Running in the Wrong Direction

I want to highlight two misconceptions many people have, and maybe you are one of them that help create an expectation of Jesus that makes us want to run away from Him instead of running toward Him.

Misconception #1. God is more concerned about us being right than being gracious.

There seems to be a lot of people like the Pharisees who want nothing to do with grace. Do you know anyone like that? Their picture of God is that He is all about rules and regulations. And since we are working hard to be full of truth and righteousness, God must be pleased with us. The way you please God is by doing the right things. The way you get on His good side is through obedience, and holding people up to God’s measuring stick.

After all, grace is very easily abused isn’t it? “If you give them an inch, they’ll take a mile.” You forgive your son or daughter for coming home late, and the next night they come home later! You put in the extra hours at work to get a project done, but when it’s finished your boss questions your commitment when the hours go back to what they were before. Experiences like these make us wonder whether being gracious is worth it. It sometimes seems that being gracious causes more headaches than it solves. It seems like grace is just a waste of time.

For some, grace tends to run against our moral conscience. We believe that people need to deal with the consequences of their actions. To forgive, to be gracious, or to show mercy seems to be nothing more than simply sweeping justice under the rug—lowering one’s standards, if you will. Grace just doesn’t seem fair.

Misconception #2. You need to be good enough to get God’s favor.

While some people seem convinced they can make themselves good enough for God, I think many of us have stopped looking for grace. We don’t believe it exists. Grace, forgiveness, mercy, these are things in stories and fairytales, not things that are in our world or experience.

I am sad to say that Christians don’t often have a reputation for being full of grace. Unfortunately, a lot of Christians get caught up in this pharisaical kind of thinking, and instead have a reputation of being full of condemnation. More Christians than I would like to admit are like the guy at the amusement park who makes sure that you are a certain height before you can get on the ride; and if you don’t measure up, you can’t get on. So we run from God because we know we don’t make the grade. We know we don’t measure up. We have resigned to the fact that we will always carry our guilt.

And that leads us to conclude, “I’m not worth it. I’m not worth God’s time.” And we get lost under the weight of our shame. We end up running from God because if we were ever to be caught, if we were ever brought before Jesus, we are sure that the only thing waiting for us would be judgment.

Friends, neither picture of God is true. God does not think grace is unfair, and God does not think grace is impossible for you! Jesus illustrates this for us in John 8:3-11 (NIV).

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

You see what Jesus showed here was that while the civil law that Moses had given them gave the sentence of death for this woman’s crime, God’s righteousness was such that they were all worthy of the same penalty. No one is righteous, no not one. All have gone astray, no one looks for God all has gone his own way (Romans 3:10-12). When they realized the reality of what Jesus as saying to them, they dropped their stones and left.

When this scared woman finds herself alone with Jesus she is no less scared than she was when she was surrounded by her accusers. Jesus asked the person who had no sin to throw the first stone. Did you notice that everyone left but Jesus? Jesus is the only person who has the right to carry out God’s judgment on this woman. And Jesus does not deny the fact that she was an adulteress. But instead of leaving her in that guilt and shame, He lifts her out of it, and sets her free.

We tend to think we are better than we are. Since we have not committed adultery, we are somehow more worthy of blessing. No. Little sins are just as bad as big ones. Because even if you do the right thing, if you do it for the wrong reason, then it ceases to be the right thing. We need to be very careful about our measures of holiness and righteous living. We don’t want to be lax about obedience to God, but we need to remember that the reason God accepts our work at all is because of God’s grace through Jesus Christ. We are saved by grace and not by works so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).

The righteousness we gain through our pursuit of personal holiness never leads to “judgmental holiness” or “holier-than-thou” attitudes. When we see sin in another person, when we are hurt by another person, holiness—true holiness—will always direct us to respond in grace, forgiveness, and compassion, because that is the kind of love that Jesus has for us. We are commanded to grow in the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18).

Let me be right up front with you. If you have been running away from God, if you have been running away from Jesus because you were afraid of being judged and condemned. Nothing could be further from the truth.

No sin is too dark.
It does not matter what you have done. As easily and quickly as Jesus forgave this woman’s adultery He can forgive you. There is not sin, no number of sins, no combination of sins that can stand up to the grace of Jesus Christ.

No shame is too deep.
It does not matter how bad you think you are. No matter how deep your shame may run. No matter how hopeless you may feel. The arm of Jesus can reach all the way down into the pit that your shame has trapped you in and lift you out into His strong loving arms.

The truth is Jesus is not looking for people who are “good enough.” Matthew 9:13 (NLT)
says, I have come to call sinners, not those who think they are already good enough.
Jesus has come to call people who know they are not good enough! He is not looking for people who make the grade. He is looking for people who know they need a doctor.

Jesus is not out to show how righteous He is, but how gracious He is. It is clear from Jesus’ dealing with the Pharisees that he was not averse to discussing people’s specific moral problems, but in this case he does not make public mention of this woman’s sins at all. There are no words of criticism and judgment for this woman’s behavior. They were waiting for this so-called “messiah” to show how serious the Law of Moses was.

The crowd expected Jesus to make an example of her, or at least make her admit her sins, publicly confess and ask for forgiveness. However Jesus chose not to do or ask for those things. He simply forgives her. Jesus was not looking for an opportunity to be righteous; he was looking for an opportunity to be gracious. He was not looking for an opportunity to dispense justice from the throne even though He had the right, even though He was right. He was not looking for opportunities to show how righteous He was, but rather how forgiving He was.

He has not changed.

Have you have been running thinking you needed to make yourself good enough before God would accept you? Have been running trying to hide your guilt and rationalize your shame? How is it going? One of my favorite quotes is from Albert Einstein, “The height of insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result.” Do a 180. Jesus can set you free. He will be as gracious to you as He was to her. Jesus says,

Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly (Matthew 11:28-30, Msg.).