric company. I can remember him mentioning how he would sometimes install conduits. An electrical conduit is a pipe through which wires are pulled. They house the wires to protect them from harm, and to protect people from electrical shock.
The definition of a conduit is “a means by which something is transmitted” and “a pipe, tube, or the like, for conveying water or other fluid.”(1) One relevant synonym is the word channel.(2) A channel is “a course into which something may be directed, a route through which anything passes or progresses” and “a means of access.”(3)
One reason why God saved us is to become a conduit of His grace. We’re to become a channel into which His grace is poured and through which it’s conveyed to others. However, it appears as though many believers are neither totally receiving nor sending God’s grace through their lives.
Grace, which is God’s free gift of salvation from our sins and His eternal favor, is gained only by freely receiving it. It’s not something we can earn or gain by our works (Eph 2:8-9). In receiving God’s grace we must open our heart and let it flow in and through us, and be cleansed and renewed from within.
Once we have received God’s grace we’re expected to give it away to others. Jesus told His disciples, “Freely you have received, freely give” (Mt 10:8b); but I have to ask, “How many believers are freely giving God’s grace to others?” An even better question is, “How many believers have actually received His grace themselves?”
I have to wonder if some believers have received God’s grace, for they’re certainly not extending it. When a fellow brother or sister in Christ falls into sin, or when a person doesn’t fit the typical church-going mold, some believers are quick to judge and condemn instead of extending the grace that God so mercifully offered them.
If we do not know how to demonstrate grace, then this is a good indicator that we’ve not yet understood or received God’s grace in our own heart. We can’t give away what we’ve never received or experienced. The same condemnation we find ourselves dishing out is likely the same that we’re feeling in our own heart.
It’s really sad to see a believer not living in the joy and freedom of God’s grace, but it’s even more tragic when a believer doesn’t allow those around him, such as friends and family, to live in the freedom of grace.
In this message we’ll gain an understanding of some of the ways in which we can demonstrate a lack of acceptance of grace in our own heart and life; and we’ll be shown how to overcome the blockage of grace that we might be experiencing.
It is my hope that we’ll be able to break free from self-condemnation, as well as the judgment that we might be placing on the hearts and lives of others.
Living Apart from God’s Grace (Colossians 2:20-23)
Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations - “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” which all concern things which perish with the using - according to the commandments and doctrines of men? These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh (Colossians 2:20-23).
Paul shared how some of the Colossian believers were living as though they were still a part of the world, and as though they hadn’t yet received God’s grace. They were continuing to live by human standards of righteousness, instead of by the standard of grace found through faith in Jesus Christ.
Some of them were constantly concerned about making sure they weren’t eating the wrong foods or touching things that would be considered unclean. They were trying really hard to please the people around them by being sure to keep the numerous commandments imposed on them by men. They were likely doing such things as fasting, being sure to pray at certain times of the day like clockwork, being careful to wear their hair and clothing in certain holy and acceptable ways, and being sure not to spend time with unbelievers.
Paul said these things have an “appearance” of wisdom (Col 2:23), meaning that there’s no real wisdom in them at all. He said this kind of self-neglect and self-imposed religion is only false humility (2:23), and these particular Colossians were actually taking great pride in seeing how humble or righteous they could behave.
A Self-Imposed Righteousness
So, do believers act like this today? Yes they do, for I once acted this way. I was raised in a Christian home and attended church weekly, and I was a good little boy who never did anything wrong; or so I believed. I didn’t receive Jesus into my heart until I was sixteen-years-old, because I thought that I was going to heaven for being a good person. When I was finally saved I still harbored a self-righteous mentality, though I didn’t realize it for the longest time.
My works-based way of thinking manifested itself in many ways. First, I made sure to read my Bible and pray at certain times each and every day – which is good if our heart is in the right place. For me, part of the reason was pure, because I hungered for the Word; but there was still another part of me that felt I had to do it to make God happy. How many of us spend devotional time with the Lord for the latter reason; to earn His favor?
I also made it a point not to associate with unbelievers, for I feared they would lead me astray (see 1 Corinthians 5:9-13). If one of my Christian friends were living in sin I would judgmentally think to myself, “How could he ever do such a thing? He must not love God.” It never occurred to me how any one of us could mess up at any time, and that I needed to be careful about judging.
I went around acting like a gentle, shy, humble person; but the thing is, that I really wasn’t humble at all. As Paul pointed out it was a false sense of humility (Col 2:23), for I actually took pride in acting humble and righteous. Taking pride in humility is a huge “oxymoron” and can definitely make us look like a “moron.”
Paul called this a self-imposed religion (Col 2:23). It’s certainly not from God. It’s something that you and I have created for ourselves. If we look back to verse fourteen, it can be seen that Jesus wiped out all of the “manmade” requirements for righteousness. We read how He “wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross” (2:14).
Manmade requirements for righteousness are against us because they will never direct us to the freedom that can be obtained in Christ. We can never do enough to earn God’s love and approval; however, the awesome thing is that we don’t have to earn His approval, for He already loves us for who we are.
The Lord will come to us right where we are in our sin, and invite us to become one of His own dear children. The Bible says, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while were sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8).
If we think that we have to do every little thing just right, then when we mess up we’ll feel unloved and defeated, and feel like a complete failure. At this point condemnation will start creeping into our life. However, Paul declared, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (Rom 8:1).
Whenever we manufacture self-imposed requirements for righteousness then we have not yet received God’s grace in our heart and life. In fact, we do not even understand His grace; and when we hold ourselves to such high requirements, we usually tend to do the same thing to the people around us.
God shows us His grace but it stops in our own heart, and then we can’t send it on to anyone else. Whenever we hold ourselves to our own lofty standards, then when we look out at others and they fail to do exactly what we would do or act the way we would act, then we can have a tendency to condemn them just as we condemn ourselves whenever we fall short.
Grace can’t flow through us when we won’t receive it ourselves. The only thing that will flow forth from us is judgment, condemnation and spiritual bondage. When we haven’t received the Lord’s grace then we enslave ourselves, and we attempt to do the same thing to others.
In 1 Corinthians 4:6-7, Paul informed the Corinthian believers not to think of themselves more highly than others in relation to their faith in Christ. He said, “Now these things, brethren, I have . . . written, that none of you may be puffed up on behalf of one against the other. For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?”
Paul told the Corinthians how the favor that each of them had received from God did not come by way of anything they did on their own. He presented them with a question that can be applied to believers today: “Who makes you differ from another?” (1 Cor 4:7). To answer this question, believers are the ones who make themselves differ from others through their own pride.
The favor that we have found in Christ is something that we have “received” from God and we did not gain it ourselves; so what have we to be puffed up about? Many believers need to come to the realization that God’s favor is “received.” If this fact could be understood then self-created expectations would vanish, and the condemnation that believers feel within themselves and extend toward others could be eliminated.
Experiencing His Grace Firsthand
It can be difficult to receive God’s grace if we’ve never felt the need for His grace. There are a variety of testimonies of how people came to know the Lord, Jesus Christ. Some have lived terrible lives with drugs and sexual promiscuity, and yet others were good little boys and girls. It seems, however, that those who have traveled the farthest to find the Lord are often the most grateful.
People are intrigued by the testimonies of those who went from the very depths of hell to serving God wholeheartedly. I would actually like to hear more stories of those who were raised in church and came to know the Lord before the world could get a hold on them; but even so, those who’ve hit rock bottom and then found Christ have some amazing and life-changing testimonies.
Those who’ve fallen hard are the people who tend to be the most passionate and on fire for the Lord, because they truly understand the great depths from which they have been saved. It’s difficult to understand God’s grace until you have truly experienced firsthand that He will love you no matter where you’ve been and no matter what you’ve done.
It sometimes takes a great fall for a self-righteous person to grasp the enormity and vastness of God’s grace. The life of the apostle Paul serves as an example of what I mean. Paul, who was formerly known as Saul, was a very self-righteous man. In Philippians he recounted his life like this: “[I was from] the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law blameless” (Philippians 3:5-6).
In Galatians he stated, “For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it. And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers” (Galatians 1:13-14).
Paul said that before he ever received Christ as his Savior and Lord that he was a Pharisee. A Pharisee lived by the traditions of men, and was a legalist who tried to gain God’s favor through the keeping of the law, and went around condemning others who failed to uphold the law. A Pharisee was a very self-righteous person. Paul was so self-righteous that he persecuted and killed those who didn’t agree with his theology, namely the believers in Christ (people of “the Way”; cf. Acts 9:2; 19:9, 23; 24:14, 22).
On the road to Damascus, Jesus spoke to Paul asking why he was persecuting Him, and the Lord also blinded him (Acts 9:1-9). Paul then began praying, and the Lord showed mercy on him by having Ananias lay hands on him to heal him (9:10-19). God decided to show mercy on this horrible and self-righteous person; and He even used a believer, one of the very people whom Paul persecuted, in this healing miracle.
Paul was so overwhelmed by God’s grace that he began to preach about Jesus in the synagogues immediately (Acts 9:20). He began to preach in the name of Christ so quickly because he was truly on fire for the Lord! He was excited because he had been shown mercy despite his self-righteousness and horrible acts of violence against Christians.
Paul realized that “the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23a). He knew his fate; however, he soon discovered God’s free gift (the grace) of “eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord” (6:23b). Elsewhere, Paul stated that God had called him from his life of legalism and persecuting believers “through His grace, to reveal His Son in me” (Gal 1:13-16). You see, sometimes a person will have to land flat on his back before ever looking up; and in looking up realize his own imperfections and God’s amazing grace.
No one is perfect, and we must realize this fact before we can ever receive God’s grace or extend His grace to those around us. If we believe that we’re perfect and can do no wrong then we will see no need for what only God can give us, for we will feel self-sufficient in our own works and we’ll reject His grace. Also, when we think that we’re perfect, then we’ll compare others by ourselves (making ourselves the standard), and when they don’t measure up then we’ll condemn them.
We must stop measuring others and ourselves by our own self-created standards. We need to realize that we’re not the standard of righteousness, but Jesus is the standard. He’s the law by which we live, and He’s called, “the law of the Spirit of life” (Rom 8:2). Hopefully, we won’t have to learn the hard way by falling into the depths, but somehow we must begin to realize how greatly we require what only the Lord can give.
Grace Is All You Really Need
I stated earlier that it’s sad to see so many believers not living in the joy and freedom of God’s grace. They’re living like slaves under a heavy burden. We will never live in the freedom of grace until we come to realize that we, and anyone else for that matter, are not saved through works or by any good thing that we attempt to do in order to gain God’s favor. Paul said, “Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on [Christ] who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness” (Romans 4:4-5).
When we attempt to work for God’s favor then we commit ourselves to living under a debt that can never be paid. The Bible says that when we stop trying to work for God’s favor, then He goes ahead and cancels that debt, for it is a gift to us. Grace and salvation is a free gift that we can only obtain by freely accepting it, and we freely accept it by having the faith to believe that grace is all we need.
When we, through faith, accept God’s grace then we’ll finally be able to live in peace, for the Bible declares, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:1-2).
Once we begin to live in the joy of God’s grace then we’ll be able to pass it on to others, that they too may live in freedom and victory. Rick Warren says, “When you’ve experienced grace and you feel like you’ve been forgiven . . . you’re a lot more gracious to others.”(4)
Time of Reflection
If you are someone here today who is not receiving grace, but instead receiving condemnation, from another believer, Paul advises, “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power” (Colossians 2:8-10). Remember that Christ is your sufficiency, and you do not have to listen to those who tell you that you don’t measure up. You are complete in Him!
If you’re someone who’s dishing out condemnation, Paul says to you, “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt” (Col 4:6). God wants people’s lives to be full of flavor. He doesn’t want them to be bland with judgment. Therefore, believers must stop serving as conduits of condemnation, and begin serving as conduits of grace. You must become both a receiver and sender of God’s unconditional love.
If you’re someone who thinks you’re already perfect because of your religious works or because you’re a good person, keep in mind Ephesians 2:8-9, which says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” I want to invite you to come today and be saved through grace and faith in Jesus Christ.
NOTES
(1) “Conduit,” Dictionary.com: dictionary.reference.com/browse/conduit (Accessed January 27, 2010).
(2) “Conduit,” Thesaurus.com: thesaurus.reference.com/browse/conduit (Accessed January 27, 2010).
(3) “Channel,” Dictionary.com: dictionary.reference.com/browse/channel (Accessed January 27, 2010).
(4) Rick Warren, “Grace,” BrainyQuote: www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/grace.html (Accessed January 27, 2010).
