The Joy of Sharing Grace

My wife returned home the other night with a very interesting story. To say she was excited to share about what happened would be an understatement. After spending some time with a friend she had recently become acquainted with, the conversation turned to faith, church, and understanding the grace of God. Their conversation is really a summation of what I have been sharing with you already this week. In the end, I pray that my wife's words of wisdom will sink into the very fiber of her friend's being.

The conversation wasn't much different than countless others we have had in the past. People who have had a bad experience in church are not that hard to find. Their stories may differ on certain points but the experience is much the same: legalistic understanding of Christian disciplines, lack of freedom, Old Covenant view of God, and the finished work of Christ almost non-existent. This is what my wife's friend had encountered. However, on this particular evening she would discover that grace is exactly everything that the Bible tells us it is.


Due to her bad experience in the church, this lady and her family had stopped going all together. They couldn't seem to keep up with the demands, they couldn't deal with the shame/guilt/condemnation that was placed upon them every week, and they just couldn't help but to believe that there was so much more to their faith. If anything, her conversation with my bride helped her to know that there was a greater reality to walk in and that the unconditional love of God was very real.

They talked about a lot of the "hot topics". You know...the things that make you a bad Christian.
They discussed a particular incident that they had to go through with the church that left a bad taste in their mouth.
And they dealt with a lot of the guilt she carried because she just could not allow her kids to grow up in their environment.

What did she hear from Jenn? She heard that it was o.k. to have these questions. She discovered that she was loved unconditionally. She was able to hear for the first time in her life what the finished work of Christ was all about. It's one of those moments that we all long for. That moment when all of the lights come on. We couldn't be more excited about the quality of faith that comes out of her family because of this experience.

My dear friends, sharing the grace of God is one of the greatest joys that we get to experience. Whether we are talking to a non-believer or an existing one, allowing them to hear about the finished work of Christ will bring them into a greater freedom. Listen to Paul's words to the Corinthians, "Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given to us by God" (1 Corinthians 2:12). Who doesn't want to be a part of that?

Too often we make being a witness much more difficult than it should be. We are simply telling the world about our experience of Christ, the truth that will set them free, and the revelation of God we find in Jesus. The joy that my wife experienced can be yours in all of your relationships as well. There's nothing quite like bringing people into freedom. We aren't trying to bring them into a religious system. We are simply making them aware of the relationship with God that they were created to enjoy.

Allow me to encourage you to immerse yourself in the finished work of Christ. Understand all that has been freely given to you. Then take that message with you wherever you go. Enjoy watching people choose to join you in your journey. Enjoy being a "minister of reconciliation" (read 2 Corinthians 5). Your life, and theirs, will never be the same.