An understanding of grace Pt. 2

How it began

I was driving down the highway, on the way back to our ministry headquarters in Lindale, Texas, after a time of outreach in a small town in Arkansas. At this point, I have been walking with Jesus for six or seven years, most of that in Agape Force (or AF as we usually called it). The rest of the team was in the back of the van, and my friend Rexie was “riding shotgun”. It was her job to keep me awake and alert so that we could all make it back in one piece. For some reason, on that drive, the subject of our conversation turned to grace. That sounds pretty normal for a couple of young people in a Christian organization, but it wasn't. We didn't talk about grace much in our ministry. We talked a lot about being totally sold out for Jesus, and prayer, and revival, and evangelism, and everything related to being radical for God; but we hardly ever talked about grace. Really. Hardly ever. It sounds odd, but looking back, I understand it. Grace was considered to be a given. Everyone understood grace. It was “unmerited favor”, God's Riches At Christ's Expense. “By grace you have been saved...” It was taken for granted that everyone understood grace. Or, it was assumed that they didn't understand it. We had a term for what we perceived as a wrong understanding of the concept. We called it “greasy grace”. We felt like much of the church was trying to “slide” into the kingdom without repentance or dealing with their sin in any way. Talking about grace a lot seemed to be a smokescreen for living in sin while wanting to claim a spot in heaven. We believed that what the church needed to hear about was repentance and holiness and living for God with all your heart. Not bad stuff. The mistake we made was to take the truths of grace, and justification by faith, and assume that we all understood those. To a very great degree, we did not.

So, Rexie and I are riding down the highway, talking about grace, and the Holy Spirit begins to stir a hunger in my heart for greater understanding of this truth. It was the beginning of a very focused three month journey that would change my relationship with God forever.