There are two issues I see with the above paragraph. The first is that I often refer to grace as the power not to sin, and anyone who reads the Unshackled Moments or listens to my preaching regularly knows that. So I can see someone thinking something along the lines of well, he just changes the definition of grace to make it whatever he wants to bolster his opinion. But I haven't changed any definitions. When I say that grace is the power not to sin I am not changing the definition from what I wrote in the first paragraph, only narrowing it to a specific manifestation of the love of grace.
We are in desperate need of power not to sin. We don't have that power. That lack of power is killing us. There's nothing we can do to build up or achieve that power in ourselves. Added to that, we don't deserve help from a perfect and holy God. So we have a need we can't meet and don't deserve the help of the only One who could give us that help, give us the power we need. God cares about us and gives us favor, the power we need not to sin, even though we don't deserve it and can never repay it. The power not to sin falls easily within the confines of the definition of grace. So , I think that takes care of the first issue.
The second issue is the exceptions. There are exceptions to the idea that people don't love downward. The truth is that we do, and it is natural for us to do so because we are made in the image of God who does love downward. We just don't love many that way, and not all of us love anyone that way. There may be children, parents, or possibly siblings, grandparents or one or two very close friends that we love that way. I say maybe not because we don't all have people like this but because some of these people in our lives deserve and merit our love and care. My parents are full of merit from me. They don't deserve God's love any more than I do, but they deserve every bit of mine. Me, on the other hand, I don't merit the love of my parents or siblings. I doubt I can ever love them well enough to balance the scales of the damage I have done and the hurt I caused during the first circa 40 years of my life. Their love toward me is grace, downward love, and an exception to the we don't love that way statement..
If our exceptions hurt us too badly (and how much is too badly varies, but obviously with people like these it would take a lot) we will still cut them of from our care, favor and aid either forever or until they at least try to try to deserve and earn our care. Even our exception don't fully fit the definition, but the exceptions also prove the rile. We simply don't love downward, not fully.
Jesus made the first move. He loved us first. He poured out His grace, His care, favor and aid, long before we ever even thought about trying to earn or deserve it. And He did it for everyone, not only on the cross, but in every moment as He walked the earth. Even the Pharisees got that grace of His ministry. We like to poke at the Pharisees and act like Jesus despised them because we do. But Jesus didn't despise the Pharisees. He loved them. He just despised the lies of their lives and hearts and the bondage of self righteousness that made them think they didn't need Him. That made them more sick than the leper, because the leper knew His only hope was Jesus. The spiritually sick and dying Pharisee didn't realize that He was just as in need of the Great Physician as everyone else. He loved them enough to try to call attention to and make them aware of their bondage before it was too late.
It's not natural for us to pour our love out on those who haven't done anything to at least try to deserve it and can never return it or repay it. But Jesus did that with everyone He ever met, for everyone who ever lived. That's a grand scale of downward love. And if we want to follow and be more like Jesus, we should be poring grace into the lives of everyone we meet.
Now, in truth, for some of us, some of that grace will be wrongly labeled. What I mean by that is some of the grace we pour out should be called worship or adoration, or at least deserved. There are people who deserve the meager assistance and love that we can dish out and who rank much higher on the merit scale than we do.
Worship is love going upward. But we don't worship people. Sure we do. But we're not supposed to. Yes, we are. We're just not supposed to worship them in the same manner and extent or above the worship we give to God. I adore my wife. I'm supposed to. God wants me to. But I don't adore her because I'm supposed to. I do it because she is a special, amazing and wonderful woman that naturally draws from me my admiration and desire to be with her and to care for her and to honor her. That's little w worship. Even though it's not the WORSHIP I give to God, it's in the same category. Some people we pour out our grace on deserve it; therefore, it is not grace.
Jesus is full of grace. It describes His very nature, because He loves us all, and unlike us, Jesus never wandered across someone who deserved His favor or ranked higher on the merit scale than He did. We need to do this more, with everyone we encounter who is in need of grace, and, of course, we need the grace of God to be able to love downward. Loving upward is easy. It's natural. I don't deserve Leah, and it's so easy to love her. But loving downward takes selflessness that is so much more difficult.
What's in it for me? If I love downward I may be taken advantage of. I may need whatever they need and then who would care for me? There are many many reasons and excuses not to pour grace out on people. By it's very nature it's undeserved and that means there are reasons not to give it. But if we want to be like Jesus, the greater the reasons not to give love, the greater is the grace that gives it.
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