Category Archives: Godly Living

The Abuse of Grace

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I don’t know if you’re familiar with the Bugatti Veyron, but it’s a magical machine. It has 1,000 horsepower.

That’s right — 1,000. It has a special key you must insert and turn, while at rest, to allow it to use all those horses. When you do, it will travel over 250 mph. That’s powerful. The special key is a safety feature, because Bugatti knows that a lot of power can be very dangerous.

Have you ever noticed that almost always, when something is very powerful, it is very dangerous? Take a waterfall for example. As beautiful as Niagara Falls is, it would be a dangerous place were it not for the railing. Or farm equipment. Perhaps one of the most dangerous places to work is a farm because of the power of the machinery. Or tools. There was not much danger in an old hand-saw. But there is great danger in power tools.
The more power, the more danger.

This is true of grace. Grace is a powerful thing. The Bible tells us that grace is more powerful than law.

Romans 8:3a (NIV) For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering….

The Law of Moses is powerless compared to grace. Grace is the only thing powerful enough to procure your salvation, to keep you from judgment, and to find you forgiveness. Without grace, you would be forced to face God’s wrath.

Yes. Grace is powerful. And with that power, comes great danger — the danger of abusing grace. This podcast addresses this danger and encourages us to avoid it at all costs.

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What does it mean to be a Christ-Follower?

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What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus? Does it demand things of us?

The Bible clearly teaches that it costs nothing to have your sins forgiven. Jesus paid it all. He took all the punishment as he hung on the cross. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Forgiveness, regeneration, justification — these are free gifts from God through Christ. But the idea of following Jesus without there being a cost in doing so is completely alien to biblical teaching. The New Testament church would have considered such a concept as nonsense. So would Christ-followers in places like Sudan, Somalia, Pakistan, or Iran.

This podcast speaks about the meaning of discipleship — the reality of being a Christ-follower.

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A Key to a Meaningless Life

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Some time ago, a couple came to the local churches asking for financial help. When the pastor asked, “Where do you attend church?” the answer was, “We don’t.” They are professing Christians, but they don’t go to church anywhere. This is common.

I was thinking about why folks who call themselves Christians don’t regularly fellowship with other Christians, and while I know there are a variety of reasons, I think one reason is because they have been injured in the past. Sometimes avoidance of church is symptomatic of aversion to social interaction in general.

However, God created us as social people. The phrase, “It is not good for man to be alone” does not only reveal the origin of marriage, but verbalizes our need to interact with others. This interaction is essential if our lives are to have real meaning.

Paul Borthwick stated this well just over two decades ago.

It is possible to evade a multitude of sorrows through the cultivation of an insignificant life. Indeed, if a man’s ambition is to avoid the troubles of life, the recipe is simple: shed your ambitions in every direction, cut the wings of every soaring purpose, and seek a life with the fewest contacts and relations. If you want to get through the world with the smallest trouble, you must reduce yourself to the smallest compass. Tiny souls can dodge through life; bigger souls are blocked on every side. As soon as a man begins to enlarge his life, his resistances are multiplied. Let a man remove his petty selfish purposes and enthrone Christ, and his sufferings will be increased on every side. (Paul Borthwick, Leading the Way, Navpress, 1989, p. 86)

Borthwick says a mouthful in those few words. He speaks of being significant. He encourages sanctified ambitions. He addresses the purpose-driven life.

To me, he’s saying: Brave the pain, risk the injuries, and dream big for the sake of being significant in the eyes of Christ.