The Scandalous Truth About Grace

This is not an article about God’s grace as much as it’s an article about how grace penetrates the fabric of our soul and changes us forever. Simply, do we take in the fullness of grace as we have experienced it in our salvation, and have we allowed grace (that fullness of salvation) to transform us to the point we give up the rights to our own lives? – That we genuinely follow the Lord Jesus.

We need to take God at his Word – to save our lives we must lose them.

To lose our life in presenting ourselves as living sacrifices on a momentary basis doesn’t happen without a myriad of almighty struggles.

The trouble is when we finally do take God at his Word life will change radically. Another trouble is sustaining the change. A further trouble is that life will get discernibly harder, not easier.

When we become followers of Christ we forego our wanton sin – the vestiges of pride and envy and greed that we engage in without ever holding an account with anyone, let alone God. We actually come to be followers of Someone Else and we surrender our self-lead and self-will. This is the fruit of the Spirit as it manifests generally through a disciple.

The question is, is God in charge? Is God in charge in my life? Is God in charge in the life of the Christian you are now submitting yourself to? These are crucial questions.

It doesn’t matter what we know – all the volumes of head knowledge, the Bible verses we have memorised, or even how much we pray. It’s the blueprint in the heart of a character who truly gets that the gospel and its vibrant grace is expensive and it costs every true believer.

The scandalous truth about grace is not so much that it’s amazing. The scandalous truth about grace is that it asks more of us in terms of surrender than we are often willing to give.

It’s a reprehensible scandal that we wish to take all the benefits of our Saviour’s life, death and resurrection, without actually devoting ourselves to him. Yet, even as we betray our Saviour daily, such is grace that we are always so fundamentally forgiven.

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We’ve heard it said ‘we are saved to serve’, but true Christian faith is primarily ‘we are saved to surrender’. Salvation and discipleship are indivisible. Has God truly got your life?

© 2014 S. J. Wickham.