Lose That You May Find (Part 4)

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

If just once we have received God’s grace, we are like the growing disciple named Much Afraid, in Hannah Hurnard’s spiritual allegory, Hind’s Feet in High Places. While climbing the high places towards the Shepherd’s Land, she heard the rushing water’s song as it flowed down the mountain: “Come, Let us go away— Lower, lower every day . . . from the heights we leap and flow, to the valleys down below. From the height we leap and go, to the valleys down below. Always answering to the call, to the lowest place of all.” And once Much Afraid surrenders to that call, she receives her new name, Grace and Glory. God's grace comes to those who in sheer abandonment surrender to the downward flow of grace. The grace-touched disciple prays, "Abba, I abandon myself into your hands. Do with me what you will. Whatever you may do, I thank you. Into your hands, I commend my spirit. I give myself; I surrender myself into your hands without reserve, with boundless confidence, for you are my Father."

I will now bring this essay to a closure. I will do so by briefly mentioning a few areas where proponents of the success-themed Gospel, as well as the rest of us living within a consumerist culture, can begin to demonstrate some kind of “counter-culture” witness, through this season of financial turmoil. As just discussed, I will do so from the premise that these are also a few areas reflecting our decision to fall freely downwards along the river of God’s grace, even as through the power of His Spirit, He has poured out His grace upon us. These are just some very brief thoughts, which have come to mind over the past few days.

If the success-themed “grace-centered” church wants to find its call and centre within the greater Body of Christ, then it will have to embark on four broad movements. First, it must acknowledge both the “dark” and “light” sides of material wealth. Second, it will have shift its mindset away from the world’s “rags to riches” idea of redemption, and back towards the biblical paradigm plot of “riches to rags,” foremost modeled for us in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. In so doing, there are obviously endless implications that this basic paradigm shift would create within the entire life and ministerial ethos of any given church or movement. Third, and which would create other major paradigm shifts within any Christian community or movement, it would be to embrace the “full Gospel” of God’s grace. This is only possible by embracing all the major purposes of Christ’s atonement. Such would indeed result in a truly orthodox and robust Christian message of grace, as it holds in tension the two needful dictums of us “in Christ” and Christ “in us” (Rom 8:10; Gal 2:20).

Finally, you will have to embrace the fear of the Lord.
“Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour; and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” (Matt 4:8-10)

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