Amazing Grace

By Noralyn O. Dudt

GRACE, the Gift undeserved.

ETERNAL Salvation is God's idea—desired by God for all humanity—free to anyone  who is willing to  accept and receive it.

As the Holy Week approaches, we are again reminded of that noble act  that Jesus the Christ did for humanity on the cross. An excruciating death where blood was shed and life was taken. The death that  bridged the chasm between us and our Creator. The death that was God's way of  extending his hand to ours, to lift us back up so we can go back to the "garden"—the “garden" where the first man and the first woman had chats with God the Father in the "cool of the day," until they were told to leave because they disobeyed. They left,  but God never "left" them. God was relentless in his love and He meticulously devised a way to get them, and us back. It's called redemption in its finest.

God's grace—his gift that we do not deserve, and free for all. It was this Grace that inspired John Newton, a man who acknowledged that he was a despicable character who sold human beings in the slave trade,  to compose the well-known hymn "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me… was blind but now I see." He survived a ship wreck, was saved by God's amazing grace and became a minister who preached this good news of amazing grace.

"By grace you are saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.  For we are His (God's) workmanship, created in Christ Jesus...." Ephesians 2:8-10.

"By grace you are saved….” The  verse that  turned Martin Luther's life around when he "discovered" what it meant.  It was a discovery that  set him free... free from fear... free from guilt... free from feeling inadequate... free from feeling helpless.

Between 1512 and 1516 when Martin Luther lived in relative anonymity as a monk, a scholar, and a member of the faculty of the University of Wittenberg lecturing and preaching daily, he was obsessed about his inability to please the God of wrath. Martin tried hard to find a way: long fasts, vigils, strict observance of the Rule and frequent confessions. but no matter how hard he tried, his sense of unworthiness drove him into profound gloom.  He  was beginning to sense  that it was impossible to please a God that he knew only  as righteous, just and terrifying—the God of wrath. Distraught as he was, Martin never gave up—he was relentless in poring over Scriptures looking for answers.  Is there a God of grace, love and mercy?   And then he encountered  God's grace in the Person of Jesus Christ.

"You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart" ( Jeremiah 29:13).

God's grace—God forgives not because of who we are or what we do, but because  "Christ humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross." ( Philippians 2:8)

"Through faith... and not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." From then on, Martin's understanding of faith departed from the prevailing Catholic system—that salvation is a gift from God alone and accessible to anyone who seek and want it.

It's not acquired through the performance of good works.

Martin had that experience—he tried hard but he knew there was something missing… a missing piece... and that missing piece was not a set of principles nor a set of rules. That missing piece was the  Son of God.

"Through faith….”

Faith in the biblical sense is not holding on to God. It is recognizing and realizing  that God holds on to us.  Imagine a father walking with his child.  As they go, the child holds on to the father's hand. The child stumbles—he falls as his little grasp is unable to hold on to his father's big hand. This happens several times and finally the father grasps the child's hands in his. Again the child stumbles but he does not fall because the father  is holding on…..

Eternal salvation is the work of God from first to last. It does not depend upon our holding on... or keeping up... or following through.

If it did, eternal salvation would be meaningless,  because it would be dependent on human effort.  Eternal salvation is God's idea—desired by God for all of us—free to anyone who is willing to accept it.  It is wholly, completely, totally dependent upon God's faithfulness and relentless love.

Martin Luther recognized that gift—that God's hand was holding on to his. He was so confident in that transformative experience that he was not afraid  to challenge the Catholic Church teaching on indulgences (that we can buy or work  our way to heaven). He was threatened with excommunication from the church but he stood his ground—"Hier, stehe ich" ( Here I stand).  He was not afraid to defy church teachings that were against what he just discovered—that  we cannot work for our salvation. He wanted the world to know that God is full of mercy, love and compassion. He wanted the world to know that salvation was free for the taking. It was a message that sparked what has been called the "Protestant Reformation." It was a movement that placed the Bible in the hands of the common people, impacted the way we read Scriptures and revolutionized many of the freedoms within Christianity we enjoy today.

In the Lutheran Book of Worship is this text by Thomas a' Kempis (1340-1471) and set to music in the 15th century.

"Oh love how deep, how broad, how high, beyond all thought and fantasy.

That God, the Son of God, should take our mortal form,

for mortal's sake.

God sent no angel to our race, of higher or of lower place.

But wore the robe of human frame, in Christ our Lord to this world came.

For us he prayed, for us he taught; for us his daily works he wrought.

By words and signs and actions thus ....still seeking not himself but us."

"Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again." I remember reciting that repeatedly in Mass when I was growing up. That was an acclamation that finally made sense to me when I recognized that Big Hand clasping my little "child" hand.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound!

 

Noralyn Onto Dudt celebrates the "Feast of  Victory for our God" on Sundays at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Bethesda, Maryland where Pastor Derek Solberg lovingly pastors a flock who sings praises to the God whose love is immeasurable and infinite.