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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The Need for Grace

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Some of the most emotionally healthy people I know are by no means perfect. And they do not live in a perfect world. They are people who are imperfect, who know they are, and who have found grace in Christ so they can move past their own failings — so they can forgive themselves and let Christ change their hearts. And they live among people who are imperfect. So they show those people the same grace they have received.

In contrast to this, some of the least emotionally stable people I know are those who beat themselves over the head for their failings because they cannot accept the grace God offers them. And they don’t pass such grace on to others — but instead they hold grudges, remember offenses, and keep accounts of grievances.

They live by one of two errant equations:

If I am perfect, then I will be emotionally healthy. 

That’s just plain wrong. Since you can’t be perfect, you’ll never be emotionally healthy as long as you hold to that paradigm.

If the people around me were perfect, then I would be emotionally healthy.

Wrong again.

You’ll never find a perfect family, a perfect workplace, a perfect church, or a perfect neighborhood. Those equations are just false.

This sermon speaks to the universal need we have for grace — the need both to receive and to give out grace.

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The Nature of Grace

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A pastor I knew had just cared for the funeral of a woman who had never given God the time of day until the week before her death. There, on her death bed, she repented of her sin and placed her faith in Christ. The pastor, hoping his people would rejoice over this child that was lost and had been found, mentioned this on the following Sunday in the morning worship service.

He was surprised when a woman spoke up with: “That’s not fair.”

It’s not fair.

It’s grace.

But if you have been working hard to coax God to accept you, it’s a little exasperating when you hear of someone who finds what you’ve been looking for comes by grace.

This podcast speaks of the nature of grace, looking at the parable of the workers.

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