{"id":156,"date":"2006-07-29T09:07:29","date_gmt":"2006-07-29T15:07:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/?p=157"},"modified":"2006-07-29T09:07:29","modified_gmt":"2006-07-29T15:07:29","slug":"journey-towards-grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/?p=156","title":{"rendered":"Journey towards grace"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the past several months, I have been on a journey towards grace.\u00c2\u00a0 It began in earnest when I received “The Ragamuffin Gospel<\/a>” by Brennan Manning last Christmas, although I believe God had already been preparing me for this road. When I read the book, I realized I would need to read it a few times in order to truly process it.\u00c2\u00a0 I knew the message was true but it was in opposition to how I function at the core of my being.<\/p>\n

Even though I have heard about God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s grace all my Christian life, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand it.\u00c2\u00a0 There is a message supported by church culture which opposes God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pure message of grace.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve heard sermons preached on devotions, prayer, service, etc.\u00c2\u00a0 They were preached in order to help people become \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcbetter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Christians.\u00c2\u00a0 In this is the lie.\u00c2\u00a0 When we start to believe that by doing certain things we can somehow make ourselves \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcbetter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Christians, we invite legalism to enter in.\u00c2\u00a0 The more we live in this lie, walk it, breathe it, preach it, the further removed we are from an understanding of the true gospel of grace.\u00c2\u00a0 In this framework, it is difficult, if not impossible for us to understand what God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s grace truly is.<\/p>\n

Legalism is so subtle.\u00c2\u00a0 Everything preached can be supported by scripture, however when the message becomes \u00e2\u20ac\u0153do these things in order to be a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcbetter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Christian\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, it distorts the message of the gospel.\u00c2\u00a0 It denies the whole reason why God had to send Jesus to die on the cross.\u00c2\u00a0 Because no matter what we ever did, there would be no way we could make ourselves \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcgood\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

As I have been on this journey towards grace I find myself having less and less motivation to follow the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcold code\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.\u00c2\u00a0 My longing to be stripped of the trappings of legalism so I can know what God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s grace really is has overridden that.\u00c2\u00a0 I have no desire to do things because that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcsupposed\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 to do as a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcgood\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Christian.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m finding it takes far too much effort to try to \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcbe good\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and do the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcright\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 things.\u00c2\u00a0 I just want to follow God because I love Him, but I realize there is a lot that I do as a Christian where that is not the main motivating factor.\u00c2\u00a0 Rather I am compelled to do certain things because they make me \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcgood\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in the eyes of my fellow Christians.\u00c2\u00a0 Does it make me \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcgood\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in the eyes of God?\u00c2\u00a0 As Isaiah says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6all our righteous acts are like filthy rags\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (Isaiah 64:6).<\/p>\n

I have deliberately chosen to step back from the things once considered paramount to being a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcgood\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Christian because I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t doing them for the right reasons in the first place.\u00c2\u00a0 I feel I need to do this for a time in order to better understand God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s grace.\u00c2\u00a0 It hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been easy.\u00c2\u00a0 Guilt and condemnation want to creep in telling me what an unfaithful, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcbad\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Christian I am for neglecting these things.\u00c2\u00a0 Even though I feel the twinges of guilt, it also re-enforces the fact that I have been bound by legalism.\u00c2\u00a0 Why would I be feeling guilt for not \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcdoing\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 certain things when we are all saved by grace through faith?\u00c2\u00a0 If I truly believed this in the depths of my being, I could accept myself as I am just as God has accepted me, through Christ\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work alone, not through anything I do or do not do.<\/p>\n

My soul cries out to know God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s grace.\u00c2\u00a0 I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to live in bondage to rules and expectations anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 I want to be free to follow God because I want to, not because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m supposed to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the past several months, I have been on a journey towards grace.\u00c2\u00a0 It began in earnest when I received “The Ragamuffin Gospel” by Brennan […] Read More<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}