Grace to Grace

It’s Easter today. March 27, 2016. The time for us celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who took all of our burdens, sins, and shame, up to the cross and died up there. We have been renewed; we will have new life ahead, new life in Jesus, whose grace introduced the new way of life. Okay, it’s quite a background. Moving along.

Apart from the images we posted on Path and Instagram, saying how grateful we are, and how we promised to leave our old way of living, actually I felt pretty insecure. I don’t know about you, but I think it’s kind of a poor gambling Jesus did, to give away His life for us. Which I would never do, gamble my own life on something or someone I am not sure about. How can Jesus be sure about us, the tricksters and sinners of us. No way.

Yes, He is Jesus, and we are human, the infinite versus the finite. The all of all versus the bullshit we are. To save our time thinking about this, we often include the word ‘Grace’ to describe all of this we are clueless about. But really, haven’t you, even just for once thinking how can He be willing to do all of that? Be open to me. I’ve been thinking about that for a long time now, on how wasteful His sacrifice for me, the hopeless yet hopeful, faithful yet faithless, the dirty-thinker of me. Yes, I know and very aware of how big it is, yet I don’t think I can live up the expectation here.

Yet, He still did it. And He does it again today. For the second consecutive years of me being Christian, and still that thought lingered. But, He doesn’t care, He still does it. No matter how hard I doubt myself and Him, He still did, does, and will do it again and again. Okay, let’s just say my mind’s path is blocked by a gigantic wall hundred metres high, and I can’t get past that. My brain has not reached a point where it could form a thought that could adequately describe the greatness of my God, quoting Mr. Isaac Wimberley on his great poem “The Word”. And should I keep trying?

Now I think I should flip the way I think, from “How could He do it for me?” to “How can I return the grace I received?” Yes, it is grace. I don’t mean to save my time I’ve been wasting to think about this, but I think I’ve discovered a new understanding of grace. I’ll just put it that way.

Then, I think again. Our position with Jesus is already defined. At least in my understanding, Jesus stands there as a giver, and we bow down here asking, as a receiver. Please enlighten me if you guys think of something. I could never imagine us giving back to Jesus, with our worldly things. The best we could give is our weekly offering and tithe. Is it enough to repay? Jesus gave His life on the cross, and graced us wholeheartedly, and we give back with money? I can’t even make any sense of this.

But, we can stand here also, as a giver, to others. We can serve, as Jesus did in His lifetime. Serving others with the grace we received, I think that’s the goal we should pursue. It’s not giving back to Him, but to pay it forward to others.

1 Peter 4:10-11 MSG

7-11 Everything in the world is about to be wrapped up, so take nothing for granted. Stay wide-awake in prayer. Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything. Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless—cheerfully. Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: if words, let it be God’s words; if help, let it be God’s hearty help. That way, God’s bright presence will be evident in everything through Jesus, and he’ll get all the credit as the One mighty in everything—encores to the end of time. Oh, yes!

To conclude all my less-biblical murmur here, let’s just don’t think how grand His sacrifice for us and be insecure. Let’s just think about what can we do for others so the name of God be glorified and we can walk from grace to grace.

Sacrifice & Surrender

It’s Good Friday today, where we Christians celebrate, or perhaps commemorate the death of Jesus Christ. I personally went to church today, and I got something going on in my mind about the Good Friday itself, and how it will affect our daily life ahead.

I strongly believe, as many people do, that Jesus Christ died at the cross because of our sins, which have been paid in full by His own blood. As my pastor said, that Jesus came to this earth to repay our debts, our sins, which He could easily turned around in a blink of an eye, yet He didn’t choose such way, but fulfilling the hardest way possible, through death.

Romans 6:23

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

The wages of sin is death, which should all expensed to us, the sinners. Yet He came here to write the expenses off, through the way it should be, as said in the bible. For me, it’s His greatest sacrifice for all mankind. Then, the sins have been paid, and we are set free by His grace, and what should we do then? Remembering the love He has poured for us so grand, yet it feels impossible to repay.

I got this very thought when I was praying, and it went like this, “God, thank You for Your sacrifice at the cross for me, I surrender all my life to You. Lead me Your way, wherever You want.” Then, instantly I thought about how it correlated, the sacrifice and the surrender.

First, let’s talk about the similarities between sacrifice and surrender. First thing I noted that both need something as an object, rather than a subject. Jesus Christ sacrificed His own life, for our lives. Then, we should all surrender all our lives to Him. Second, it needs a big object, significant enough for us to ponder many times before we make commitment about it. Life it is. Sometimes, we want life to go our way, where we want it to be, yet surrendering means giving control over everything life-related to Him, the way He committed His life hung up on that nasty cross for us.

Then, both surrendering and sacrificing need a proactive mind approach. By proactive approach, I mean there are things need to be done to sacrifice, or to surrender. As Jesus Christ has done His time on earth, ministering about the kingdom of God, until the time He was prosecuted and sentenced to death. He has sacrificed His life on earth for one reason, saving us. For me, surrendering is no easier than sacrificing. Proactively surrender means doing what we can with our maximum ability, and surrender the rest to Him who has all planned out, rather than passively waiting for signals and hoping that all will be provided with less work.

Over all the similarities I have stated above, there is one difference between them. While sacrifice goes downwards, the surrender goes upwards. Jesus Christ has sacrificed His life, as He’s a son of God, for us sinful humans. He willingly reached for us the helpless, instead sitting graciously on His seat. We look up to surrender our life, where we place our hopes and prayers, faith and fears, happy and tears.

Jesus extends His grace, as He sacrificed His life for us, we reach out for His hands, as we surrender all our life to Him.