Why Is Grace So Hard to Accept?

What if Paul meant what he wrote in Ephesians 2:8-9 [God saved you by God's grace when you believed And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done..."] NLT.

Or, as another version [NIV] puts it: "For it is by grace that you have been saved - and this is not from yourselves - it is a gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast."

For many of us, Christians or otherwise, it's such a difficult thing to accept!

Oftentimes we live and act from a place of deep denial of this wonderful, amazing reality. The presence of God is free. There is nothing we can do to deserve it.

The challenge is: Modern-day folk living in Western culture seem to apply the tenants of Capitalism to Christianity. That is, they see God as the keeper of a supernatural bank account, and we have to do stuff to earn credit. 

Grace becomes the equivalent of spiritual interest that accumulates with every soul that we "save," or good deed done.

With this worldview, the dividend tends to be guilt.

With this worldview, we have to continually prove ourselves. Which keeps us firmly rooted in judgment - because everyone who doesn't hold the same type of bank account as ours is inferior and probably going to hell.

Maybe when Jesus had his famous conversation with Nicodemus about being born again, this is precisely what he was talking about. [See John 3:1-10 for details].

Nicodemus opens the conversation by making a statement. "No one could perform the signs you are doing if God was not with him."

Notice Nicodemus isn't asking God how to get into heaven. He's talking about the ability to see, or sense, or experience the kingdom of God.

Jesus tells him in order to see the Kingdom, a person needs to be "born again."

(White) evangelicals in Western culture tend to use this verse to prove that we need to be baptized, or saved.

Artwork credit: Sojourners Magazine

But Jesus isn't talking to Nicodemus about taking action. He's referring to the Holy Spirit. This totally confuses Nicodemus, who says, "How can someone be born when they are old? They cannot enter their mother's womb a second time."

At this point, Jesus has a little fun with Nicodemus and replies, "you have to be born of water and the Holy Spirit."

It's possible that Jesus is taking a good look at Nicodemus, who knew the letter of the law and the writings of the prophets. Jesus sees the irony of a scripture scholar getting stuck in literal terminology.

Jesus is trying to lift Nicodemus out of scriptural quicksand and plop him down smack in the middle of the Kingdom of God. 

In modern lingo, Jesus might have said, "I'm trying to get you to open your spiritual eyes and your spiritual mind and all of your spiritual senses. You don't have to understand the process, Nicodemus. Relax and trust me."

But instead of trusting, many of us (myself included) tend to codify faith and God and it just doesn't work.

Because that's not how spiritual growth happens. 

Much of the Kingdom of God turns out to be counter-intuitive, illogical to the human mind and doesn't make sense. But God has freed us up to receive it and live in it without having to figure it out! 

Oh, that really is Good News!

Afterthought: I wonder how much of a connection there is with our inability to accept grace and the current state of affairs in our world - the uncivil, temper-driven communication that has become the norm?

Could a lack of grace we show each other be a reflection of our spiritual state?