Grace Received is Grace Given

Sin is deceptive. And we have all been deceived.

Sin is a sickness. And we all need a cure.

“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

I have been raised in the Church, have sat in the pews, sang the songs, recited the verses, said the prayers……. But I have not known sin……… until recently.

Was I a sinner? Of course. “Aren’t we all”… or at least, that is what I was told.

One thing that I have learned while counseling is that we can only accept others as far as we have accepted ourselves. We cannot love others, unless we accept love. We cannot trust others, unless we can be trusted. We cannot truly give what we do not truly have.

So what are we lacking?

As I watch the Church deal with sin, as I watch myself deal with sin, I sense fear.

We default to condemnation and avoidance.

We push away rather than draw close. We step back rather than forward. We pass the individual on to others rather than invite them into our lives.

What does this say about the Church?

What does this say about me?

What are we so afraid of?

What am I so afraid of?

Honestly….. I am afraid of the Church.

This is the bind we have been caught in.

We have all become “healthy”.

We have all become “righteous”.

But Christ came for the sick.

For the prone to depravity.

For the weak.

For me.

And when I am confronted with the opportunity to join the sick, I am afraid. I’m not afraid of getting the sickness, but of being considered sick.

We have forsaken our need in the name of “righteousness”.

We have forsaken grace in order to claim “holiness”

We have forsaken our brother in order to remain “clean”.

And I believe this to be our Ultimate Deception.

Righteousness is a gift, not earned. Therefore, we cannot lose it.

Holiness is being “set apart”. Not from each other, but for God.

And cleanliness is what comes out of a man, not what goes in.

Perhaps our biggest fear isn’t the individual’s sin, but the depravity of our own hearts – to know the depravity of our own hearts.

For only by knowing the extent of our own depravity, can we truly arrive at accepting the  Doctor’s cure.

Grace.