A Means of Grace

For by grace are you saved through faith, and it is not from yourselves; it is a gift of God - Ephesian 2:8

(A member of my family gave birth to a baby boy some months ago — J.H., we'll call him. He was born with a number of physical problems. It was clear that he was not going to live very long. The family prayed for miracles. Within a very few hours of birth, he passed on. A few days ago, J.H.'s sister, only five or so herself came down with a cold. She asked, "Am I going to die like my baby brother?" As winter settles in, the family has lots of time, too much time, to think about their loss. They ask why, and this is my stuttering, stumbling answer.)

Most of us don't understand grace. We think of it as something ephemeral, a sort of attitude that God has toward us by which He says, "You're OK." In fact, grace is a power and a form of wisdom and, sometimes, an immovable object as solid as a mountain. Grace is a gift, and faith is our response to it. It is not a state of mind any more than life is a state of mind.

Perhaps you have heard the phrase "the means of grace". In most theological teaching, the means of grace include studying the Scriptures, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, doing good works, sacrificing for others, perhaps being baptizing and receiving communion. Though grace is a free gift, it must be appropriated into our lives. We must recognize it, respond to it, even pursue it.

God does not limit the means of grace to the usual and the general. He deals with us as individuals. He knows our weaknesses and our strengths - and He knows that sometimes our strength needs more grace to overcome than our weakness. To this end, He sends specific things into our lives. These may be seen at first as blessings, or as trials, or even curses. They are never meant for evil, though they may have an evil appearance. It may be said of some of them that they are "of the devil", but this is not true, and, if we will hold to faith, we will see that they are from God's hand, meant only for our transformation, conduits of grace into our lives.

J.H. was a means of grace. It's not hard to say that of his birth, but his death seems to be an evil thing, perhaps, at best, a senseless thing, a thing that makes those who knew him ask, Why, and to ask it over and over again. Was God not powerful enough to give J.H. life? Did God not care about the broken hearts of J.H.'s family? If God did not intend for him to live, why did He give this little life at all only to snatch it away so cruelly?

I am not God, and I dare not answer for Him. I can say beyond doubt that J.H. entered joyously into the presence of Christ, whole and triumphant, peaceful and untainted, pure and sweet. He never knew disappoint or rejection. He never wept over a loss. He was never afraid. He never experienced darkness. All he knew was light.

But what of us? We still feel the pain of his being wrenched from us. We wonder if he was taken away because we failed in some way. We question if there was anything we could have done to get God to listen and leave him with us. We hear the mocking words of the enemy that it was all just random and meaningless, only proof that God does not exist or does not know or does not care.

J.H. was a means of grace, a way of giving us insight into the heart of God, a brief, blazing light illuminating the uncertain and dark corners of our souls. A knife in our hearts? Yes. But not the cruel blade of the butcher. It is the scalpel of the skilled surgeon who heals us by His wounding. He must open our hearts in pain that He might remove those obstructions that block and hinder the flow of His life through ours.

Let's not be so full of pride and self-righteousness that we think there is no evil thing within us threatening to grow and choke out the life of Christ.

Let us not be so childish as to accuse God of punishing us when He loves us and wants only to make us whole.

Let us not blame ourselves for that with which we were born as part of Adam's race.

There was nothing we can do to heal ourselves any more than we could save ourselves apart from God’s own Son who volunteered to die on the cross that we might live. Somebody had to be the Instrument of our salvation; somebody had to be the means of our grace. J.H. followed in the footsteps of Jesus.

If he could speak to us today, he might say, "But even if I am poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you" (Philippians 2:17).

Cause and Effect

Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. — Hebrews 11:1

Now without faith it is impossible to please God, the one who draws near to Him must believe that He exists and rewards those who seek Him. — Hebrews 11:6

Do you know the difference between correlation and causation? If you do, you are ahead of most folks, and you're also ahead of many so-called experts.

I made a single mistake in the design of my house. In my office, I have a half-bath, which is fine. If I had made it a three-quarter, with even the simplest shower, I could have avoided exposure to all kinds of evil. For example, the other night I needed a shower, and I had to cross the master bedroom as my wife was watching the day's Oprah re-run. Oprah had some experts on telling people how to increase their wealth (for most Oprah-watchers, getting a job would be a good start). The final suggestion was to buy a house, since, the "expert" claimed, people who own their homes are something like 34 times wealthier than renters. I could not help myself. "That dumbass is no expert if he/she doesn't know the difference between a cause and a correlation!" I exclaimed.

The problem is that what the idiot said is probably actually the case. People who own homes no doubt have more wealth/net-worth than renters. The expert implied — and likely believes — that owning a home causes a person to be wealthier. The truth is that owning a home — for most people — correlates with having more wealth. Right now, there are millions of people who believed in the causation theory living in mortgaged houses that have actually decreased their wealth because they owe more on the mortgage than the house is worth or will be worth in the foreseeable future. There are also a large number of people for whom home ownership is sucking out most of their resources. They were led to believe that owning a home equaled increasing their net-worth, so owning a bigger, more expensive home meant they had more wealth. They are saddled with monthly payments that eat up over half their disposable income, and they are living, not just from paycheck to paycheck, but off their credit cards. Every day they are, as TEF most famously said, "Another day older and deeper in debt."

The confusion is also seen quite often in medical science and probably other branches of science. The false prophets of anthropogenic global warming see the correlation between increased atmospheric carbon dioxide and increasing temperatures and claim that "carbon emissions" cause planetary warming. In fact, increases in CO2 lag increases in temperature, so it could hardly be the cause. Carbon dioxide causes global warming in the same way that the hole in the window caused you to pull the trigger on your BB gun.

Obesity, cholesterol levels, arterial plaque, and heart attacks correlate. I am not convinced that there is a direct cause-effect relationship. I am personally convinced that, for most people, dietary cholesterol does not cause heart attacks or strokes. Rather, it seems plausible to me that obesity itself is an effect instead. Note: I am not offering medical advice to anyone. I'm just saying what I think. I am as completely ignorant and unqualified with regard to medical science and human physiology as I am most other subjects, including finance and politics. I do, however, believe that a reasonable amount of physical activity along with having a vocation or avocation that gives you real joy will cause you to have a healthier and higher quality life, if not a longer life. And what do you really want?

Faith can correlate rather than cause as well. In my work, I often have to come up with solutions to problems. Sometimes, I just know I'm right about a fix or a solution. Other times, I have a little twinge of doubt that tells me all is not as it should be. If I were a name-it-and-claim-it type of faith person, I would try to quell the doubt and strengthen my faith. As it is, I have learned to re-examine my code. The other approach — thinking will make it so — is rooted in a childish mindset of magical thinking. Too often faith is equated with or devolves into such idolatry.

When the Bible talks about the faith of Abraham, it speaks of him "believing God". Isaiah asks, "Who has believed my report?" In Romans 10, Paul explains that the path to salvation is to "believe in your heart". What does the heart believe? The truth. The truth that Christ was raised from the dead. Faith does not cause the truth to be true. Doubt does not mean that Jesus has not been raised. My refusal to believe causes me to miss salvation, but it doesn't make anything untrue. Faith causes me to experience the benefits of the truth. But faith correlates, you might say, with the truth. It would be far more appropriate to say that the truth causes faith on my part. Faith is the result not the cause.

For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves. It is God's gift ... (Ephesians 2:8).

So faith comes from what is heard ... (Romans 10:17)