Can you imagine the confusion...the frustration, the anger and eventual rejection a child might experience if raised by parents who place unreasonable demands and near impossible expectations upon them to live up to ...in order to gain their love and approval?

Suppose a child with severe learning challenges, and who struggles to read is punished because they don’t bring home ‘straight A’s’. How many dads out there have wanted their sons or daughters to excel in any variety of sports at skill levels few ever achieve? Or what's a young man who is only 5’3” do if he was told that he better learn to ‘slam dunk’ a basketball if he had any hopes of continuing to live at home and be provided for during his high school years? 

I know...crazy extreme examples here I’m using; but how about one more? A father wants his child to be able to ‘fly’ and forces him to ‘flap his arms’ before pushing him off the roof of his house. What kind of a sick parent places such demands on their children whom they are supposed to love, nurture... and care for?

So when it comes to trying to understand and know God, a ‘god’ we think of and refer to as ‘our Father in heaven’...is it possible that He has placed unreasonable and unrealistic expectations for us as well? I suppose that all depends on how you were raised to believe and which ‘god’ you were introduced to.

Does a ‘loving God’ really place such demands on His children...who are ‘wretched sinners’ ...to actually go and ‘be holy’...and ‘sin no more’? And as I posed the question for many of you the other day...when, where, and how does this thing we call ‘grace’...come in to play?

May I ask: what is your current understanding of God’s ‘grace’; or better yet- how would you explain grace to a young child so they could understand it?

I know that familiar acronym we have all grown up with sounds charming-[God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense], but does it really explain how grace actually works? And when we publicly profess: “I am a sinner saved by grace”...what are we really saying? Are we informing a lost world that we continue to live as ‘sinners’...yet are ‘saved’? And what do you think we ‘saved’ from?

So again...I ask- what is your current understanding as to how God’s grace works on our behalf? After all...we know we are ‘saved by grace through faith, and that not of ourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Eph. 2:8-9).

Did you catch my post from Saturday, where we took the words of Jesus from Matt. 7:21 as He made it known that it was only those who ‘do the will of Father...who will inherit or enter the kingdom of heaven. We then went over about a dozen verses that give more insight as to what the ‘will of the Father’ is; and friends...God is serious about this.

Is it possible that you have been taught or led to believe that this thing called ‘grace’ is like some mystical or spiritual ‘cloak of immunity’, a 'covering of sorts, that exempts you from God’s judgements when you continue to sin? People are usually quick to add ‘not only past sins here, but present sins and all future sins’ as well. I’ve heard renowned preachers state publicly that God’s children are no longer punished for sins because Jesus took all their punishment’.

If that is the case, then how do you answer Paul’s question from Romans 6:1-2 where he ask how shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Do you think grace covers you?

Or what about that man whom Jesus healed and then was told to ‘go and sin no more lest something worse comes upon you’? (John 5:14). And where was this ‘grace’ when Ananias and his wife were struck down dead, in Acts 5:1-11? Or that man in Corinth who was caught in sexual sin and then ‘handed over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh with the hopes his spirit would be saved’, as explained in 1 Cor. 5:5? And have you ever taken any time wresting with the somber words of warning found in 1 Cor. 11:30-32, that indicated why 'many' folks there were sick and even dead because of judgement?

As I like to remind any who read here, it would serve us all well to go back and spend more time giving attention to lots of verses laying there in our Bibles that are much easier to ‘skim over’ ...instead of trying to understand why they don’t ‘fit’ with our current understanding of scripture. Maybe it’s our current understanding (man-made doctrines) that are in need of...’adjusting’, perhaps?

Let’s wrap up for today looking at three verses from Hebrews. We are told that Jesus Himself suffered when tempted...and is able to aid those who are being tempted (2:18). To be clear, we are talking about being tempted to ‘sin’.

We read in 4:15 that this High Priest of ours (Jesus) sympathizes with our weakness, given He was tempted in all points/areas that we are tempted in...yet He was without sin. Then...the invitation is given to any and all who are also tempted to sin: “Let us come boldly and with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace in our time of need.” (4:16). Grace to do what?

Is it your understanding that we come to find ‘grace’ that allows us to avoid God’s judgments on sin, like maybe using a ‘get out of jail for free card’...after we’ve sinned? What if we have had this all backwards? What if ‘grace’ is the power of God’s Spirit coming to enable us to stand in the time of temptation...so we don’t sin, as we ‘resist the devil’ so that he might flee (James 4:7); thus making us ‘over-comers by the blood of the Lamb’. Is there some ‘suffering’ that occurs in the process? Pretty much, but go read 1 Pet. 4:1-2; then... ...why not go read Titus 2:11-14 again...for the first time; then meet me back here tomorrow.