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Opening Ourselves to Grace:
The Basics of Christian Discipleship

GRACE IS:

Grace is God’s unmerited, unconditional love and acceptance freely given to all. This grace is incarnate in Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16).

This grace is free, but it is not cheap. It comes to us at great cost to God: the suffering and death of God’s Son. Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it well when he wrote, “Cheap grace is the mortal enemy of the church. Our struggle today is for costly grace. … Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which has to be asked for, the door at which one has to knock. It is costly, because it calls to discipleship; it is grace, because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly, because it costs people their lives; it is grace, because it thereby makes them live (Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Vol. 4, pages 43 & 45).

• Grace is universal. It is for all creation. God’s gift of life and love is not limited to the church or to human beings. It is for all the cosmos. In particular, this gift of freedom and healing is for all people. None are excluded.

• Grace is relational because God is love (1 John 4:16b). The Triune God is a community of divine love: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Grace is a reflection of God's character. Human beings, created in the image of this God (Genesis 1:26-27), are created for relationship with God and with one another. The nature of this relationship is the love that flows from God for the world.
  
  Faith is God's work in and with human beings that opens the door, welcomes, and sustains them in vital, life-giving relationship. Faith is activated through human relationships of love and acceptance. It is very likely that you came to faith in Christ because a parent, grandparent, friend, Sunday school teacher, or pastor loved you enough to introduce you to God's good news in Jesus.

• Grace is love, which is most profoundly revealed in the life, suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is self-giving, unconditional, and liberating. This love is experienced in forgiveness, healing, wholeness, and transformation. It is God’s gift to the world to form and restore brokenness to wholeness.

GRACE IS... PREVENIENT
(The Porch)

Grace is working in the world, with, for, and in me before I am aware of God’s love and acceptance in Jesus Christ. (See John 1:1-18; 2:1-11; 6:1-14; Mark 2:1-12.) It is like a porch that invites and welcomes me to the door of God’s household.

Grace awakens me to who and whose I am. (See Luke 15:17-19.) Grace prepares me to accept God’s acceptance in Jesus Christ and gives me the freedom to say “yes” or “no” to God’s YES in Jesus Christ (Luke 15:11-13).

GRACE IS... JUSTIFYING
(The Door)

The porch brings us to the door of the house. The door is open. Faith is the door. When we accept God's acceptance (Luke 15:17), we know that our sins are forgiven Jeremiah 31:34; Mark 2:1-12; Luke 7:36-50; 1 John 1:9). The guilt of sin is removed by his love (Romans 8:1). Relationship with God is restored (Romans 3:21-26). There is relational change. Faith becomes real and active (Ephesians 2:8-10).

GRACE IS... SANCTIFYING
(Rooms of the house)

Grace helps us through the door (faith) and into the household (life) of God. Christ welcomes us with open arms as family. Grace equips us to live the life of a child of God. Paul describes this process in 2 Corinthians 5:17: “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new." The theological term for this is “regeneration.” Jesus describes it in John 3:3 & 5, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above … being born of water and Spirit."

This new birth, which naturally leads to growth, is called "sanctification." In "justification," grace leads us to a relational change with God. At that instant, our relationship with God is restored by grace through faith; and the Holy Spirit begins working on us from the inside out. There is a real change; a change of character that leads to holiness of heart and life. “By this we may be sure that we are in him: whoever says, ‘I abide in [Christ],' ought to walk just as he walked” (1 John 2:5-6).

Grace sets us free from the power of sin (Romans 8:9-11). We are free so that we can love as Christ loves. As we claim and live into this freedom for loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength — and for loving those whom God loves as God loves them — our character is formed more and more into the character of Christ. We “grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” (Ephesians 4:15).

Christian discipleship is a process that has a goal and destination. John Wesley often quoted the Apostle Paul to describe the goal: “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). Our destination is Christ. Our goal is “having the mind of Christ.” In other words, grace working by faith leads us to live, serve, pray, and worship in such a way that we cooperate with and participate in God’s project of redemption and healing for planet earth. In the process, we become more and more the people and communities God created us to be, in Christ. We become so filled with the love of God that there is no longer room for sin and evil to be part of us. John Wesley called this “perfection in love.” The writer of 1 John puts it this way: “Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:17- 19).

NEXT: The Means of Grace