Below is a sermon I had the privaledge of hearing my father deliver one Sunday morning. It’s imagery of God’s grace astounds me. My father run’s his own ministry that focuses on dicipleship. He has always been an inspiration of the heavenly father’s grace and forgiveness in my own life. The way he cares for the flock of the Lord is something I strive to have in my life. Please enjoy.
I recently concluded–contrary to popular opinion, I might add–that God is no gentleman.
I did not even realize that I believed that until recently when I used a free Sunday to go heard a friend preach and had what I have since come to call a “Scarlet O’Hara experience.”
You may recongize Scarlett as the main character in Margaret Mitchell’s novel “Gone with the Wind.” In the Academy Award winning film of that same name, Scarlett coerces Ashley Wilkes to go with her into the library of the Wilkes home. When he enters, she shuts the door behind him and confesses her undying love to him, even though she knows he intends to marry Melanie.
Being a true southern gentleman, Ashely kindly but firmly rejects her advances. Scarlet, being anything but a lady, returns the favor by slapping him. Always the gentleman, Ashley turns and leaves the room, closing the door behind him.
Scarlet is furious. She grabs the nearest thing at hand, an ornate china vase, and hurls in angrily against the far wall. At that, Rhett Butler rises from the sofa where he has been resting unseen and exclaims, “Whew! Has the war started?”
Scarlet is shocked by his abrupt appearance. “Sir,” she says, “you should have made your presence known.”
Rhett replies, “In the middle of that beautiful love scene? That wouldn’t have been tactful, would it? But, don’t worry–your secret is safe with me.”
Scarlet then responds indignantly, “Sir, you are no gentleman!”
I had a similar experience listening to my friend preach.
He told us that if we reject God’s self-revelation in Jesus, that if we ignore or walk away from God’s offer of love and life in Jesus, then God will simply let us go and leave us in our lostness. After all, it is our choice to disregard or to reject that offer to our own eternal ruin. “If we choose to be lost,” he said, “God will honor our choice and allow us to be lost.”
“God is a gentleman,” he told us repeatedly. “For that reason, he will not call out after us, he will not chase after us, he will not pester us, and he will not persist in trying to change our minds and hearts. We ahve made our decision and he will not press the issue. God is a gentleman.”
As I listened to my friend preach, I suddenly realized–I think for the first time–that I did not believe that. I did at one time, but not anymore. I have heard perhaps a hundred preachers tell me that God is a gentleman who will simply let us walk away in our lostness, if we so choose, and I have preached that very thing untold times. However, that Sunday morning in my friend’s church, it was as if I was alone in the library when, suddenly and much to my surprise, God raised up from the sofa (or, perhaps, from the pew). Starlted, I exclaimed, “Sir, you are no gentlman!”
My mind ran through story after story from the Bible. Those stories–many of them familiar to me since childhood–suddenly took twists and turns I never remembered. In each instance, God caught me off guard, gave me an unexpected jolt. After each story, I found myself saying to to God all over again, “Sir, you are no gentleman!”
Ask me now and I will tell you that I believe God is no gentleman. I believe it because of something called “grace.” Surely, you know about grace.
The Apostle Paul wrote, “. . . all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23,24) and “. . . where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, just as sin exercised dominion in death, so grace might also exercise dominion through justification leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:20,21).
That grace not only amazes me, but now convinces me that God is no gentleman.
Here’s what I’ve recently concluded regarding grace.
GOD’S GRACE IS PROMISCUOUS.
No, I didn’t choose the wrong word. Yes, you read it right. I am convinced more than ever that God’s grace is promiscuous.
In I Peter 4:10, that is what the Greek adjective used to describe grace means, at least according to most contemporary scholars. The word depicts a person who is clever and cunning, shrewd and subtle. With almost shadowy and underhanded features, the word pictures someone using deceitful strategy to attain a particular end. The Bible translation I most often use translated the word “manifold”–the manifiold grace of God–but that misses the moral looseness of the word. A better translation is “promiscuous.”
God’s grace is promiscuous. That is a strange image for grace, isn’t it? Yep–unless you read the Bible.
Read the Old Testament and you will find God’s grace offered to a seedy assortment of scallywags and scoundrels–deceivers, seducers, prostitutes, adulterers, and evern murderers.
Read the New Testament and there God’s grace is once more equally indiscriminate in its choice of company–conniving tax collectors, conspiring Pharisees, the sinful and immoral, the whole sad, sorry lot of them welcomed and loved by Jesus.
Jesus, of course, is the perfect expression of God–an expressiion humanly articulated in the language of grace. After all, as the Apostle John wrote of Jesus (John 1:14-18): “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me’.”) From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.”
Jesus expresses God in terms of grace, but Jesus’ expression of grace, his expression of God, is far from gentlemanly. Routinely, Jesus went places no gentleman would dare go and associated with people with whom no gentleman would dare associate.
In fact, etiquette conscious gentlmen–Pharisees, for example–dismissed Jesus with the condemning accusation, “He eats and drinks with sinners!” Jesus’ expression of God, his expression of grace, was far to promiscuous for such pious gentlemen.
One thing, though, is certain: Jesus’ expression of God and grace may have been too promiscous for some in his day, even for some in our own day, but it is an accurate expression. Jesus knew the heart of God like no other, and his God was no gentleman. His grace was promiscuous.
If God’s grace is anything at all, it is promiscuous. It goes all the wrong places and associates with all the wrong people who are doing all the wrong things.
However, that is not bad, as the Pharisees assumed; rather, it is good–and here is why: I have spent a lot of my life in those wrong places, doing those wrong things. If grace is so goody-goody that it will not be caught dead going to such places or hanging out with such people, then I can forget any hope of heaven.
For that matter, so can you.
Promiscuous grace means that there is no sin, no situation, no mistake, and no failure so bad, so final taht God will simply wash his hands of it, walk away from us, and leave it at that. Promiscuous grace means therer there is no place God will refuse to go, no problem God will refuse to solve, no person God will refuse to save.
Saying it another way, promiscuous grace means that God is no gentleman–and that is very good news.
If God is a gentleman, as many assume he is, then I am lost in my sin. For that matter, so are you. I know it is true of me because I have gone places, and hidden places, and, sometimes, stayed a long time in places that no gentleman would dare go, and I have done things that no gentleman would dare do, and I have sometimes–more times than I care to admit–been a person with whom no gentleman would dare associate.
God, however, is no gentleman. His grace is promiscuous. It will reach to, it will love, and it will save any person. That is the whole point of grace, isn’t it? If grace is true, then it’s true for everybody–or its true for nobody.
What good is grace that is a reward–for good behavior, for outstanding performance, for perfect choices–rather than the gift we need it to be? What good is grace if you have to deserve it in order to have it?
To paraphrase Jesus, “What good is a physician who treats only the well and leaves the sick alone? Me–I’m here to treat the sick, those who deserately need healed.”
“What good is grace,” ask Phillip Gulley and James Mulholland, “if it is not extended to those who deserve it the least but need it the most?”
One of the great recent discoveries of my life is that God’s grace is promiscuous.
GOD’S GRACE IS PERSISTENT.
I mean by that, it will not give in. It will not give out. It will not give up. It will not walk away. It will not quit. God’s grace is persistent.
Jesus, you may remember, once told a story about lost things and those who sought them. A sheep and a coin and a son were lost–representative of our lostness. A shepherd, a housewife, and a father wre seeking–reprentative of God seeking us in our lostness. A truly wonderful story!
In that story, Jesus did not say that the shepherd searched for his lost sheep until he grew tired, or until supper was ready, or until it was too dark to search any more. Jesus said that he searched until he found.
I don’t know what you call that, but I call it persistence.
Jesus did not say that the housewife searched for her coin until her back hurt, or until her husband came home, or until the broom wore out or the oil in the lamp was gone. Jesus said that she searched until she found.
Persistence.
Jesus did not say that the father scanned the horizon for the first, faint glimpse of his lost son’s arriveal, or until he was needed out in the back forty, or until the paychecks for the workers had to be dispensed, or until he finally just gave up his son for dead. Jesus said that he searched until he found.
That is persistence.
However, it is not a waste as the Pharisees assumed; rather, it is wonderful–and here is why: any grace other than God’s grace would have given me up for lost, given me up for dead, given me up for good a long time ago. Wouldn’t it have given up on you, too?
Ken Gire once told a great story of a little girl who was lost in a big woods. As darkness decended and deepend, she cried herself to sleep. Friend, family, volunteers and the police combed the area until it was too dark to continue, then resumed the search at the first blush of a new day. Finally, her father found her–sleeping with her head on a rock–and yelled her name, running to her as fast as he could.
Startled awake, the little girl recongnized her father and reached out her arms to him. Wrapped in his warm embrace, she kept repeating, “Daddy, I found you!”
I like that story because it is so me! I was lost. God found me. I also like the story because it is such a wonderful picture of grace.
I am not certain what picture my preacher friend was painting the day I sat listening to him–walk away from God, wander off into lostness and, being a gentleman, he’ll let you go–but it was not a picture of grace. A gentleman might leave you alone in your lostness, but not a father–never a father, and never God.
God will persist in his search until he finds. How long is that? Well, it seems to be however long it takes. Slam a door in God’s face and he pries open a window. Hang up the receiver and he calls back. Delete his message and he sends another. Reject him and he rejects your rejection.
Now, there’s something I never thought about until Gulley and Mulholland raised the question.
Did you ever stop to think that just as we are free to reject God, God is also free to reject our rejection?
What is to stop you from rejecting God’s offer of grace in Jesus? Nothing, right? You are certainly free to do so, if you wish. In the same way, what is to stop God from rejecting your rejection? I’m convinced that nothing can stop God from rejecting your rejection, if he wants. Biblically, he wants. If grace tells us anything, if the record of scripture tells us anything, it tells us that he wants.
If the crucifixion of Jesus is humankind saying to God, “I reject you,” then the resurrection of Jesus is God saying to humankind, “I reject your rejection.” We can walk away from many things in life, but we cannot walk away from God’s grace, we cannot walk away from his love. His blessing, of course, we can walk away from, but try as we might, walk as far as possible, and we cannot separate ourselves from his grace and love.
What else could Romans 8:35-39 mean?
“Who will seperate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Wow! “Nothing” and “no one”–that pretty much covers most everything, don’t you think? “Nothing” and “no one” in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Jesus. “Nothing” and “no one”–wouldn’t that mean not even us?
I am convinced tha God will not just let us walk away, if that is our choice. God will not let us walk away, even when we walk away in rejection and rebellion. He is free to reject our rejection. He is free to puruse. He is free to persist–if he wants–and he wants.
When you are lost–so lost that everyone has given up on you, so lost that you have all but given up on yourself–how good it is to find a God, a grace that refuses to give up on you until you are found!
One of the great recent discoveries of my life is that God’s grace is persistent.
GOD’S GRACE IS POWERFUL.
In a word, it will win out. I am certain of that–more certain than ever before in my life. Ultimately, God will not be defeated. How can God possibly, ultimately know defeat? Ultimately grace will not lose. How can it lose? There is no power that can trump the power of God’s grace in Jesus.
Of course, most of us think there is.
We think that we can be so bad, so sinful in our thinking and living that God will not mess with the likes of us, but will simply leave us alone and that will be that.
But God is no such gentleman. His grace if far too promiscuous.
We think that our rejection of Jesus and our refusal of grace are so insulting to God that he will just turn his back on us and give us up to our rebellion, and that will be that.
But God is no such gentleman. His grace is far too persistent.
It seems to me that is the precisely that promiscuity and persistence that give grace its power. Even though we give up on God, he never gives up on us. One day, that grace will wear us down. One day that grace will win us over.
Of course, that is not a threat, as some believe; rather, it is a blessinG–and here’s why: no other grace will reject my rejection, no other grace will pursue me until I’m found, no other grace will wear me down and win me over until I confess to the glory of God, “Jesus Christ is Lord!”
Paul the Apostle said that such a day is coming, a day when God’s promiscuous and persistent grace will finally and forever wear us down and win us over. God, Paul wrote, has highly exalted Jesus “and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”
If Paul means what he says, and I have every reason to believe that he does, then one day we will all surrender to God’s grace in Jesus. It is unavoidable. It is as inescapable as weather. Grace is too powerful for us. It will ultimately win. For God is no gentleman and will not surrender to our rejection.
One day we will all surrender to God’s grace in Jesus.
That is why I ask people, “that being true, why not surrender now?”
My prayer-and-accountability partner showed me a story by Jim Wallis that told about being at the Cathedral of St. George when former South African bishop Desmond Tutu spoke to an ecumenical gathering. It was a tense time. Tutu’s call for the end of apartheid and a new day of peace did not sit well at the time with the South African government. As Tutu rose to speak, soldiers stood ready with notepads and tape recorders to carefully monitor and record the bishop’s words. If need be, they were prepared to arrest him, as they had done only a few weeks earlier.
At one point, as he concluded his comments, Tutu spoke directly to the soldiers. “You are powerful,” he told them. But then he spoke of a God who was more powerful, a God’s whose justice and righteousness, whose grace and love could not be stopped, even with prison bars and bullets, even if South African streets ran red with the blood of martyrs. With sincere warmth and love, he assured the soldiers that God’s love and grace would ultimately win, they must win, and that the soldiers, the government, the resisters ofgrace would ultimately lose.
“Since you have already lost,” he said with a kind smile, “I invite you today to come and join the winning side.”
Those words ignited the congregation of Christians, like a barge full of fireworks. The people exploded in celebration, singing and shouting and dancing in that great auditorium, then out the door and down the street and through the town. All the soldiers could do was give way as God’s grace carried the day.
What a wonderful thing it is to know that God’s grace is that powerful.
God’s grace ultimately carries the day. It the end, it never loses; it always win. How can it ultimately do anything but win?
It wins, I am convinced, precisely because God is no gentleman.
-Pat Heston
