Sounds a Lot Like Grace.

One of the things which comes shining through in 2 Corinthians 8:1-15 is Paul’s profound desire to see the deep need of the Mother Church in Jerusalem met, and her impoverished condition assuaged, by the Gentile churches.  He wanted the Body of Jesus in one part of the world— which owed its very existence to the Message, the Mission, and the men who had gone forth from Judea— to meet the material needs of the Body in another part of the world.  This entire section, the entirety of chs. 8-9 together, are a reminder to the Corinthians and to the Church in Achaia of their duty and a challenge to their generosity.

A couple of thoughts on this section of Scripture.

Paul uses two shining examples in his ‘apostolic appeal.’  One is the “Macedonian churches” who, in his own words, were “extreme” in their “poverty,” yet “rich” in their “generosity” {v. 2}.  They were under the gun of trial and tribulation and still their “joy” was intact, so much so that “they gave all they had and even beyond,” more than anyone could’ve expected, including Paul {v. 3}.  So much so that they “pleaded ...urgently” with Paul and Titus for the “privilege of partnering in this service to the Saints” {v. 4}.  Find me a Pastor who wouldn’t love to shepherd a flock like this!

During the Feast of Purim, among the Hebrews there is an ancient custom which essentially says, ‘No matter how poor you are {or imagine yourself to be}, there is always someone worse off than you.  Find them ...and give to them freely.’  You are to give a gift with no expectation of return.  Hmmmm... this sounds a lot like grace.

Unfortunately, it’s often those who have the least who are most prepared to share it.  People in poor families, poor churches, poor communities meeting each other’s needs.  You know why?  Cause they know what it’s like!

The other concrete example of character Paul draws on is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  The sacrifice of the Son of God did not begin on Calvary’s Cross, not even in the Incarnation.  It began in the Ages of Eternity, in the unnamed eons before His virgin birth, when the Son laid aside His heavenly glory and laid down the prerogatives of Deity, stood up from His Throne, looked over to His Abba and before all the Hosts of Heaven said, “Here am I.  Send Me.”  Two words, powerful and pure: I will.  We use them in wedding ceremonies all the time, as a consecration of one soul to another, as a pledge of fidelity, a promise of love, a covenant between us.  “Who will go?”  “I will, Abba, I will.”

What exactly do we have a right to refuse with a King like this before us, with the shining example of the Son of God burned into our souls?  Tell me, again, how your ‘rights’ take precedence over your ‘responsibilities’ ...how your ‘precious time’ is more important than the issues of ‘Eternity’ ...how receiving mercy is fine but giving it, not so much.  Now tell your Redeemer, if you dare.

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
hjcommunity.org
Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously

Love Without Deeds Is Worthless.

“Faith without deeds is dead” {2:20b}; love without deeds is worthless.  It’s a simple enough premise.  It should be intuitive, understandable, easily comprehended.  And yet it’s not.  So ...what happened ...why does this seem so foreign to so many of us ...and why would it stir up such controversy in the Body of Christ?  The natural progression of our intimacy with Abba, the fullest flowering of our faith, our trust in a Father greater and more gracious than we can humanly imagine, more faithful and forgiving than is humanly possible, is love for those around us.  And the easiest expression of love is to do good for others— quite often, whether they deserve good done to them {because ‘deserve’ has got nothing to do with it!}.  This means seeking Jesus’ Kingdom in tangible, practical, real-time ways on their behalf and desiring His presence and power to reign over them.

If compassion is commanded of the Children of God, if compassion is what opens our eyes to the individual worth, the incalculable value, of every last sister or brother in the Body of Christ, if one of the main indictments brought against the Church over the past 60 or so years has been its lack of compassion for the poor and oppressed— the black, the red, the brown, the yellow, the homeless and the heartbroken, the wounded and weary of our world {all the loveless and lonely, the downtrodden and deserted?}— i.e., all those ‘others’ in society ...then how do we put this into practice?  I suggest we take a simple, inexpensive, deeply relational cue from someone who’s been there, down and out on the dusty Texas streets of Fort Worth for well over two decades.

“When I first got to Fort Worth, I remember a lotta times wishin that instead of given me money, somebody’d just ask me my name.  But after a while, when I figured out city folks thought I wadn’t no better than a speck a’ dust, my heart began to grow a tough hide over it, like a orange that’s been left out in the Sun.  My heart got harder and harder.  Pretty soon, all I wanted was for folks to gimme that dollar and leave me alone.

That’s when homeless folks that ain’t drinkin or druggin already make themselves a new friend.  Them half-pints and beers and little packets a’ white powder becomes their friend, their pastor, their storm shelter— a deep, dark, hummin hole they can crawl into to escape from themselves even if it’s just fo’ a little while.  They tryin to drown their problem— or burn it.

Now whatever drove them to the streets from the get-go is a problem, and whatever they is usin to escape is a problem.

So now they got two problems.”— Denver Moore in What Difference Do It Make?

When it comes to following in the Master’s footsteps the possibility, even the probability, of getting killed is part of the deal.  Apprenticeship to Jesus is a high-risk endeavor.  And sometimes our dying is to our own suffocating selfishness.  Amen?

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
hjcommunity.org
Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously

Faith Not Acted Upon Is Worthless.

Jesus’ brother told his 1^st century audience, and by implication you and I, that “faith by itself [meaning mere mental assent to ‘orthodox doctrine’ {like the ‘oneness’ of God: 2:19}, the intellectual acknowledgment that ‘this sounds true enough’], if it’s not accompanied by action, is dead”— nekros = ‘lifeless, destitute of force, destitute of power, useless’ {Jms. 2:17b}.  James closes his brilliant argument in 2:26 with this statement of finality: “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”

You think the apostle Paul would agree with James’ statement?  I think he would.  It was Paul who said, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value.  The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” {Gal. 5:6}.  “For we are God’s workmanship, God’s masterpiece,” he wrote in Ephesians 2:10, “created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  And to the Thessalonians, “We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ,” {1 Thes. 1:3}.

In Paul’s letter to Titus, his like-minded troubleshooter, there are twin themes running throughout its three chs., two ideals Paul comes back to over and over again.  One is “sound doctrine,” the other is “good deeds”— the actions which come forth from living with an unceasing attitude of faith in Abba.  The ideas of “good deeds” done in the name of our God and “doing what is good” under the authority of His Kingdom are mentioned six times in three chs. {1:16; 2:7 and 14; 3:1, 8 and 14}.  Titus sets an example for the young men entrusted to him “by doing what is good” {2:7}.  In 2:14 the Apostle speaks of Jesus as the One “who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for Himself a People who are His very own, eager to do what is good.”  “Remind the people,” Paul says at the beginning of ch. 3, “to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good,” v. 1.  After laying down how we’re justified by the glorious grace of God and are Heirs of Abba “having the Hope of Eternal Life,” he writes “I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good,” 3:8b.  He closes by telling Titus, “Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good...,” 3:14.

“Our People,” the Brotherhood of Believers, the Family of Faith, the Community of Christ-Followers, i.e., you and I in the here and now!  As my ‘sheeps’ have heard me say on numerous occasions, “Better now than never!”  This is the time, our time, and there is no moment like the present to live out the fullness of the Faith we claim.  And we are the men and women of gentleness and grace, the Lords and Ladies of fierce tenderness and relentless Truth who have been called to love a world broken, bruised and bleeding, selflessly and sacrificially, in intimate imitation of the Lord who gave us Life.  You and I are responsible to the people in our periphery... to live free and love well.  To live generously and love graciously!  And maybe, just maybe, stoop down close enough and stay there long enough to lift another to their feet once again.  “Your words have supported those who stumbled; you have strengthened faltering knees”— Eliphaz the Temanite to Job {Job 4:4}.  You’ve kept men and women on their feet ...and so shall we.

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
hjcommunity.org
Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously

Thanksgiving and Praise.

“It is the duty of nations as well as men to own their dependence on the overruling power of God.  To confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow and yet with a short hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime Truth announced in the Holy Scripture, proven by history— that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.

We know that by His Divine Law nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world.  May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people.

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven.  We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity.  We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown, but we have forgotten God!  We have forgotten the gracious Hand that preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our own hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.  Intoxicated with unbroken success we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving Grace, and too proud to pray to the God who made us.

It is seen to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and greatly acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people.  I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States and also those who are at sea, those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwells in the Heavens.”

— Abraham Lincoln

1863

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
hjcommunity.org
Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously

Dear Jesus.

“Dear Jesus,

In thanksgiving for what You have done for me, I will make known to my Brothers and Sisters how kind You are toward sinners.  And that Your mercy prevails over all malice, that nothing can destroy it, that no matter how many times, or how shamefully we fail {or how criminally}, a sinner need not be driven to despair of Your pardon.

It is in vain that Your enemy and mine sets new traps for me every day!  He will make me lose everything else ...but I will never lose the confidence I have experienced in Your mercy.  Jesus, I’m going to go tell it on a mountain.”

— a raging alcoholic, as he was working his ‘fifth step’

“I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that He considered me faithful, appointing me to His Service.  Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief.  The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.  Here is a trustworthy saying deserving of full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners— of whom I am the worst.  But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on Him and receive Eternal Life.  Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever.  Amen.”— 1 Timothy 1:12-17.

— the Apostle Paul, in ruthless honesty

“Now testify...

It’s right outside our door

Now testify

Yes testify”

— Rage Against the Machine

How does your testimony read?  If it hasn’t yet been written in pen and ink, or 0s and 1s, how will it read to the One who examines the human heart on the Day we stand before Him?  A lover of mercy who showed mercy to others, a receiver of grace who gave it out generously, a sponge of Jesus’ limitless love who let herself be wrung out for the world, a consumer of His compassion who turned toward everyone, including him or herself, with tenderness?  How will we be read by the Lover of Our Souls?

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
hjcommunity.org
Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously

The Human Experience.

Do you ever just feel disqualified from the Life Jesus offers?  As if Abba’s promises are for everybody... but you?  “Oh yeah ...those Christians, those Followers, those Disciples, but not me.  You don’t understand where I’ve been, what I’ve done, the things I’ve seen.”  It’s this feeling of ‘not being good enough for grace,’ too mean-hearted to receive mercy from the hands of the Spirit.

Well, welcome to the Human Experience.  “There is no one righteous” apart from Abba’s Son, “not even one” {Rom. 3:10}; Isaiah said, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to His own way,” 53:6.  Paul said, “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature”— Romans 7:18.  Notice he didn’t say, “in my soul” but “in my sinful nature,” in my ‘flesh.’  “I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out,” v. 18b.

Part of the problem in Christendom today is— across the denominational board, at least from a shepherding perspective— we seem to be drifting ever-further away from the Message of God’s awe-inspiring grace to restore we who’ve been stained by sin and redeem those of us under the enemy’s oppression.  We’ve mastered the art of moralizing and sermonizing and missed the lessons on loving— our Savior, our selves, and the lives of those we were meant to love.  We’ve given people the Law of God when what they long for is the love of God.  In the midst of this transaction, we’ve forgotten how to care for each other.

So, rather than spewing self-righteous contempt, why don’t we try glorifying the Son of God, the great Healer of the hearts of men, the One “who came to seek and to save that which was lost” and to proclaim liberty to all who are bound.  How many of us have read this passage?

“Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the Kingdom of God [The context is very clear, from v. 1 where adikos is translated ‘ungodly,’ ‘wicked’ here means ‘unbelievers’ {v. 6}.]?  Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers, will inherit the Kingdom of God.”  Then he say’s, “And that is what some of you were.  But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified [declared righteous in the in the eyes of Abba, acquitted of all your crimes] in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God,” 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 {NIV}.

Notice Paul’s conclusion.  “And that is what some of you were,” past tense, over and done, gone for good.  Your sin no longer defines you.  It’s an insidious scheme of the evil one to come to you in the midst of failure {big or small, doesn’t matter} and surround you with a cloud of condemnation and try to drive all thought of the Savior forever from your soul.  To whisper on the winds of the world, “You’ve blown it this time.  There’s no forgiveness for this.  You are a liar, a hypocrite, a loser… and there is not enough grace in all of Heaven to cover this one.”  And the sad thing is, most believers buy it.  They slink back into the shadows of shame and revel in their unworthiness, instead of lifting up their eyes to Heaven and proclaiming with the audacity of faith, “My past is redeemed and my future secure.”

God specializes in forgiving {and unlike us, forgetting}, in putting people’s sins completely out of sight— “as far as the east is from the west.”  There is a passage in the Psalms which speaks of God casting our sins behind His back {103:8-12}.  Jesus takes our missteps, mistakes, malfunctions and malfeasance and redeems them for His glory {Rom. 8:28}!  There is no soul so shattered, no life so lost, no heart so hopeless, that He cannot bring the deliverance you so desperately need— and so deeply desire.

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
hjcommunity.org
Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously

You Must Fight For Your Life.

“Until we come to terms with war as the context of our days, we will not understand life. We will misinterpret 90 percent of what is happening around us and to us. It will be very hard to believe that God’s intentions toward us are Life Abundant; it will be even harder not to feel that somehow we are just blowing it. Worse, we will begin to accept some really awful things about God. That four-year-old little girl being molested by her daddy— that is ‘God’s will’? That ugly divorce that tore your family apart— God wanted that to happen too? And that plane crash that took the lives of so many— this was ordained by God?

Most people get stuck at some point because God appears to have abandoned them. He is not coming through. Speaking about her life with a mixture of disappointment and cynicism, a young woman recently said to me, ‘God is rather silent right now.’ Yes, it’s been awful. I don’t discount that for a moment. She is unloved; she is unemployed; she is under a lot. But her attitude strikes me as deeply naive, on the level of someone caught in a cross-fire who asks, rather shocked and with a sense of betrayal, ‘God why won’t you make them stop firing at me?’ I’m sorry, but that’s not where we are right now. It’s not where we are in the Story. That Day is coming, later, when the lion shall lie down with the lamb and we’ll beat swords into plowshares. For now, it’s bloody battle.

It sure explains a whole heckuva lot.

You won’t understand your life, you won’t see clearly what has happened to you or how to live forward from here, unless you see it as battle. A war against your heart.”

— John Eldredge, Waking the Dead, pp. 17-18

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
hjcommunity.org
Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously

What Do We Think When We Think About God?

A.W. Tozer once said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God may be the most important thing about us.” Is it a strong and loving Savior who shows me how to love; is it a forgiving Father whose grace enables me to forgive; is it a Spirit of holiness and honor, purity and power, who leads me in the Everlasting Way, guiding my steps and strengthening my soul?

Or is it the Parental Hangover {dear ‘heavenly version of my earthly father’}, the Eternal Policeman, God the Grandfather {whom I like to call the ‘Senile Philanthropist,’ ever ready with a wad of cash to give us what we want but never what we need}, the Angry Accountant in the Sky, adding up our misteps and mistakes, waiting with hand raised in gleeful anticipation to knock us into yesteryear... slap the sin right out of us?

Well, whatever it is, whatever ‘image’ is burned into your consciousness, seared into your soul by a loving, supportive, protective family of origin {or the lack thereof} or a viciously legalistic and condemnatory church, will be the single greatest factor in how you live or don’t live, what you do or don’t do, say or don’t say, believe or disbelieve ...as well as the why behind it all, the motive which Abba is most concerned with. One more time, just for the sake of our spiritual and emotional health: motive is the deepest level of holiness we have available to us. Period. It is the ‘why’ behind the ‘what.’ Why we do what we do - by way of service to God and sacrifice for others - and why we don’t do what we don’t do - by way of sin and selfishness, arrogance and criminality - is the most critical component in the Life of the human heart.

We neglect it - and the image of Abba, Papa, Daddy which shapes it in Truth and with Grace, in strength and love, with courage and compassion - at our peril....

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
hjcommunity.org
Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously

Desire Is Destiny.

There’s a particular phenomenon in the grammar of the New Testament which you might find interesting.  It lies at the heart of what it means to follow in the Master’s footsteps.  It’s called the subjunctive mood, or quite legitimately the ‘mood of volition,’ of human will, free agency.  We might even call it the ‘mood of potential.’  Verbs in the subjunctive mood are used over and over again in the writings of the Apostles and Prophets, often frequently in a single context.

What do they mean for you and I?  Well, there’s a little equation at work in the Kingdom of God.  Potential + Capacity = Reality.  There’s a potential out there which Abba desires for us, and we’re meant to desire for ourselves.  It’s something we can have or something we can not have; it’s something we can receive or something we can reject.  Our primary priority is salvation, redemption through the Son of God.  The potential of eternal deliverance, when you add the capacity of faith, equals the reality of grace.

Let’s look at this in light of three things.

 I.  Deliverance {from sin, darkness, and death}.  It’s a potential for every last member of the human race, especially for the least and the last.  How do you receive it?  By faith.  When the capacity of faith in the finished Work of Jesus is exercised, the potential is no longer potential.  Now it becomes reality.

II. Growing As a Child of God.  Babies, Adolescents, full grown Sons and Daughters, Heroes of Faith, and onward and upward into Friends of God.  It’s a potential for every Lover of Jesus alive on planet Earth right now!  There is, just like in redemption, a capacity.  Once again, the capacity is faith— faith on a step by step, moment by moment, day by day basis.  The reality comes one Spirit-enabled step at a time.

III. As Abba’s Children look beyond the Cross and beyond our own growth spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually, we begin to look to the Crown.  And we know that the ‘Crowns,’ the rewards, the decorations for valor in conflict and competition, have a price.  There’s only one qualification for these honors— faith.  If you qualify for salvation, you get it.  What’s the qualification?  Faith.  If you qualify for growing into Abba’s likeness, you get it.  What’s the qualification?  Faith.  You have to embrace it, be willing to believe, reach out in trust and turn loose of control, to grow one more step ...and when you do, there it is.  If you want spiritual blessing, temporal power, and historical impact, how do you qualify?  Very simple— by faith!  When you qualify, you have it.

A person qualifies for martyrdom by having a faith which is above and beyond most ‘believers,’ a passion to know Jesus personally and powerfully.  That’s what the Apostles had, a relentless passion for the Person of Jesus.  This kind of love, relentless and undaunted by the weight of the World, will change a destiny: a single human life, a marriage, a family, a Community of Faith, a city, a state, even an empire.  Desire is destiny.

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
hjcommunity.org
Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously

Love Offers Absolution.

To experience the Life we long for, the very Life of Jesus flowing from within us {Jn. 7:38-39}, we must come to grips with this simple fact: true freedom can be found only in forgiveness.  As long as the weight of your wounds stands squarely on your shoulders, and the shame of your sins lies hidden in your heart, you will never be free the way Abba intended you to be.  And you will live in chains, love in fear, and worship half-heartedly, as one of the ‘walking wounded,’ one who’s never found Jesus’ healing and restoration for themselves.  To be honest, who hasn’t felt like one of the Walking Wounded ...condemned to wandering the shame-filled wasteland of our own bruised and broken past?

Yet, hope arrives— as it frequently does— in the form of Love.  1 Corinthians 13:5 says, that “love” {the passionate and powerful agape of God} “is not rude,” it never disgraces others or dishonors itself; it keeps a sense of grace and tact in all circumstances.  And “it is not self-seeking.”  Love does not insist upon its rights, but rather remembers its responsibilities.  How many problems in life would be solved, just simply avoided, if this one single thought were always on our hearts?  Life is not about me ‘demanding my rights,’ though there is a time and place to stand up for them; but the time and place is not to ‘prove my rightness’!  It’s not about what I believe life owes me, it’s about the phenomenal debt I owe to the Lord Jesus Christ, the ‘duty of desire’ which demands my allegiance to the King of all Kings.  Paul goes on to say, “love [as it flows from the heart of Abba and through our hearts by His Spirit {Rom. 5:5}] is not easily angered,” which means love does not view life from the angle of anger and exasperation.  Exasperation, as anyone who’s ever been married or had a child understands, is a sign of defeat.  It means the Battle is not going well.

Finally, the Apostle says, love “keeps no record of wrongs” {NIV}.  This final phrase is from logizomai, an ancient accounting term, which spoke of ‘recording something in your ledger in order to hold it against somebody and punish them for it.’  It means you keep a long list of grievances locked away in your soul which, when the time is right, you take out and tally up.  It refers to relationships where we’re constantly asking, “Are the positives outweighing the negatives or are there scores I need to settle?”  Understand this: God’s Love never holds a grudge; it keeps no record of wrong, sin, or evil.  It is not resentful, ever-longing for revenge, and as TLB puts it, “will hardly even notice when others do it wrong.”  Wow.  Where is this love today?  We hear about it, we teach about it, theologians and story-tellers alike love to write about it, songwriters galore sing verses about it… but where is it?

If we’re going to keep our souls from being burdened with a lengthy list of unforgiven grievances, if we’re going to guard our hearts from the enemies of bitterness and resentment, we’re going to have to learn how to forgive.  Plain and simple.  As the Father in His Son has forgiven us— Romans 4:6-8; 1 John 2:12; cf. with Mark 11:25; Colossians 3:13; and 1 John 1:9.  Abba offers us— in the words of author Brennan Manning— “gratuitous forgiveness,” complete absolution for any wrong we may have done.  Should we not do the same for those we claim to love?

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
hjcommunity.org
Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously

Nullifying the Effect of Grace.

In Galatians 5:4 the issue is no longer ‘works plus faith’ for salvation {as earlier in Paul’s Letter}, now it’s ‘works— circumcision, obedience to the Law, social justice, tea-totaling, militarism, nationalism, the right kind of political opinions, etc.— plus faith’ for intimacy with the God of all grace.  The Apostle is waging war not just against legalism but against anyone, be it Judaizers, Gnostics, or any other group or organization which distorts the Gospel of Grace and impedes the unbeliever’s access to relationship with Abba.  “You who are trying to be justified [‘declared righteous in the eyes of Abba, eternally acquitted of all your misdeeds and sinful sidesteps’] by Law have been alienated from Christ: you have fallen away from grace,” 5:4.

Katargeo means- ‘nullify the effect of, render inoperative; deprive of force, influence, or power.’  The Saints in Galatia were, by their own actions, ‘nullifying the effect of grace, rendering it inoperative in their lives and relationships— primarily with Abba, then as always happens, with each other— ‘depriving grace of its force, influence, and power’ in their experience.

In this section {5:1-6:10} Paul’s teaching centres around an outworking of grace designed to correct the havoc this false teaching was causing in the Galatians’ lives.  This is why in vv. 1-3 he said, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.  Mark my words!  I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.  Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised, that he is obligated to obey the whole Law.”  When you look at the context of vv. 1-4, there are at least three things which stand out immediately, three things worth noting.

 I.  In Christ there is grace.  Jesus is the Author of grace and the Source of grace.  Since we are “in Him” from the moment we trusted Him, we have all the blessings, resources, and provisions of the Kingdom of Grace at our disposal, something no other People before Pentecost had been able to say.

II.  In grace there is freedom.  Not the freedom to do just as we please, to follow the “sinful nature” down a path of self-gratification, but the Freedom to live and love by the Spirit.  We’re not functioning as automata in Christ— jack-booted brownshirts who look the same, speak the same, act the same, just going through the motions, oblivious to everything around us— but as individuals in Christ.  In this ‘freedom of grace’ the ultimate Role-Model is not some man or woman out here in the world, but the King of all Kings.

III. In freedom there is power.  We have the ‘spiritual power’ to operate according to His will and His Word, not out of fear, coercion or manipulation, but out of love, passion and desire for who and what Abba is!  This unconquerable power is the omnipotence of the One who indwells us.

The Galatian Saints had left the realm of grace, those gorgeous, shimmering Fields of Grace, and were operating in the realm of law.  They had taken their stand on legalism, on them earning and God owing, as opposed to the lavish generosity of Jesus.  And Law and grace, legalism and grace— pre or post-salvation— are mutually exclusive.  They cannot coexist!

The solution, as almost always in Scripture, follows right on the heels of the problem.  Paul writes in v. 5, “But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope [‘for which we wait with conviction and assurance’].  For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value.  The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love,” v. 6.  You seeing this?  “The only thing that counts....”

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
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Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously