Reckless GraceSample

One Word of Warning

A common phrase you hear in church before an offering goes something like this: “Give and it will be given to you” (Luke 6:38). Ready for a shocking revelation? This passage has nothing to do with money and everything to do with grace! I’m all for radical generosity in our giving, but this is yet another instance where context is so very important. 

If Jesus was serious when he imparted grace (John 20:23), what does that mean for our lives?

• We would have to take inventory of how much grace we’re releasing.

• We would have to take an honest look at how much grace we’re receiving.

• We would have to take responsibility for a world that doesn’t know grace is within reach.

If Jesus wasn’t serious, we can assume it’s not within our power to forgive sins. And if that’s true, so is the following: Jesus may forgive you, but I don’t have to. If you’re not careful, you can justify offense and unforgiveness in your own heart by leaving grace up to God. But the challenge of John 20:23 is that Jesus is calling all believers to put on display the amount of grace we believe God is giving, not just to the world but also to ourselves. “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” In case you’re confused, let’s break that down for a moment.

If you don’t forgive, your Father won’t forgive you. If you do forgive, your Father will forgive you. It sounds like a threat, but it’s actually an incredibly powerful tool in unleashing the power of God’s grace gift in your life. The best part? You don’t have to figure it out. Like any other sign or wonder, grace isn’t something for you to boast in or try to own in your flesh. God is the one who heals, the one who restores, the one who forgives. He just chooses to invite us into what he’s up to by giving us power and authority as his children. He invites us to personally usher in the kingdom of God through his manifest grace, not because our salvation is dependent upon it but because we’re his kids!

If you have received Christ as your Lord and Savior, you have been adopted into God’s family. It’s unlike any earthly adoption you’ve ever heard of. Kingdom adoption is an awakening to who you really are in Christ—a beloved son or daughter of the King by new birthright! And out of that new identity in Christ, we learn to be more like our Abba, our Father—to look like him, act like him, and extend grace and forgiveness like him. God loves you so much, he wants you to have an opportunity to get in on the goodness of his radical grace. It’s just what you do as part of his family.

God’s grace sounds reckless by the world’s standards. And it is. But it’s no more than what you’ve already received. God wants you focused on him in this learning process, not on your own willingness to forgive (or lack thereof). As always, his strength is made perfect in your weakness. And from that place of humility, of coming into agreement with God, you begin to scratch the surface of what radical grace unleashed really looks like.

For practical steps and accessible tools to help identify and overcome barriers to grace, gentle guidance for releasing grace into a fallen world, and much more, we hope you’ll check out Reckless Grace by Bill Vanderbush and Brit Eaton: https://bit.ly/RecklessGrace.