Grace

I receive a bulletin from the Southwest Church in Jonesboro, Arkansas on a bi-weekly basis and enjoy the writings on an elder named Winston Burton. Brother Burton has preached for over 70 years. His health has been declining recently, but still helps shepherd the flock of the 1,200 member Southwest Church.

He writes some great articles that deals with the younger and older generation at Southwest.

The following article was written on February 8, 2006:

In these weeks of being bedfast, I have had time to reflect on how glad I am that I have lived in a period in which the Church of Christ has begun generally to emphasize grace more than in the past. In my near 70 years of preaching, I’ve always preached grace, even though early I was not aware of the rich pregnant meaning of the word. Very typically preachers of my younger years preached what I call “grace but” i.e. having mentioned the word, we were anxious to get on to show “but not by grace alone”. It seems to me now that we didn’t dare pause long on the glory of grace lest someone jump to a conclusion that we were preaching grace alone. Some people taught that, but, we must refute that, we thought.

The result was a church filled with people who were doubtful about their salvation. There were commandments as well as traditions and rules that must be kept perfectly. One could never be sure if he/she had done enough of them to go to heaven or not. Rarely did you find one confident of his salvation.

That is an absolutely false approach to what Jesus and the gospel are all about. Grace means unmerited favor. It means that no saved person ever merited it. God is under no obligation. It means salvation is a gift. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8). All have sinned….I have; you have. But oh, glory, can you imagine insignificant, weak sinful Winston saved! (Confidently put your name where mine is if you are a Christian. If not, become one).

Ah, but there’s another side: Younger generations among us have heard about grace often. In fact, in recent years I have wondered if some—not just youth—do not jump to the conclusion that salvation by grace means whatever you do afterward is okay. True, grace saves the faithful even though they sin. (If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:8,9). But there is a world of difference in that and using grace to justify our immoral rebellious behavior or even do nothingness. Jude says that such persons “change the grace of god into a license for immorality,” and he calls them “godless” (Jude 4). Hopeless.