We need a bigger grasp of grace

A bigger grasp of grace - that is foundational to discipling others well.  Turn to 2 Timothy 3v10-11. I want to camp here for a few minutes and see some principles.

“You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings – what kind of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from them all.”

Paul says Timothy “You know…” Timothy you and I have enjoyed a great friendship, an intimate friendship. I’m an open book to you. You know all about me. Timothy knows how Paul lives. He’s been with him watching him, listening to him. He knows what gets Paul out of bed in the morning, what makes him tick, what he loves, what he lives for.

He knows what Paul’s belief in Jesus translates to in terms of action. He knows what Paul treasures, what and why he’s endured, his struggles, his battles, his sufferings. He’s been with him in the trenches of Antioch, Iconium and Lystra. He’s seen him preach the gospel and face rejection, preach the gospel and see conversion, and establish healthy churches in those places.

How many people know you like that? Is there someone you can say that of? Someone who knows what makes you tick? Someone who has been by your side through thick and thin, through good and bad? Who’s been with you in the depths and on the heights?  Be honest, is there?

It’s something we long for but are also terrified of isn’t it? It’s why we do dating like a second hand car salesman sells cars. We want to show the polished side not the just got out of bedside. We show the chirpy upbeat not the grumpy and bad breathed. That’s why the reality of marriage is often such a shock, unless stupidly we try to do the same! We’re too often like that in church too. We approach church like the second hand car salesman. Selling our good points, covering up or glossing over the struggles and brokenness and battles with sin. We long for friendship like this but we’re also terrified of it.

But Paul can be this open because of the gospel. The gospel tells us that God has fully known everything about us, every dirty dark sin that we hide from others. What you do on your laptop in the early hours of the morning, your struggle with porn, your romantic longings after someone who’s married, your chequered sexual past. Your struggle with greed, your past hatred of Christians, your frustrations with your marriage. You’re battle with post-natal depression or with the loss of an unborn baby. Your envy of others who have what you long for be it a spouse, a child, disposable income, the car or job of your dreams. The abuse you’ve caused, the abuse you’ve suffered. God knows it all and at the cross Jesus pays for it all. Paul is well aware of his past, but he knows Jesus has stamped it paid in full.

And that means he can live life openly. He’s neither trying to appear good enough nor wallowing in sin untransformed. He’s pressing on, growing in holiness, resting in God’s grace. And that liberates him to be honest and open with others who know God’s grace. Because if they’ve experienced God’s redeeming grace then they won’t judge him, they’ll love and welcome him just as Jesus does, just as they’ve been welcomed with their failings and struggles. They’ll invest in his growing holiness and transformation into the likeness of Jesus.

I often talk with new leaders or young leaders in our church about cultivating an un-shockable face and an un-judging heart. There should be no sin someone can confess to me that shocks me because when I truly understand the horrors lurking in the corners of my heart I will know that could’ve been, at times has been, me. And my heart should be un-judging because it has drunk deeply of the grace of God when I deserved judgment.

We have to keep the gospel front and centre in our thinking as we engage with brokenness aware of our brokenness and the gospels lavish grace.

Making disciples that last begins with us grasping the staggering depths of our sin and the amazing magnitude of God’s grace which knows and covers every sin. A grace so deep that it frees me to be open with others about my sins and failures and be a safe pair of hands and lips when they open up about theirs. Pointing one another to the cross and grace again and again and again. Discipleship begins with me having a continually bigger grasp of grace.