Monday, April 22, 2013

The Dance of Brokenness and Grace

Nothing can be added to the deed of obedience of the Son of God, nearly 2,000 years ago. Nothing we do makes us better or more acceptable in God’s view. God has taken a fallen, broken humanity and restored the human being—by their faith in Christ alone—to right relationship, despite works—irrefutably.
But there is more; God wants more for us. He gets us to a vital first base on an assured home run by our salvation, but he wants us to experience second, third and home base—the fullest experience of life.
Life with God is a dance of our brokenness with his grace.
God’s grace ever-sufficient and only fairly magnified stoops to pick us up in our brokenness, and in our brokenness we accord ourselves to the truth—we need grace.
The Overwhelming Need of Grace
We all have this insurgent need at the core of our souls. Without grace we cannot approach the truth about ourselves—that not only are we saved and re-made as new creations, but we have actual brokenness that God desires to heal within us.
God gives us everything to ensure our eternal safety and then proffers us toward opportunities of discipleship in following Jesus for the transforming of our hearts and the renewing of our minds.
We need grace at the beginning of our faith journey and we need it every moment as we continue—right to the very end we need grace.
Grace is sufficient to emend our brokenness before any journey to healing is even embarked upon. It’s sufficient to emend our brokenness as we are sanctified by faith in Christ, once for all time, and through and through as we are sanctified by our repentance from dead deeds. Wherever we are on the spiritual continuum, grace is all we need. It is power for everything else.
When Ready: Emend the Brokenness
So many in this life seek wholeness; grace is sufficient for this, too, but grace is the only thing that can deliver to us to any proportion of wholeness in this life. This is because the power in grace aligns with the truth.
We approach wholeness when we can readily accept the raw truth about ourselves.
When we accept this truth we are no longer afraid of our brokenness, denying it, and we know with boldness God’s blessing via grace even in the midst of that selfsame brokenness.
Our brokenness actually defines us and is cause for celebration—we are weak, but God is great!
Our brokenness—our damage from, and our propensity to, sin—propounds grace all the more. Our brokenness in true light magnifies the grace of God that has rescued us and continues to.
Grace dances with our brokenness, bringing us to wholeness at least by our attitudes about ourselves. Grace dances with our brokenness, gifting us to more wholeness. Grace even excuses our brokenness, making us whole in Christ without even an iota of effort on our behalf.
© 2013 S. J. Wickham.

No comments: