From Not Life to Life: Grace, Witness, Adoption

When CS Lewis, who is probably my favorite theologian of the last century, when he attended the World Congress of Religions, he was being asked by somebody, can you describe briefly what the difference is between other religions and Christianity? He said, one word. Which one? Grace. Come on. Help me. Grace. Of course, it's grace. When the translators who translated scripture into Nepalese only seventy years ago, the church is young in Nepal, only seventy years ago, when they translated scripture, you know what what problem they had? There is no word for grace in Nepalese. [00:55:29] (43 seconds)  #OneWordGrace

Then every single person goes up and put money down, every one of them. No other words spoken. Then the village headman goes, picks up that money. His nice eyes never left mine. They put the money in my lap and said, yes, we don't know whether Shanta Kumar was a Christian or not, but you care for his kids. And, you know, that's what we've done ever since. We started a little home in that village. [01:18:07] (32 seconds)  #CommunityCompassion

And I tell you, there was that moment when it was too much. I was just at this street corner, and they go like, I don't know how to do this. I'm really good at doing stuff. Right? I always do stuff. I'm an engineer. I build stuff. I I build systems. I I can solve this problem. And I pray that God is too much. Everybody here is going to be lost. What am I gonna do? This is too much. And this is one of the three instances in my life where I heard, like with my ears, the voice of God. And he said, who is lost and who is not, let that be my worry. You be my witness. [00:48:26] (38 seconds)  #CalledToWitness

That's it. So we talk about that at staff meetings. What does it mean to be a witness? It's actually quite simple. So there's those among us those among us who are pastors. They have a gift. They preach. They they they evangelize. But for us regular people, that's not much our calling. Not so much. We are called to be witnesses. And what does a witness do? A witness speaks to what they have heard, seen, and experienced, and not more pleased, and not less, and preferably when you're being asked. That's what the witness does. [00:49:04] (38 seconds)  #EverydayWitness

And now comes God and says, you know what you are to me? Dearly loved children. I I can't help it. I need to flip to Isaiah 43. But now, this is what the Lord says, he who has created you, oh Jacob, who has formed you Israel. Do not fear for I have redeemed you. I have summoned you by name. You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And when you pass through the rivers, I will not sweep they will not sweep over you. And then then, for I am the lord your god, the holy one of Israel, Since you are precious and honored in my sight, I love you. [01:23:45] (43 seconds)  #BelovedChildren

And we don't get what we actually would have deserved, but that's not enough. That's not grace yet. Justice, we get what we we deserve. Mercy, we don't get what we deserve. Grace, we get what we could never even have dreamt of, or deserved or imagined, eternal life, sonship, adoption, and we're going to talk more about that in a moment. [00:57:51] (32 seconds)  #GraceNotDeserved

And is is it really such a big question why millions of people who were considered crap and now hear that they are precious and honored in God's side turn to that God? I think it makes perfect sense. Ephesians five one, be imitators of God. Be imitators of God. There's many things what that means, but I want to leave you with one simple thing. If we are if that's our basic calling, to be imitators of God, eyes on the king, the cutlery, the plates, the glasses, then we need to know him. Right? We need to understand him. [01:24:29] (50 seconds)  #ImitateGod

When the people of Israel got to know Yahweh, they discovered that he's a just God, that you can actually rely on him, that there's no shadow of turning in him, that, in other words, you get what you deserve. You can bank on that. Except it's not particularly good news because he's holy and we're not. And because the wages of sin is Death. Is death. Get what we deserve. It's problematic. And so a second concept emerges, mercy. Mercy. He's not just just, he's merciful. He pardons sin. He has mercy. [00:57:05] (46 seconds)  #JustAndMerciful