The Violence of Grace

The Violence of Grace

3/5/12

Grace is a term that Christians and non Christians use as a reference towards God and His allowance for us to live within His spiritual guidelines.  In this message is designed to enlighten us into the depth of grace and what it actually means to our lives.  This message will also expose how humans trace this word into their daily vocabulary as the simultaneously walk away from this concept and of course the restoration portion of grace will bring into play the concept of real grace and the importance of its content.

Some of you probably are wondering why I am including non Christians into this message, it is a good question and here is the reason why.  Many people believe that only Christians live under the grace of God, well, they don’t all of actually live under His grace to some degree.  If all people did not have this opportunity then why did Jesus talk to the people that were not associated with the church, including the lepers, prostitutes, tax collectors, etc, etc?  Our concept of grace solely depends upon the means that God grants us each day and in this stance we owe everything that we have to Him.  So, if this is the case I must include everyone in the grace concept since we are all humans and are living on this beautiful place called earth.

There are many definitions of grace that come to mind when someone asks for a definition, the main one concerns ourselves with God and His allowance for us to make human mistakes all the while understanding the consequences of our sins.  But have we really taken a hard look at what actually happened when grace became an option to our lives?  How many times have we known that our present actions are wrong and then claim grace for our covering?  What was the penalty that had to be paid for this grace and once we know this grace, how should we live our lives accordingly?  This is the reason I have trouble with people when they throw out this word in common language and thought.

Most of know the story of when Jesus went into the tabernacle and began overturning the tables inside.  Remember how astonished the story portrayed the people and how they could not understand why he was so upset?  Jesus understood that God’s place of residence was the tabernacle, and it has been said that our bodies are tabernacles so the concept of grace applies to both settings.  We view the tabernacle as a spiritual place where we go to worship, then the same applies to our human spirit as well and given our unique Godly creation the concept of grace becomes our lifeline with God.  Grabbing the connection?

Remember the movie “The Passion of the Christ”?  Remember how much publicity it received about how violent the movie was and how it was not suitable for the majority of the younger generations to view it?  Ever wonder why no other movie with this violent content was fussed over?  It was because the spirit was in play in this movie and to date that movie probably has been the closest to depicting actual events of that time.  None of us will ever know the exact events but you can imagine the scenery that took place; it was similar I know.

Another daring thing to say concerning this movie is the aftermath that took place with the director of the movie, remember him?  And how his faith was placed into the forefront during this time?  What happened to him shortly after the success of the movie began to run its course?  A few compromised standards, or grace beliefs, and he fell hard.  Everything that the movie did to propel God’s Kingdom forward was replaced by the advancement of Satan’s kingdom with a few human acts, which strengthens my position and beliefs on the spiritual matter of this topic.

This is the violent part of grace that we tend to forget about and why it is important for us to keep this part of grace in our fore thoughts and not in our casual daily language.  What Jesus endured during his trial and beatings was unimaginable and there is no way that we can compare this deed with anything known to man that places a spiritual context to this act.  The stripes that Jesus bore for us were the sign of grace that we should keep in our minds when we think of wrongdoings.  The carefully planned scheme of torture was enjoyed by the soldiers administering this sentence and who could forget the pinnacle of grace while Jesus was on the cross and recognized the repentant heart of the thief.

Grace was one of the founding concepts of Jesus’ ministry when He walked the earth which in turn slapped the church leaders in their faces in front of all humanity to witness.  Grace takes the religious laws and intertwines them together in such a way that both can be followed with an open mind of forgiveness.  Not a type of forgiveness that ignores the truth or a law that condemns a person when evil is done, but an enlightenment of the spirit within us to recognize the perils of our acts and remember not to perform these evil acts again.  It provides the sea that God tosses our sins into and it also represents the basis of kingdom principles.

The early church fathers lived these persecutions on a daily basis, they saw many things that we do not face today, but the latter church leaders have forgotten about the true meaning of grace and have allowed the “passive” grace message to infiltrate its walls and have embraced it as a true teaching.  Church leaders, including the leaders of top positions have used grace to account for their treasonous acts towards people who do not believe in the same likeness.  Churches have watered down this message of grace to the point where the ones who drink of it cannot even tell any difference from the message of the world.  This watered down message of grace has been preached and progressively embraced over the centuries and it is time for us to call upon these leaders to stop believing these lies and to overturn the tables in our sanctuary.  There is nothing grace waters down so too should we not pour our own glasses of water into the mix. 

When we add water to things the water dilutes the original state and the flavor or the true taste is drawn out of the recipe.  This is exactly what humans have done to the concept of true grace and at the same time have provided a false sense of security dealing with to those who do not believe in God.  We have diluted grace down by adding our own principles to its concepts and these ideas only serve to limit grace and its intended purposes in our lives.  Jesus did not go into this torture half-heartily and we should not live with the results that he gave us in the same way.

Jesus understood that our sanctuary represents our spirit which is a clear example of why He went to great lengths to make it known his displeasure of the activities within the sanctuary.  We need to get on the same playing level as Jesus did and to renew the relationship that God provided through the willingness of Jesus.  God is about to complete Jesus’ tabernacle actions in our sanctuaries, and grace will not be an issue at that time.  Now is the time to restore our sanctuaries to their rightful places and restore the true meaning of grace within our lives.

So when we say that we are thankful for the grace of God we must have no excuses to violate that grace by continually living in a manner that would test the lengths of that grace on a voluntary basis.  It is our duty and responsibility to live within the confines of that grace and to protect it with our lives so that true grace can be revealed to others that do not know about this grace.  It is a wonderful thing that Jesus paid this price for the grace that we live in but keep in mind that it really was a price that was paid.  Restoring the grace we once believed in should be a motto of our lives and not just a phrase that we throw out in casual thinking.  When we speak concerning grace we need to ensure that we use the word with conviction and not in useless slander of its meaning. 

Spirit understands the importance of grace and what it means for the human.  The entire meaning of grace is another example of a supernatural event that we cannot fully understand but the portions that we can understand we need to embrace and follow as if our life depended upon it, and to be honest it does.  Grace is a condition that was created so that when God looks through our lives He sees nothing but the blood of His son.  God knows that there is no way that we could actually be innocent and He recognizes that when He looks through the blood He sees people that loved His son enough to obey the laws set forth by God.  This is the true act of grace so why would we care to water down the desired effects of the grace that protects us.  Return home and give up our glasses of watered down grace and begin to re-live immaculate benefits of true grace. And everything that it has to offer humans.

Our relationship with God depends upon grace that the blood gives to us and this grace was paid for with a violent exchange of events.  True forms of violence always sheds blood for the cause and God’s plan was that His son provide a pure sacrifice so that all mankind can witness grace and be washed in the blood of the lamb.  I am not exempt from this watering down situation since I have ignored the grace that has been given to my life, in other words I too have poured water into the blood that was shed for me and if you say that you have not then you just added another glass.  Restoration only comes from the blood of Christ and by no other way. 

DLB