The New Covenant Of Grace

Amazing grace.  The most beautiful and powerful concept in the entire Bible, in my opinion.  This is the story of my conversion to grace, by grace.

Somewhere around ten or eleven years old, my mom confided in our pastor's wife that she was worried about me.  She thought that I would never walk with God.  The pastor's wife, possessing a charismatic nature, made a prophecy about me when she emphatically replied to my mom, "You have nothing to worry about with her."  It was through her husband's teaching that I began to follow Jesus, beginning with a very distinct event a couple of years later.  Soon after that, my pastor and his wife became missionaries to Guatemala and in spite of attempts to reach them, I have never been able to officially thank them, as well as their son who was my youth pastor, for saving my life.

But my journey after that was a rocky one, continual stumbling and getting back up again.  This Christian life was a difficult one.  I believed in Christ, but most of the time I didn't really feel like being a Christian.  It was either boring, or it was too much work.  Too much defeat, doom and gloom.  Was it supposed to be so unenjoyable?

Years later, in college, I became desperate.  I knew I was a believer.  I was sure that I wanted to remain as a Christian.  But I was missing some vital element.  Every week at church, I would bring up the same subject in every conversation with anyone - friends, acquaintances, pastors, deacons, even new Christians.  I would tell them that I wanted to grow, I wanted to change, but HOW?  I don't understand how!  Will somebody please explain to me how to overcome my sins!  I would almost be in tears.  Most reactions to me were confounded.  People thought I was fine the way I was, and didn't understand why I was so upset about it; nobody had a sufficient answer to my distress.

Finally the enlightenment came through a Bible college class that was completely unlike any other I had taken before.  The name of the class was "The New Covenant of Grace" and although I had heard grace preached many times before, this was something else, something new to me.  Light bulbs were lit at every corner as I frantically tried to write down as many words as possible in my notes that I was hearing.  Homework was not dreaded for this class, for I went home and reread the Scripture verses over and over and then went back to class the next week and questioned the pastor/teacher incessantly.  He smiled, and knew exactly what was happening to me.

The concept finally hit me all at once after the class was over and while I was reading a book called The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life, by Hannah Whitall Smith.  The transformation in me is impossible to explain especially since it concerns such basic concepts of Christianity:  repentance, faith and grace.  All I can say is that I finally understood what it meant to walk victoriously, and a tremendous relief occurred in me.  I imagine it is what Paul Bunyan was thinking when he wrote of Christian's burden falling off his back when he arrived at the cross in Pilgrim's Progress.

At the time, I worked as an administrator at the church for another pastor who was the overseer of the Bible college extension campus I was attending.  The same experience happened to him on the same day while he was on a missions trip.  Upon his return, we excitedly shared our stories with each other.  We were like two little kids without a care in the world, even raising our hands to heaven and praising God as we were talking to each other.  It must have been quite a spectacle.

And that is just what I was to become as I tried to talk about God's grace to anyone who would at least pretend to listen.  My pastor friend soon after became the lead director of the main Bible college campus and I left for the mission field in Eastern Europe where I wanted to live and die (although God had other plans.)  Being my impulsive and blurting self (I actually used to be much worse), I preached wherever I went.  It felt like I was saved all over again, a second time, except that I would no longer walk in defeat because my sins no longer had power over me.  This sounded exceptionally arrogant on my part and friends wondered what in the world I was talking about.  I didn't completely know myself.  Later I found out that some people call it the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

There were generally three different negative reactions to my testimony.  The first was that I became an extreme left-wing liberal in some minds (even though I was conservative), void of any absolutes.  It sounded like I was telling people that they could live in licentiousness when I said that as Christians we don't have to worry about our sins anymore.  They have been completely removed when we believe that Jesus died on the cross and said, "It is finished."  Now we can live how we want, not under the legal system of the law.  This sounded like blasphemy.  I tried to explain that the new covenant is a new law written on the heart, not on tablets of stone.  By simply loving God because of His great love and promises for us, we can now walk in newness of life, without sin.

This, however, came across like I believed in Christian perfectionism, that we can achieve perfection before we reach heaven.  So then I tried to explain that yes, we do still sin, and even fall into very destructive sins.  Although we have died to sin, we still live in sin.  We are always completely sinful as a matter of fact in our flesh, but under the new covenant, it feels like we are sinless because sin has lost its grasp on our spirit.  The Spirit within us is much greater, stronger, and alive than the life of our flesh.  Believing this truth has a profound affect on the way we live.  It is almost like sin decides to give up on us because we no longer care about it so much.  It is insignificant.  We are no longer slaves to addictions and destructions.  Sure, we might fall into a sin for a while, but it is short-lived, never permanent.  We are constantly growing.  Our sins actually become avenues or tools for that growth.

Over the last fifteen years, I've found that the most common misunderstanding of God's grace is that people confuse it with mercy.  The term grace is thrown around as some kind of fluffy act of pardon or forgiveness.  When Oprah Winfrey fell off the weightloss wagon and gained 40 lbs, people told Oprah that it was okay.  They could give her "grace" because they had experienced the same thing.  We give people "grace" because we have faults too.  Or, we ought to give people "grace" instead of judging them.  But this is mercy, not grace.

Grace actually changes things.  By giving grace to someone, we enable them to make lasting changes, and we can watch it happen.  It works by keeping the passion and the romance alive in our relationship with God.  It maintains a mysterious fire in our souls that is evident to the rest of the world.  When God forgives us of our sins, He wants to spare us the tragedy of remaining in them so He gives us the strength, or the power, to overcome them.  In this sense, grace provides a surpassing security.  If we as Christians are walking in certain sins for long periods of time, we do not know God's grace.  If we are not experiencing victories, we are not living by grace.  If there is not adequate evidence of our salvation in our actions, then we do not know God!  This ought to strike terrible fear in us.

The third negative reaction I encounter with grace is that it can be very offensive to people.  They feel as though they are being criticized, or excluded from some elite group of people who have experienced it.  First of all, it is possible to live in grace without understanding the concept of it.  One of the aspects about grace that I am currently learning is that Non-believers can express it too.  This surprised me.  I wondered if those people are really saved and they just don't know it, which is possible, but I'm realizing that anyone can be carried by God's grace, or love of goodness.  Although their faith is not imputed unto salvation, there are some Non-Christians who put many Christians to shame by their good works, in fact.  This is evidence of God's grace in their lives.

Secondly, grace is a tremendous blow to self-righteousness.  Believing in grace involves an absolute surrender of our own striving, or any trust in ourselves.  Losing our lives means living in a continual state of humility, becoming aware of and admitting our constant faults, weaknesses, sins or just plain "I could have handled that situation better".  Although grace is an inexplainable joy, it is also painful, like surgery, but it is the only way to remain living the abundant life.  The joy of grace is actually our strength.  It miraculously becomes a pleasure to admit our wrongs and to place others higher than ourselves.  Can you see how grace is a new law written on the heart?

Like I said earlier, this is nearly impossible to explain, and it has been portrayed a thousand times before, but we all have some sort of hint as to whether or not it is a reality in our lives, and to what extent.  It is the process by which we are saved, and the only way to grow.  Once we know grace, we can spot it in others.  Although many Reformed theologians believe in the new covenant of grace, it is not the Calvinist's doctrines of grace.  The new covenant is limitless, Spirit-filled and a condition of the heart, rather than locked into a systematic theology.  There is so much more to say about it and I feel that I did an awful injustice by not explaining it clearly.  I left out supporting Scriptures in order to keep this post brief.  Although I am learning that there is a proper place, time and expression for this subject, I can not keep it to myself, and I have no doubt that the power of His grace can release others from the tragic burden of defeat.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come;
'Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far
and Grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me.
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

When we've been here ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we've first begun.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

Amazing Grace
John Newton (1725-1807)
Stanza 6 anon.