Wow! From Grace to Grace to Grace!

[HKHaugan]

We have been talking about God’s grace as the spiritual atmosphere that sets the pace for understanding God’s purpose behind Creation, our existence and His desire to have a relationship with us. Grace is the quality of His life that sets the pace for His recovery of each of us through faith. It is the basic attitude of God that is filled with His initiative to make Himself known, His love real, and His faithfulness all the way into eternity.

When you consider that Jesus went to the Cross for each person that has ever existed, past, present and future, He was showing the depth of His grace regardless of their indifference, their rejection, their total self-centeredness and their hostility to Him. It was His grace that inspired the Sermon on the Mount, which could even be called The Grace Sermon. When you read its first series of verses, the ‘Blesseds’ (Mt.5), it is God’s grace imparting His grace blessings, His attitude of grace that He is sharing with the reader. They are the attitudinal correctors that help us to shift from our sinful attitude of ‘me first’ to His attitude of love and honoring others before we consider ourselves. It is His grace that enables those blessings to work. They are living blessings, spiritual waves that wash across the beaches of our fears, our imperfections and our self-grinding attitudes, to replace each grain of our attitude with His.

For those who recognize the attitudes they carry into every day life, God’s grace challenges them. Take for instance the perfectionist’s attitudes that plead for everyone else to see their unreal perfectionism and to unrealistically expect others therefore, to be as perfect as they are. Or what about the pessimistic attitude that sees everything as potentially negative? Then you have a variety of attitudes that flow from superiority to inferiority with blended variations. These attitudes are what the Bible calls strongholds which are attitudes we develop outside of God for personal heart protection (2Cor.10:4 NIV). Most of us are a complex mixture of attitudes a few of which we just mentioned. Beneath them all are the spirits of pride and defensiveness rooted in the spirit of fear, the consequence of departing from faith in God.
All of that was your old life, your pre-Jesus life, conditioned by the world around you. But now “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (Eph.4:22-24 NIV).
Having said all this we need to see the vast contrast between God and man when it comes to attitude. We were born again and have a new life, a spiritual life, an eternal life. This is the good news, with God the Son there is only one attitude, one stronghold. Philippians 2:5-9 says this, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!”
Jesus’ attitude? Being a humble and obedient servant of His Father. His Father was His stronghold. This is why David said God was His stronghold in 2Sam.22:3. As the Son of David, Jesus was the Messianic fulfillment of that attitude. All of His teachings, activities, conversations, relationships, social and religious interactions were with a consciousness of being a humble and obedient servant of His Father. That attitude is the one we are called to embrace. Just as we are taught that there is One Lord, one faith, one baptism one God and Father of us all (Eph.4:5) so there is only one attitude and one grace, God’s. It is this attitude we are in need of learning.

It is this theme of God’s singular attitude of grace that permeates the whole of Scripture. But God’s grace is what He wants to share. The Greek word for grace is xaris from which we get the word charismata, grace gifts. God wants to share His grace so He has given us these charismata, literally things of grace, gifts of grace. They are the practical spiritual means that enable us to share His grace and be graceful, full of grace, as we relate to others. There is no question that everything from the revelation of Himself in Jesus to the fruit of the Spirit (Gal.5:22-23), to the incredible insights of Holy Scripture to the inclusion we receive as members of His Body and a life of purpose that stretches beyond the confines of this world into eternity, yes, all of these are gifts.

But the one-on-one daily relational life we live is in need of practical spiritual application. Thus His specific gifts that build His family. They are mentioned in seven passages we have cited in previous discussions. All of them without exception are designed to serve, to build our servant’s attitude as we are called, to have His attitude, Jesus’ attitude of servanthood.
First, Romans 12:3-8,
Second, 1Cor.12:4-11,
Third, 1Cor.12:27-30,
Fourth,1Cor.14:1-5,
Fifth, !Cor.14:26,
Sixth, 2Cor.8:6-7
Seventh, Eph.4:11-13
Plus others are mentioned in singular verses in other letters. “Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed (1Cor.1:7 NIV).”

“We all live off his generous bounty, gift after gift after gift (Jn.1:16 the Message).”