Receiving God’s Grace

Jesus said, “If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed” (Jn 8:36 NASB); but how many Christians are actually living as though they’re free? Some portray the look of a death row inmate awaiting the day of execution! There are believers living with regret over past mistakes and sins, and they just can’t seem to move on. They appear unable to obtain the freedom that Jesus promised.

Jesus said, “My burden is light” (Mt 11:30), but many live from day to day with a weight of guilt on their shoulders that hinders them from moving deeper in their walk with Christ. Whenever they mess up at some small task, or when they mess up spiritually, they beat themselves up emotionally and sometimes even question their salvation.

I remember a young woman who would come to the front of the church week after week to pray for salvation, and as she walked the isle she appeared dejected and ashamed. When I would counsel with her at the altar, I discovered that when she committed sin during the week that she would feel condemned. She also believed that she had lost her salvation over one transgression.

It’s all too easy to question how God could love such a sinner. A believer can feel as though he or she isn’t receiving their just punishment, and then inflict self-punishment by declaring oneself as worthless and unlovable. One can even go so far as to stop spending time with the Lord, because they feel unworthy to come into His presence.

Michael was a new father, and he was not about to let his wife’s first Mother’s Day pass uncelebrated. But she was a nurse, and on that particular day she was working at the local hospital, and they weren’t able to celebrate together at home. So Michael put his new son, Jason, in the baby carrier, drove to the hospital and in front of all the patients and co-workers he surprised Miriam with candy and flowers and balloons that said, “World’s Greatest Mom.”

It was a great Mother’s Day. But after celebrating, it was time for Miriam to go back to work, and Jason and Michael to go back home. Michael gathered all the things that had been part of the celebration: the candy, flowers, and balloons. It wasn’t as much fun taking those things out to the car as it was taking them into the hospital for the surprise. He tossed the candy on the front seat and got the flowers arranged on the floor where they wouldn’t tip over. And he pulled the balloons in out of the wind and got everything arranged, and headed home.

On the way home, people began to honk their horns and flash their lights at him. He didn’t realize what was going on until he hit fifty-five miles per hour on the highway. He heard a long scraping noise go down the roof, followed by a loud thump. He watched in horror in the rearview mirror as the baby carrier bounced off the trunk onto the highway and began to slide along behind the car.

Michael screeched to a halt. He ran back down the highway to the baby carrier. Jason was okay. As the waves of guilt and fear and relief began to wash over him, Michael fell on the highway and began to sob, which did not stop a passing policeman from writing him up, nor the local newspaper from writing a story about it. A reporter interviewed Miriam, who showed amazing understanding. She said, “It’s so unlike him. He really is a good father.”

While there’s a part of us that says, “How could he do that?” there’s another part of us that relates to Michael. We recognize all the mistakes that we have made in life, the dumb things we have done born out of hurry or frustration or distraction. We know that there is enough Michael in each of us that we could be guilty of such things too.(1)

Each of us makes mistakes that are sometimes worthy of severe punishment; however, God forgives us and loves us for who we are. This is a lesson the apostle Paul had to learn, for he too struggled with sin. In Romans 7:14-15 and 18-19, Paul said, “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do . . . For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for the will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.”