Amazing Grace!
23 Feb 2023
“The Church of England currently teaches two totally incompatible visions of God. On the one hand, there is a gospel of grace, where the love of God is unconditional and available to all. On the other, there is a God who places restrictions on that grace and asks the church to act as the gatekeeper.” (Jayne Ozanne, Opinion, The Guardian, Fri 3rd Feb 2022)
“The Bible/Jesus teaches that God’s grace is available to all - but it is never unconditional. God’s grace is offered only to those who repent of their sin and put their faith and trust in Jesus, who has made grace available through his death on the cross to bear the hell that our sin deserves.” (Facebook post by John Stevens in response to the above article, 4th Feb 2023)
One of the advantages of controversy is that the Lord uses it to clarify our understanding.
What was your reaction to those two quotes above? The first was written in a newspaper article by an activist just before the vote at the Church of England synod. She is on the wing of the church wanting the bishops to go further, and to allow same sex couples to marry in church. The second was a response to that piece by an evangelical leader (in an independent church) on his facebook page.
I hope we are uncomfortable with both quotes. In the first Jayne Ozanne seems to be using the riches of God’s grace to argue for the blessing of sin - which can’t be right. However, the second seems to suggest that the answer to that is to reduce our view of God’s grace, and appears to say it is somehow something which is “made available” to us, but that we have to accept through our repentance.
As we have been hearing in Ephesians on Sunday morning, both understandings of God’s grace fall seriously short of the mark. In the opening chapters of that letter, Paul wants us to see that we simply don’t have a full enough appreciation of the riches of God’s glorious grace towards us.
We must hold on to the fact that God’s grace is unconditional. Paul could not make it any more clear than he does that there is nothing in us which earns God’s grace. It is not only “offered” to us. The objects of God’s grace are “dead in trespasses and sins” (2:1). We do not receive God’s grace by any work of our own - and that must exclude even our faith and repentance (2:8-9).
What then is the cause of God’s grace? It comes from within himself. He is “rich in mercy”. He has a “great love” for those he is saving. He has chosen his people “before the foundation of the world” (1:4) - before we were even born, so it can’t be anything to do with us.
His grace is rich and unconditional not only because we don’t deserve it, but also because it comes freely and fully from him - and is shown by what it cost for him to save us (the death, resurrection and exaltation of his Son).
Does this mean then, that if we receive this grace we can live as we have before (as Jayne Ozanne seems to be arguing)? Not at all.
So then, is grace just for those who “repent of their sin” (as the second quote says?). Again, no. The answer to that confusion is to see again just how great grace actually is.
God’s grace is so amazing that to save us he needs to make us alive to him. He needs to give us the faith and repentance to respond to the gospel. In our sin we are unable to do that! So as the gospel is preached, God sends his Holy Spirit to regenerate his people, who then hear and believe and turn in faith and repentance to Jesus.
We also need to remember what salvation is. Why does God graciously act? So that ‘we should be holy and blameless before him” (1:4). He sets us apart in Christ, and now enables us to live, not following after the sinful desires of our hearts, but doing the good works which he has prepared for us to do (2:10). We limit God’s grace if we suggest that either he doesn’t change his people, or if we suggest that those works now come from our strength.
So, never be tempted to downplay the glorious grace of God. It is far more amazing that we can ever imagine. No wonder Paul often pauses in Ephesians to pray that “the eyes of our heart may be opened” to know these things (1:18).