“For the Grace of God, which can save every man, has now become known, and it teaches us to have no more to do with godlessness or the desires of this world but to live, here and now, responsible, honourable and God-fearing lives.” 
Titus 2:11-12

Grace means freedom. It is a gift given to us by God that requires nothing on our part. Salvation and Christianity at the core are simply accepting what has already been done. That’s it! When grace enters our life, everything with regards to gaining salvation and finding favor with God has been taken care of. So we are free – – I am free to just be me. So far so good, right? But hold on a second…If we are set free what is going to stop us from being slackers? What is going to hold back our dark side?

Grace will!

Huh? How, pray tell, will grace keep me from being a bad dude? How will my new found freedom keep me from doing as I selfishly please? How will grace motivate my congregation to get busy? As a pastor I am almost certain it will do just the opposite – – instead of people putting their nose to the grindstone they will go on a perpetual vacation, and that will leave me preaching to an empty congregation, won’t it? I can’t teach grace, I can’t give people an out, I need to press guilt and shame and conviction to their limits!!! If I want a productive church, I have to bring the “Fear of Condemnation” back into their lives again, don’t I?

I just read a story concerning this question by Abraham Lincoln about a horse and a fly. “My brother and I were once plowing corn at a Kentucky farm, I driving the horse, and he holding the plow. The horse was lazy; but on one occasion he rushed across the field so that I, with long legs, could scarcely keep pace with him. On reaching the end of the furrow, I found an enormous chin fly fastened upon him and knocked him off. My brother asked me what I did that for. I told him I didn’t want the old horse bitten in that way. “Why?” asked my brother, “that’s all that made him go!” 

There it is! If something isn’t biting our butts, like guilt, disappointment at personal failure, the angry deacon with a furrowed brow, or even the little old lady shakin’ her cane at us, nothing would ever get done. If mom didn’t yell at lazy Johnny sitting on the couch he would sit there forever. Isn’t that true with walking with God too? If we don’t scare religious slackers with an eternity of hell people would leave God in heartbeat, right? For 23 years I went to church because I didn’t want God bashing me on the head, or letting Satan sneaking up on me in a dark alleyway in the dead of night. I gave money to the poor so I too could look down on the greedy miser who didn’t care.

If there is no fly there is no go! At least that is what we are told? And I bought it for a long time.

But Titus 2:11-12 says it is just the opposite. Grace, freedom, joy, and a satisfied God is what keeps us living right. Listen to this amazing quote by J. W. Sanderson, “To some men constant peril is the only spur to action, and many religions and psychologies are dependent on fear to keep their disciples in line. Fear, too, has a place in Christianity, but God has higher and more effective motivations than fear, and one of these is love. Often fear after a while produces only numbness, but love thrives on love.”

And here is the real clincher, “Those who have the deepest appreciation of grace do not continue in sin. Moreover, fear produces the obedience of slaves; love engenders the obedience of sons!” Wow! All I can say is “Wow!”

Grace is designed to have me focus on one thing and one thing only, and Paul says it like this in 1 Corinthians 2:2, “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” Why? Because the cross brings me into the pulsating and living love of God. Can you believe it, Jesus took everything on his back for you? He was beaten, mocked, stripped, laughed at, spit upon, abandoned, humiliated and betrayed with a lyin’ kiss all you for you!

You have to let this truth sit and soak, marinate in the reality that God gave you his Son. I believe – no -I know, those who really, really, really, really, understand this incredible gift change. I am convinced very few Christians understand what the cross really means. I say this because it seems like no one knows how to forgive anymore. If you can’t forgive you have not really tasted freedom yourself.

You are free! And when you are set free you never want to go back to bondage. Why, in your right mind, do you want to go back to sin? Why? Why???? Because it tastes good? C’mon, like Turkish Delight in Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, it rots while sitting in your belly. It turns you into a surly brute. It makes you want what you eventually will certainly hate.

Listen to one more story about Abe Lincoln: After buying a female slave he turned to the woman and said, “You’re free.” She despondently said, “Yeah, what does that mean?” Lincoln said, “It means you’re free!” “Does that mean I can say whatever I want, I can be whatever I want, I can go where ever I want?” Lincoln said, “Yes, you can be, say, go wherever you want. You are free!” The young woman thought for a second, and with tears welling up in her eyes said, “Then I think I will go with you.”

As Steve Brown in his book A Scandalous Freedom writes, “That is what God has done for us. It is what the Christian faith is all about. We have been bought with a price, the price of God’s own Son. We now have a new master, one who, once he paid the price, set us free.”

You are free, and you can do whatever you want. As for me, I’m following Jesus!