OVERVIEW & PURPOSE
Defaulting to Grace explores the nature and purpose of grace as taught by Scripture. The goal is motivating believers to examine their responses and reactions to uncomfortable situations, differences of opinion, and living as Christ-followers in a post-Christian age. It is grounded in Matthew 22:37-40
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
It is inspired by 2 Corinthians 8:7 wherein Paul wrote, "But as you excel in everything--in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you--see that you excel in this act of grace also."
What does it mean for those of us who follow Jesus to excel in grace? What does that look like? How do we manifest grace toward our brothers and sisters in Christ?
WHY THIS SUBSTACK
Ephesians 4:29
Hebrews 12:15
2 Peter 3:18
I have felt the burden for this topic increasingly over the last decade. It began when one child dealt with depression and self-harm. It grew when another child came out as gay. And the drumbeat of a need for grace within the church continues to grow in the era of pandemic responses beginning in 2020. It was personal at first; I was trying to find a way to be part of the Church even though local congregations blamed me and my husband for the troubles of our children. Then it became outreach to friends in the Body who felt ostracized when their adult children made life choices in defiance of the ways they were taught. But the divisions in culture have penetrated the Church in the West so deeply that this Body is fractured. And if one part of the Body is broken, it affects the whole. Paul wrote,
But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together (1 Corinthians 12:24-26).
Suffering in the Body has many facets, and no text can adequately address them all. My hope here is that I might help (and learn) how we as followers of Jesus can uphold one another, giving the benefit of the doubt to all while avoiding increasing trauma to those among us who are the walking wounded in our local churches.
This space on Substack is for me to share my VERY rough drafts for what I think (hope?) will become a book eventually. It will be free to read until I either find a publisher, need to focus on revising, or comments become something less than helpful. I do welcome comments and questions that will add to the ultimate goal of the work: loving others the way Jesus loves us.
DEFINING GRACE
John 1:16
Acts 4:33
Romans 5:2
According to Merriam-Webster, Biblical grace is "unmerited divine assistance given to humans for their regeneration or sanctification, a virtue coming from God, a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine assistance." Piper (2020) defined two ways to explain grace: as undeserved favor and as power for living. The greatest grace we know is the grace of God that redeemed us in Jesus' incarnation, death, and resurrection. Without that perfect grace, we are unable to fully express grace to others. Romans is clear that we are justified by grace (3:24), that grace is free (5:15), and that we cannot work to gain it (11:5-6). Without the grace of God to restore the relationship between God and humans, we are forever bound by our natures to be self-centered, self-promoting, and self-prospering. Anything that we do by our own power serves our own selves, directly or indirectly. Generosity and kindness may benefit others, but without grace, they can only make us feel better about ourselves; without grace through faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6).
The question of how to extend grace to others is answered by the power of grace. Paul wrote of the power of grace as a gift of God to the church at Corinth. He first taught them that God makes grace abound; He is the source of the grace that empowers us to live through anything: physical weakness, crushing societal and cultural pressures, persecution, and even death. By that same grace, we can treat people, not as they deserve according to our judgment, but by God's grace treat people better than they might deserve.
Grace from God saves us and empowers us to share that same grace with those around us. "Grace is the opposite of karma," wrote Justin Holcomb, "[karma] is all about getting what you deserve. Grace is getting what you don't deserve" (Holcomb, 2021). No one earns grace; it is a gift.
DEFINING DEFAULT
1 Thessalonians 5:12-21
1 Timothy 6:3-8
Hebrews 4:16
Default used to mean simply failure: failure to pay a loan, failure to appear in court, or failure to complete or finish a competition. It comes from Anglo-French by way of Middle English de-faillir, meaning to fail. However, an alternative definition became common with the rise of personal computers: a predesigned setting used by a computer program when the user does not specify a particular setting. The default setting is automatic unless the user chooses something else. Most of the time developers of software try to guess the most likely option users would choose or the one that is sponsored and set that as the default (e.g. PCs with Windows set Bing as the default search engine). Users who want something different (e.g. Chrome or Firefox search engines) have to reset the default so that their choices are the ones their systems will use.
In that sense, default is not failure; it is the go-to attribute, the one that defines how a system will work. This is the definition at work here. Defaulting to grace is a way of living that doesn't think about showing grace, but rather is so in tune with the Spirit that grace comes first. Paul explained what that looks like in his letter to the church at Thessalonica:
We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good (1 Thessalonians 5:12-21).
If our nature is so connected to God's Spirit of grace that we live in joyful, prayerful gratitude, we won't have time for controversy, quarrels, and friction (1 Timothy 6:4-5). People will be drawn to us because we reflect the mercy and grace of our Lord. Our brothers and sisters in the Lord will recognize our changed nature by our contentment (1 Timothy 6:6-8), our confidence (Hebrews 4:16), and our love (Matthew 22:27-40; Romans 13:10; 1 Corinthians 13:1-13). Ultimately, God is glorified when we default to grace.
WHY GRACE MATTERS
Romans 6:1-23
2 Corinthians 8:7
1 Peter 4:9-11
This is not to say that we ignore the righteousness of God, nor does it mean that we let our brothers and sisters live reckless lives of sinful abandon. Paul was quite clear in his letter to the Romans that wallowing in what we know to be sin (because the Law tells us so) only tells the body and the world that we don't understand the gift of grace. We are free from the wages of sin (death) and have set our minds on the things of the Spirit (Romans 7:7-8:10).
If, then, we are mindful of the riches of God's grace toward us, we recognize the same gifts of mercy and grace in each other. In recognizing that we are part of one body, one faith, and one baptism, we pursue holiness and peace in our interactions with each other.
WHO SHOULD READ THIS NEWSLETTER
This work is for Christ-followers. It is not intended for people who want more weapons in their battle against the hypocrisy of Christians. Nor is it designed as a tool for evangelism. It is an exploration of what it means to love each other in real and tangible ways. God manifested His love to us when He sent His Son as our atonement (1 John 4:10). If we claim to love God, we should love one another, even when it is hard, even when we disagree, and even when we don't know what to say or do.
References:
All Scripture references, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Holcomb, J. (2021, August 13). What is grace? Bible definition and Christian quotes. Christianity Today. Retrieved from https://www.christianity.com/theology/what-is-grace.html
Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Default. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved September 2, 2021, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/default
Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Grace. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved September 1, 2021, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grace
Piper, J. (2020, May 8). What is Grace? [interview] Desiring God. Retrieved from https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/what-is-grace
TechTarget. (n.d.). Default. In WhatIs.com Technical Support. Retrieved September 2, 2021 from https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/default