How Do You Start Your Day?

Here's a bit of biblical teaching that absolutely astounds me with its clarity and depth. It is from a wonderful but weighty book entitled Dynamics of Spiritual Life by Richard Lovelace. Lovelace addresses what I believe to be the principle problem for both guilt-ridden Christians and nominal religious people.

Only a fraction of the present body of professing Christians are solidly appropriating the justifying work of Christ in their lives. Many have so light an apprehension of God's holiness and of the extent and guilt of their sin that conciously they see little need for justification, although below the surface of their lives they are deeply guilt-ridden and insecure. Many others have a theoretical commitment to this doctrine, but in their day-to-day existence they rely on their sanctification for justification... drawing their assurance of acceptance with God from their sincerity, their past experience of conversion, their recent religious performance, or the relative infrequency of their conscious, willful disobedience.

Few know enough to start each day with a thoroughgoing stand on Luther's platform: you are accepted, looking outward in faith and claiming the wholly alien righteousness of Christ as the only ground for acceptance, relaxing in that quality of trust which will produce increasing sanctification as faith is active in love and gratitude.

Sadly I think Lovelace is exactly right. Justification is God's legal pronouncement that we as Christians are pardoned because of the substitute death of Jesus. That is the ground of all our hope. And yet, I meet people within the church all the time that cannot articulate this hope, and it's clear that being justified by Christ's sacrifice and being bathed in Christ's righteousness (his sinless right standing before God) is not where they draw their strength and joy. The guilty hand-wringers feel like they haven't done enough to earn God's favor and the cultural religious types see no need for a deep, passionate embrace of the Gospel that results is a transformed life. It would not be an overstatement to say nearly every counseling situation I have had falls into one of these two errors.

Thankfully, Lovelace and Luther's answer to this problem is also entirely accurate. In fact, it is the core of the Gospel message: you are accepted. You cannot earn acceptance by cleaning up your life, but you can lean on the acceptance of God in Christ and let that truth turn your life into passionate, sanctified worship. In Jesus, you are accepted. If this truth is the fuel of your life, it will drive you into the relaxed "quality of trust which will produce increasing sanctification as faith is active in love and gratitude."

Amazing Grace on the Field

As a life-long fan of the Detroit Tigers, allow me to throw my hat in the ring with all the others who have commented on the extraordinary events surrounding the Tigers vs. Indians game last week. Armando Galarraga pitched a perfect game, but a blown call by first base umpire Jim Joyce robbed Galarraga of his spot in history as only the 21st pitcher ever to retire 27 batters in a row, and the first in Tiger's history.

What makes this story extaordinary is not the blown call. That happens all the time. It's not even the perfect game, though that's why everyone is taking such notice. In my opinion, what is truly amazing is the outpouring of grace by Galarraga himself that began the moment the call was blown and history was lost. You see, it was Galarraga himself who covered first base for the final out. He was the one who caught the ball and looked to the umpire for the out-signal. And in that moment, when Galarraga's hands started to climb to the air in victory, and he saw the safe call from Jim Joyce, all Galarraga did was smile. He smiled.

I was watching the game. I was yelling at the screen, nearly waking my son. And my anger compounded when seconds later I was subjected to viewing the replay from about 6 angles, all clearly portraying a not-even-close out. But not Galarraga. He just walked back out and coaxed a ground ball from the next guy, giving him the only 28 out perfect game in MLB history.

Grace. This is costly grace. When he saw the replay, Galarraga simply said, "Nobody's perfect. Everyone is human." He's right. But it's one thing to say that in retrospect, when the emotions subside. It takes a new level of grace all together to let this be your guide in the heat of the moment when it costs you everything.

The next day, Galarraga walked the line-up card out to a very contrite, emotional Jim Joyce standing at the plate. This is normally a task for the manager, but in perhaps the classiest move I have ever seen in sports, Tiger's manager Jim Leyland asked Galarraga to walk out there. And with grace unbounded, he not only gave Joyce the card, but shook his hand and showed the sporting world the power of forgiving grace.