Grace

"In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." 1 Corinthians 5:4-5

Amazingly enough, I look at this verse and find the grace of Christ. It is a punishment for unrepentant followers of Christ; specifically, Paul writes this in reference to a man who is sleeping with his father's wife in the church. And yet the heart of God yearns for this person.

Think for yourself for a moment: if you were faced with this situation, what would you do? Would you continue to fellowship with such a person, hoping that your example might win him to Christ again? Would you confront him with scripture? Would you tell your pastor, that he might receive Godly council? How about none of the above? How about delivering the man to the devil for his flesh to be destroyed? Astoundingly, that is what God suggests in His word: leaving a brother in sin to be tormented by the devil. In so doing, the man's soul might be saved, and that is what the Father desires. If this doesn't sound like grace to us, perhaps it is because we do not understand the Lord's grace.

Our God is a God who is willing to put us through the fire in order to make us better. He does not shy at forcing us to face painful circumstances. In fact. Jesus assured us that we would have tribulation. It is just God's economy; rather than saving his people out of trouble, he gives them strength to endure IN it. He will put people through Hell on earth just that they might turn to him. He will put people who he has already saved through Hell on earth that they might trust Him and learn how to survive on only Him. And it is by his GRACE that he does these things to us. He wants to teach us through experience. He wants us to be better, and to WANT to be better. He will take whatever measures necessary to win us to Himself, and then to bring us closer to Him.

Of course, we always have a choice in this. It wouldn't be love if we didn't. It would be coercion. It would be rape. Christ is faithful to be honest with us, and to make us need Him, but he will NEVER make us choose him. But in this we must always remember that Christ is JUST.

We sometimes look at the Great Commission as extremely important as it is the only means that some people will hear the Gospel. I think that this is, in some part, true. One contention to the Gospel--and I think, in some ways, it is a good one--is that it is unfair for God to offer the Gospel to some people (namely, the West) and give them ample opportunity to know Him and come to Him, but to deprive some (namely, the East, and isolated tribes all over the world) of the means of salvation. Isn't this unjust?

Some would answer this contention by offering the picture of the whole of humanity tumbling into Hell as God reaches out His hands and catches as many as He can. There is a problem with this, though: aren't God's hands big enough to catch us all? I believe they are. I believe that we often put a limit on the power of Christ by assuming that only by the efforts of the Church can the Gospel go forth. I'm not saying that the command to go forth and preach to the nations is not necessary; many, many nations have come to Christ through missionaries abroad. I am only saying that Jesus knows what He's doing.

The Bible speaks of Christ "preaching to the spirits in prison;" presumably, these are the dead who never heard of Christ before He came. Jesus actually offers the opportunity for salvation to those that have come before. There is an account, told by the Chinese church leader, Brother Yun, of an entire village, completely isolated from the rest of the world, that came to know Christ. When Yun and his team came to offer the Gospel to this village, they quickly found that the people already knew of Christ and were walking with them. How was this possible? Each person actually reported that Christ had come to the village Himself to tell them of His sacrifice. Another story in Africa goes that an entire village once had the exact same dream, in which they heard the Gospel of Christ. At first, they all kept silent about it, but it eventually was discovered that they had all shared the exact vision while they slept. They immediately converted to Christ and trekked over the neighboring mountains to preach the Gospel to the next village.

My first response on hearing these stories was, "Does Jesus really do that?" I have come to believe emphatically that He does. As the Pslams say, in Christ justice and mercy have kissed. The Gospel and the Law are the two standards that all of the people of the earth, past and present, will be held to, but that does not make it an unjust standard. Christ is in control, and I fully believe, whether by the Church or by Himself, that all men will have the opportunity to accept or reject His sacrifice. He truly is glorious and worthy of all praise.