Often we hear of the need for a “new reformation of grace.” If what is being referred to is the spiritual state of deadness of institutionalized religion, maybe so. However, Christianity is not religion and grace is not dead. Grace is not going to lead to a reformation because nothing is dead. When we talk about grace and, therefore, reformation is not necessary. “Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace” Hebrews 13:9.
Grace is what distinguishes Christianity from all man-made religions.
Grace is not a thing or goal to be achieved, but a person who is living and active, The Person - Jesus Christ - who is LIFE. When we talk about God's grace, it is like trying to understand God, Himself. Grace is as comprehensive as God Himself, His every expression. The good news of grace is that it is always consistent because it is the expression of God’s character, the manifestation of His being or essence.
To experience Grace is to experience God!
Grace is God at work or God’s activity and as we choose to experience grace, to obey, which is faith, (our receptivity to God’s activity). Our lives are then restored, sanctified or conformed to the image of Christ. As we agree with the Spirit of Christ, we experience the expression of His life and character and the world sees the invisible living Lord Jesus in a visible, tangible way through us. “But we all, with unveiled face,
beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the
same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit” 2 Corinthians 3:18.
Religions talk about reformation. But, God is at work in restoration the activity of God in Christ allowed to function in us (spirit), as us (soul), and through us (body).
“With this the words of the Prophets agree, just as it is written, ‘AFTER THESE THINGS I will return, AND I WILL REBUILD THE TABERNACLE OF DAVID WHICH HAS FALLEN, AND I WILL REBUILD ITS RUINS, AND I WILL RESTORE IT, SO THAT THE REST OF MANKIND MAY SEEK THE LORD, AND ALL THE GENTILES WHO ARE CALLED BY MY NAME” Acts 15:15-17.
I have sought the institutional church, in hopes that there was a potential to restore. But, we would have to purge the vast majority, in order to rid ourselves of that which has destroyed and undermined -- the postmodern.
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