Wednesday, March 31, 2021
When Jesus asks the question in John 1.38, “What do you seek?” you could say that He’s also making a statement that His grace is sufficient for those who choose to follow Him.
Following isn’t a flippant moment’s-notice kind of commitment but an affirmation that runs to the roots of the disciple. It means that we accept Jesus as our Master and Teacher, that we walk the same path He does. There is fellowship in the commitment; there is interplay and relationship, back and forth. There is purpose and direction; there is nothing vague or casual about it.
Yet walking with Jesus must not and can never depend upon us.
In 2 Corinthians 12 Paul begins this section of his letter by talking about things he considers worth boasting about. Then he takes a radical turn, saying that even though these things are true and therefore definitely worthy of all boasting, he will boast only about his weaknesses. What.
He details how he was given what he calls “a thorn in [his] flesh” to keep him from becoming proud. Though he begged God three different times to remove it from him, he now sees the point: that grace becomes infinitely more valuable under duress.
It would have been enough if God had forgiven everything I had ever done in the past.
And it would have been enough if God would have made Himself available by petition for the forgiveness of sins that I still somehow, even in the light of His amazing longsuffering love, find myself unable to avoid committing.
But for grace to remain just as powerful for all the mistakes I have yet to make is a stunning revelation that is difficult to believe. What kind of tyrant, if that is what you think God is, would choose to forget, wash away, and pay for even future wrongs done against Him? What kind of God continues to choose and call and bless a people completely helpless and unable to ever live up to the standard of perfection He Himself sets by His very existence? This must be love, and love perfected, which casts out all fear.
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