Lose That You May Find (Part 4)

Thursday, Mar. 26, 2009 Posted: 11:02:01AM HKT

God's grace thus tells us that ”God is on our side and thus we are victors regardless of how well we have played the game." Therefore, what now happens to the grace-touched believer, is not— as the success-themed gospel message so often tells us— that we are now free to pursue without guilt all our innate dreams and present pursuits to continue "climbing" this world's ladder to success. Rather, what now happened to the grace-touched believer is that knowing God accepts us just as we are in all our failure, we are now free to no longer pursue the "success" dreams the world has laid upon use.

We are now free to let it all go— to take the existential "leap of faith," and fall into thin air. We now are willing to fall freely along with the downward current of God's grace. For the river of God's grace flows naturally not upward but downward. That is why God gives grace to the humble and not the proud. The grace-touched disciple thus worries less about what to wear or what to drink, because he or she has come down to the level of the birds in the air, and the lilies in the field (Matt 6:25-34). Because such a disciple no longer worships mammon (Matt 6:24), he receives all things in life, no matter how big or small as God's gifts, and thus as expressions of God's grace. Thus, the disciple is free to serve the kingdom of God, and so go downwards with the flow of grace (Matt 6:33).

When the Gospel is preached in all its fullness, it possess the power and revolutionary purpose towards the entire social, economic and racial settings of our lives. The Gospel in its fullness will challenge the entire social order we live within, and it will confront us in all we have taken for granted in our previous stations within the existing social order. For when in our wealth, God calls us to Himself, our entire life within the material plane of existence, becomes suspect, questioned, and critiqued by the values of kingdom. Yet because the disciple is welcoming his deliverance from the dark side of wealth and acknowledging it as the god called mammon, the disciple thus now embraces Jesus' life and so steps into the footprints of Jesus.

The freed-up disciple that has been touched by grace, is thus willing to embrace the script laid out for him by the Lord Jesus— the redemption that comes through entering into Jesus' kenosis, and thus His "riches to rags" story. Yet thank God that this “riches to rags to riches” story paradoxically leads us back to true riches, which involves the process of being conformed to the likeness of Jesus Christ. Consequently, there will always come a point in time when the graced-touched disciple, will be confronted with a genuine “call” to in some manner or way, express a solidarity with the poor of this world. This is inevitable because just like water, grace goes downward. And its power will pull us towards its rushing, downward destination towards the sea, where it brings fresh life to all things.

Entering into Jesus’ kenosis, the process of allowing Christ to script our lives according to his pattern is the only true and authentic response to God’s grace. Two things naturally happen when God touches us through His grace, which is the river of His grace. First is that this same grace flows through us. Second is that we flow with His grace, which is flowing downward. Grace will always lead us into service, servant-hood, and servant-leadership. God’s grace is the water that flows from the high places to the lowest places.

Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |

Rev Monte Lee-Rice
The Christian Post (Singapore) Guest Columnist