Recently I spoke favorably of someone that I consider to be a friend. Another friend pointed out to me things that this person has done that are sinful. I asked if this person believed in grace. He said, “Well of course”. I just looked at him without saying a word until he slowly turned away.
Who hasn’t done things that are sinful and who is to say that friend number one’s sins were worse than friend number two’s? Jesus demonstrated this as recorded in Matthew when the adulteress was brought before Him, and they pointed out that the law stated that she be stoned to death. When He challenged them by asking that whoever was without sin should cast the first stone, they all left beginning with the oldest. (It was customary for the oldest to cast the first stone.) The Bible states that after challenging them, He began writing things in the dirt. What did He write? Some say the Ten Commandments; others think He wrote down their sins; I personally think He wrote the two greatest commands, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind”. And Love your neighbor as yourself”.
The problem with many people in the church is that they want to condemn, condemn, and condemn. Jesus however said that He didn’t come to judge or condemn, He came to save the world. “For I came not to judge the world, but to save the world”. Christ, at his first coming, came not as a judge, but a Savior; wherefore suitable to his character, he would not accuse, condemn, or judge any man, even the greatest unbelievers in Him, and despisers of Him, but would leave them to another day, when righteous judgment shall take place. Shouldn’t we be similar in nature?
God’s grace is a gift. It states in Romans 2:4 – Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?
Wow. His kindness is intended to turn us from our sin. Does this mean that it is kindness and not wrath that leads people to receive Christ?
In Romans 9:22 we get a deeper look at another of God’s purposes with grace: “What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory . . .
My feeling is that if we practice: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind”. And “Love your neighbor as yourself”, and leave the judging to Jesus, we will be fine. It’s when we set ourselves up as vessels of wrath, rather than vessels of mercy that we fall.
Eph. 2:7
So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.