Monthly Archives: May 2009

Grace found

Grace

Luke 5:11 “And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.”

I’ve been thinking on Luke 5 for the past week, preparing a bit for an upcoming family camp on the life of Peter. This verse, in particular, has struck me.

This verse is the summary of Peter’s, James’ and John’s response to the call of Christ.

There they were, set for life. They knew who they were – fishermen. They had a steady job. They had partners and families. They had an identity.

And Jesus came and turned that identity upside down. “Get away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” Peter exclaims. Knowing who he was, and then understanding that Jesus was calling him, Peter gladly dropped all he was to follow.

The way that Jesus enters the life of Peter is a longer subject. What I’ve been marveling at here in v.11 is the response that Jesus provokes in the ones who respond to the call.

They don’t need whipping. They don’t need another check on the radical commitment of the Christian. They don’t get a rulebook on what they need to do to follow Jesus.

Rather, the sign of the changed life of these men is that they “left everything and followed him.”

As I reflect on my own life and the lives of others I know who are Jesus followers, this is the radical heart-change of brokenness and Jesus-focus that He has brought about in them, too. To His glory and by His work.

The wondrous reality of a life invaded by God is that He’s utterly worth following. He has changed our identities forever, from electricians and mechanics and doctors and housewives, from husbands and fathers and wives and daughters, from honor student and musician and pauper and millionaire… to abject sinner. To adopted child. To follower of Him. To eternal worshiper.

This response in Luke 5:11 is the glad response of a changed heart.

I suppose I could stop here and ask, “Christian, do you have this all-encompassing changed heart?” or “Christian, here are four commands to make sure that you are following Jesus rightly.” But don’t you see that such questions miss the point? If the answer is “no,” then you’re not a Christian. If you’re whipping yourself to show you’re following, maybe you need the essential life-alteration of the risen Christ.

Perhaps you need Peter’s perspective, seeing his own sinfulness then joyfully discovering that Christ wants him nonetheless (and not just wants him, but will die for him).

Our response to the incarnate God who has invaded our lives is such a radical identity shift, that we will lay down our own rights, our own desires for self-justice, for self-worth, for self-fulfillment… and run after the only one who really saves.

Praise to our Savior, our blessed hope… may we joyfully follow Him forever, because like Peter, we’ve found grace.

A proclamation for today

In Christ

Well… I should be calling this “practical grace, monthly” for all the paucity of posts… much (good) going on in other areas of my life, for which I daily praise our Savior!

Proclaim the good news: we're in Christ!
Proclaim the good news: we are in Christ!

I’ve been chewing on Colossians 1:28 today, after discussing it with a friend. So often my post-conversion Christian life becomes about worrying if I’ve broken the rules, or slogging through a tough day. My Christianity can become one more task to be done, one more responsibility to be handled.

Which is why this verse is really exciting. Here’s the verse:

“We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.”

Hmm. Admonishing and instructing doesn’t sound all that grace-oriented, does it? Great, you might think, another warning, another heavy burden of what I have to do as a Christian.

But that’s not it at all. Two really wonderful observations:

1. “Him we are proclaiming” — Paul is talking to the church, to believers. And he cries out, we are proclaiming Jesus! So day by day, after the Colossians were saved, Paul was still proclaiming Jesus. Still focused on the Savior. Still talking about the impact of who Jesus is, what he’s done, and why it matters. Preaching Jesus isn’t “just” to get people saved… He’s for every single moment of our lives on earth.

Wow, how I need to hear that every day. My Savior lives! His blood spilled for me! His perfections, mine! His righteousness, given! My salvation, assured — because of Him. And He continues to mold me, shape me, pray for me. “Him we are proclaiming,” that’s the focus.

2. The continual wonder of the Gospel is driven home by the context. Paul writes that He proclaims the mystery shown to the saints, to whom “God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). The Christ that Paul is proclaiming is the Christ who is in us, our only hope of glory.

This leads to a bit of a different emphasis for the “warning” that Paul is doing. Warning — don’t find your hope of glory in anything else. Warning — don’t swim back to self-righteousness, merit, or anything that might de-emphasize the amazing union you have received, being in Christ.

That’s why he’s so eager to be proclaiming through “teaching,” too. He has such a great struggle that the Christians there — and us, too — might have the “full assurance of understanding… of Christ Himself” (Colossians 2:2). We have been given such riches! If only our eyes would be opened to the amazing knowledge of God’s reality: we are His children, we have an eternal inheritance, and the mere moments on earth that we have should be gloriously poured out in moment-by-moment proclaiming of the wonders of our Savior.

So consider this proclamation for you, for me, today: Christ in you, the hope of glory! May we rejoice in our union, lean on Him, live lives for Him, because of what He’s done.

May we proclaim on earth what we will shout forever in heaven: Worthy is the Lamb!