Grace in the Gap

There is a deep divide between the life we are called to by God and the reality of our everyday existence. I know what you are thinking; “You’ve been a Christian and a pastor for how long and you are just now getting this!?” Well, it is not that I am just now getting it, but I am seeing it more clearly.

God is holy and created us to live holy so that we can live with Him, because “without holiness no one will see the Lord.” (Hebrews 12:14 NIV). And of course the problem is that since the “fall” of humanity, no one can live holy. It is not a matter of being hard, it is simply impossible. Our lives are filled with lies, dishonesty, sexual immorality, temptations, strife, hatred, greed and an assortment of other things we don’t need to mention. So there is a wide gap.

As God instructed an unholy people about holiness, He never stopped calling us to holy living because He has not stopped wanting a relationship with us. (See Hebrews 12:14 above again). Since holiness is not (at least post-fall) a natural part of our nature, God throughout the Old Testament laid out instructions and illustrations of what holiness would look like both individually and communally. The point of that instruction was to show humanity that 1) we are not holy by nature and 2) we cannot be holy in our own strength, even with detailed instructions. In other words, we don’t need more knowledge about holiness, we need more power for holiness. We are not unholy because of circumstances, we are unholy by nature. We aren’t unholy because we “sin” (unholy actions and omissions), we “sin” because we are unholy. 

The question, then, is what do we do with the gap between God’s requirements and our lives? Some have sought to moderate God’s requirements. They read the Bible and say that these requirements are not possible, therefore they are not accurate. Perhaps the Bible was written by men with their own agendas, or utopian, unrealistic thinkers. They want to bring God’s holiness down to our level. Others have sought to deny the reality of human existence. These people choose to look at the pain, suffering, and evil in the world and claim that it is an aberration from the norm. We see this every day as the media tries to explain away horrible events by picturing the perpetrators as “sick” or “not normal”.

Whatever route we choose, something must fill this gap. Many have chosen to allow religion to fill it. They have taken God’s descriptions of holiness and turned them into rules to be followed, religion to be adhered to. Religion, in this view makes, us holy. But religion does not really fill the gap. Religion can clean up the outside of our lives, but the inside is just as far from God as ever.

Jesus came to show us God’s answer to the gap: grace. According to Dallas Willard, grace is God acting in our lives to accomplish what we cannot on our own. Grace is not magic. Grace is God taking our faithful obedience and through the power of the Holy Spirit enabling us to live into holiness. Grace also fills the gap between our efforts and God’s requirements. Grace rewards us with love and acceptance when what we deserve is judgment and condemnation. So how are you filling the gap in your life?