I pray that this may never happen to you too – falling to the pits of hell – but I feel it necessary to write to you about this, not only for your benefit but for mine as well.
Should you forget what is written here, I want you to remember at least this word: Grace. By “grace” I do not mean the elegant gait by which my beloved allures me with no effort at all, nor do I mean it to be that charming smile when she glances sideways while the wind blows gently on her soft hair. No, this “grace” I talk about is far more beautiful than that, to say the least.
But to most Christians, this grace is mundanely defined as “undeserved favour.” This is mainly due to the pervading thought that grace is for the salvation of sinners, to save some random professor (from the root word profess, not the teacher in school) from hell as long as he says “I accept you Jesus.” While there is a little truth to this claim, I do not want you to think that way too.
But if you’ve fallen at least as far as I have, it will hardly ever cross your mind. In the beginning most of us would enjoy a joyful and fruitful period, when the flame of the Spirit still burns strong within us. May the Lord be gracious enough to you that this flame would never die out, but there are those of us have put out the flame within until the heart is ice cold with sin. There are those of us who have received the seed but which eventually got choked with the weeds of pleasure. There are those of us who have returned home only to journey back to that distant country. There are those of us who have been forgiven but sinned again wilfully, not once, not thrice, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
Yet the dear Savior says to Peter, “I tell you, [forgive] not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” If Peter is to forgive seventy-seven times, how much more will Christ forgive us - us, whom He died for? And if He died for us, did He not rise again for us also? Even now the marks on His hands cry out to the Father: “Forgiven!” All our sins, “Forgiven!” This is grace: “Forgiven!” We who have tested God’s patience to the limits have found that there are none. The saying is true; when sin, abounds grace abounds all the more.
But I do not want you to fall into sin just to know this grace. Do not say that us who have sinned much are better off than you who followed the path. We are not like those wolves that coat their words with false humility, but really take pride in their “conversion.” We do not glorify sinners. We do not brag of our sins, but of the grace that God has given. In other words, we cannot brag at all. For in the kingdom, whoever wants to be great must be a servant; yet who is the Servant that is least of all? In the same way, you who are holy cannot brag also. It is the same God who works in us, and the same grace that abounds not only to save us but to bring us to perfection until the day of Christ Jesus. So do not seek to know grace through sin. Was not the Christ sinless? Yet the fullness of God’s grace dwells in Him. “Forgiven!” that is grace; but “Holiness!” that is also grace – and a much better one in my opinion. Again in the kingdom, whoever practices and teaches the law will be called great; and who is the Teacher and the Fulfilment of the Law?
So in the end, it is Christ who is great. In the end, we are both His servants. In the end, we are both His friends. So to you who have not fallen yet (and I pray never, by the Lord’s grace), and to us who are being saved, keep your eyes on Christ, the Grace of God, for our forgiveness and perfection.
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