Heavenly Mindedness (59)

 

“No one but a redeemed creature can truly know what it is for God to be God, and what it means to worship and possess Him as God. This is the fine gold of the Christian’s experience, sweeter to him than honey and the honeycomb. The river that makes glad the city of God is the river of grace. The believer’s mind and heart will only in heaven compass the full riches, the length and breadth and depth and height of the love of God.

 

“No one can drink so deeply of it here, but he will more deeply drink hereafter. Blessed be God, no stream of Lethe flows this side of his city to wash away from our minds the remembrance of redeeming grace! The life above will be a ceaseless coming to Jesus, the Mediator of a better covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better than Abel. The Lamb slain for our sins will be all the glory of Emmanuel’s land.” G. Vos

 

Continuing with the quote from the previous post:

 

“The river that makes glad the city of God is the river of grace.”

 

“And he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb.” (Rev. 22:1).

 

“Then he brought me back to the door of the house; and behold, water was flowing from under the threshold of the house toward the east, for the house faced east…and he led me through the water, water reaching to the ankles…and [he] led me through the water, reaching the loins…and it was a river that I could not ford, for the water had risen, enough water to swim in, a river that could not be forded.” (Ezekiel 47:1 – 5).

 

 

It is said that C.S. Lewis was once walking through the rear of a lecture hall in which a discussion was taking place regarding what, if anything, set Christianity apart from other religions. Hearing the discussion Lewis stopped and said, “Grace,” and then went on his way.

 

Why is it that Paul begins so many of his letters with the blessing of “Grace and peace to you”? I think it is more than a literary style, I think it is because to live in God’s grace in Christ Jesus, and to live in the holistic peace of Christ Jesus, is to live in the Presence of God and to be on pilgrimage to the Throne. To learn to swim in the waters of grace is to experience Ephesians 3:14 – 19, in which Christ lives in our hearts through faith, that we “may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breath and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.”

 

Perhaps there are few passages on grace quoted to the extent of Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Then there is Romans 5:1 – 2, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we exult in hope of the glory of God.”

 

And yet, to quote Ephesians 1:8 without its context is to often fall into Galatianism, the error of thinking that while our life in Christ may have been birthed in grace, that it is now up to us, by our own efforts, to ensure that we are acceptable to God and that we make it to heaven. Consider the comprehensiveness of Ephesians 2:1 – 10:

 

We are dead in our trespasses and sins – the dead cannot will themselves to life.

 

In our death we were following the ways of the “prince of the power of the air.”

 

But God, in His great mercy and love, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive with Christ – “by grace you have been saved.”

 

The Father not only raised us up from death, He also raised us up into the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, “so that in the ages to come He night show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

 

“We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus.”

 

What a comprehensive salvation (compare with Romans 5:1 – 11 and 1 Peter 1:9). The grace of God permeates every portion of Ephesians 2:1 – 10, just as His grace saturates every thread of our lives in Jesus Christ. We are called to do more than walk in this river of grace up to our ankles, or to wade in it up to our loins – we are called to swim in this grace, to be soaked in it, drenched in it, to have it dripping from our hair, our clothes, our conversations.

 

“No one can drink so deeply of it here, but he will more deeply drink hereafter.” There are some things we can talk about even if we haven’t experienced them, and this is as it should be, for our hearts ought to always desire more of God; but I think there is a sense in which grace is different, maybe not, but I think so. It is said that mercy is not receiving what you deserve, and that grace is receiving what you don’t deserve. While it may be helpful to think in these terms, it may also be harmful. It is harmful if we think that once we know that grace is receiving what we don’t deserve that we go on our way and stop thinking about grace. Grace is more than a definition, it is an experience, a way of life, that grows deeper and deeper in Jesus Christ – until the waters are so deep that our understanding cannot ford them, the waters overwhelm us – grace becomes an overwhelming Way of Life. As we swim closer to the Throne, God’s grace defies definition it is so comprehensive and overwhelming and permeating.

 

When our lives are reduced to definitions, when grace is mainly a definition and not an ongoing and progressive experience, we remain as children – but as we grow as the sons and daughters of the Living God in Jesus Christ, grace becomes that for which words fail us, we can articulate in part, in a measure, but we cannot express the fulness of grace in words. And here, as pastors or brothers or sisters in Christ, we can often discern where we are in our growth in Christ, for if I am with Christians who must fall back on a definition of grace found in a study Bible or in a commentary or in a small group lesson, then I am with Christians who are, at best, walking in water only up to their ankles. I do not write this critically, but rather pastorally, for my desire is to see us all swimming in the depths of the river of Life, the river of Grace flowing from the Throne of God and of the Lamb.

 

I cannot conceive of a true definition of grace, for grace is so far beyond us, it is on such a higher plane, that we don’t have language to communicate it in its fulness – but we are called to experience it, to live in it, to swim in it, and to show others how to receive the grace of God in our Lord Jesus Christ. Knowing and experiencing grace takes a lifetime and beyond, and Vos has us anticipating our continuing delight in the grace of God, as Reepicheep would say, “Further up and further in.”

 

What a joy and peace to know that today we can swim in the grace of God in Jesus Christ!