A grace bomb explodes “The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more.” — Romans 5:20 — The day Adam failed, a bomb exploded, a bomb more damaging than any atomic version (Andries Cilliers uses and expands beautifully on the image of the “bomb” – Adam’s bomb and life’s bomb). The shock waves of that bomb we still feel today. Its radiation makes us sick, literally fatally so. Only: we are not only victims of the Adam bomb. Something like a chain reaction is taking place. The shock waves of Adam’s bomb causes further explosions in each one of us, with increasing damage. From this one transgression, many other transgressions followed. Look at a photograph of Hiroshima after it has been hit by the first atomic bomb: an empty blackened field of ruins. Imagine we could drop a “bomb of life” there – a bomb which would make the people rise from the ashes, make the buildings stand erecting, let the trees grow and make the grass green again. Imagine. We can’t because Adam’s children know only how to make a “death bomb” and not a “life bomb”. Only God is able to make a “life bomb”. And he did. This in a nutshell, is the message of Romans 5:12-21. “For if many died by the trespass of the one man,” it says in verse 15, “how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!” When God’s Son became human in Bethlehem, the “life bomb” started ticking. People thought they defused the “life bomb” by nailing him to a cross. However, they only ignited the fuse. Because Jesus through his “one act of righteousness” (Romans 5:18) has undone Adam’s “one trespass”. The Sunday after the crucifixion the “life bomb” exploded when Jesus arose from the grave through the Spirit. In the shock waves of that explosion, people came to faith, they became reconciled to God. Adam’s children became God’s children. Something like a chain explosion also happened here: in each one who believes, life explodes! The life of people who know they have been acquitted of guilt, even though they may be children of Adam. Adam’s fall and guilt don’t bind them anymore because they have been hit by the power of Jesus’ resurrection and righteousness. Just look at the soldier’s cruelty and lack of feeling when they crucified Jesus. They only wanted to see blood. This is why the flagellated him. The soldiers’ whip was made of leather strips with a ball of lead in each end. They had only one purpose with it: they wanted to flagellate the guilty to the point of death. Only then would they stop. Thirty nine lashes were allowed but this was seldom necessary. A guard monitored the prisoner’s state. Jesus was undoubtedly close to death when his hands were loosened and he sank to the ground. Should we follow the events closely, we would see the grace in action here already: As Adam we were cursed but Christ redeemed us from the curse by becoming a curse for us… (Gal. 3:13). Romans 5:20 could rightfully also be: The more sin increased, the more God’s judgement increased. But it is definitely not stated as such. Indeed, Paul stacks one concept on the other to show us the unexpected turn the gospel brings. … but the gift is not like the trespass (v 15). … grace overflows to the many (v 15). … the gift of righteousness reigns through the one man, Jesus Christ (v 17). … where sin increased, grace increased all the more (v 20). This is a gospel without counter achievement, without qualification, without conditions, “no strings attached.” Therefore it is gospel. Paul Tillich (as quoted by Johan Cilliers) writes grippingly: Do we know what it is like to be hit by a lightning strike of grace? It doesn’t imply that we suddenly believe God’s existence or that Jesus is the Redeemer or that the Bible contains truth. It also doesn’t imply that we are busy progressing in our moral self-control, in our fight against particular weaknesses and in our relationships with people and society. Moral progress may be one of the fruits of grace but it is not grace itself and may even prevent us from receiving grace… We can’t change our lives unless we have been struck by the lightning rod of grace. Grace strikes when we don’t “qualify” for it, when we are in pain and experience restlessness… it strikes when we are disgruntled with our lives, when our don’t-care attitude, our weaknesses, our hostility and our lack of direction and self-control make our lives unbearable. It strikes us when we experience year after year that the desired perfection of life doesn’t appear, when old urges control us as they have done for decades, when despair destroys all joy and courage. Sometimes then a beam of light breaks through the darkness and a voice seems to remind us: You have been adopted. You have been adopted by someone larger than you… Don’t try and do anything now; perhaps you would be able to do many things later. Don’t search for anything; don’t execute anything; don’t set your mind on anything. Simply accept the fact that you have been accepted! If this happens to us, we experience grace… Based on Romans 5:12-21 Johan Cilliers therefore also writes among others the following: there is no equal weight of power between our sins on the one hand and God’s grace on the other to see which one will win. No, this so-called balance of logic of the world has irrevocably been disturbed by the gospel of more abundant grace. Because there where the insult of God could not have been greater – on the cross – there God had all the more empathy with those who insulted him. Together with the blood dripping from the cross, the grace flows more abundantly. Which human logic could stand this? Oh, naturally this more abundant grace of God may be abused by people and this happens on a daily basis as it happened throughout the ages. Remember, humanity – you and I – did not accept the Lord Jesus with open arms. We have nailed him, the embodied grace of God, to a wooden cross. Yes, we could cheapen the grace or disregard it and say as Voltaire did: “God will forgive, that is his work. Continue to sin.” But then we would totally misunderstand grace. Could we really understand grace correctly and then blissfully continue with our wickedness? (see Paul’s plead in Romans 6.) No, we could not, should not. The other side is also true. We could become so over-cautious with regard to the abuse of grace that we lose all its joy. We could become like the little boy who concentrates so hard on the sheet music on the piano before him because he doesn’t want to make any mistakes for the music teacher or critical audience to hear – including his Mom and Dad – that he later can’t hear the music anymore, that he can’t be carried by its beauty anymore. The more sin increases, the more grace increases. No, I don’t understand it at all but it is written in the Bible like that and I find joy in it. In his compassionate grace God sent his Son to suffer and die for our sins. And so he obtained for us true and eternal life. The Holy Spirit lets us share in the redemption of Jesus Christ. When this happens, we become re-born. The Holy Spirit brings about the conversion in us through the bringing of the gospel – “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God … but the word of the Lord stands forever.” (1 Peter 1:23, 25). And this is the word that was preached to you. This is also the grace we read about in John 1:16: “From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.” Prayer: Every living being praises you, oh God. Everything you created gives you honour and gratitude. You are eternally God and no one can be compared to you. No one can stand before you. Because who besides you offers us assistance and freedom? Who else could feed and redeem and carry us – while you also, at all times, with unending tenderness catch our pain and tears in your hands? Oh God, there is no one like you. Amen (From: Die Groot Gebedeboek – Lux Verbi.BM – translated) Kind regards in Christ. Hentie Krüger
Posted on: Wed, 18 Sep 2013 22:44:51 +0000
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