THE IMPULSES OF GRACE
“So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.” Matthew 23:3-4 NIV
In his book Gentle and Lowly, Dane Ortlund described one of the many attributes of Christ this way:
“The cumulative testimony of the four Gospels is that when Jesus Christ sees the fallenness of the world all about him, his deepest impulse, his most natural instinct, is to move toward that sin and suffering, not away from it.”
As ministers, children of God, Christians as a whole, we constantly fall victim to the opposite of what Dane described. While we must be cognizant of the fact that we are not the judge that sits in heaven, we must exalt above all the truth that we carry the very spirit of Christ that permitted him to do what He did.
In our theme scripture, he does not discredit the teachings of the pharisees but He sure does call out their hypocrisy in their “doing” of the word (James 1:22) because they burdened others to do what they couldn’t do themselves. This is also a very thin line to balance because one must have spiritual acuity to discern if sharp correction is needed and how it must be delivered. This is why we need the help of the holy spirit, who is wisdom itself and knows the mind of God.
Child of God, the impulse of grace is to get to your knees when you know not what to do. Heaven will entrust its secrets not to men who can execute but wound, but to men who execute with healing as the ultimate end in sight. Selah!
Prayer: Father, I thank You for the grace that runs toward us in our sin and suffering. May it be said that I live by that same grace—clothed in humility, led by Your Spirit, and burdened to see healing in my generation . Let my life reflect the gentle strength of Christ, whose deepest impulse was mercy. Amen!
CI.
RELATED RESOURCES
• John 13:34
• Matthew 23
