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The Scandal of God's Grace

Words of Faith Final

The Scandal of God's Grace

Words of Faith 12-16-2020

Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2020

Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com

Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL

www.faithfellowshipweb.com

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Luke 1

    [29] Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. [30] But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. [31] You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. [32] He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, [33] and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."

 

      Just when we thought this was a wonderful angelic announcement, we learn there is a catch.  There is something about the nature of grace that we had not anticipated.  The world might not view this high favor as very graceful at all!   The announcement came to Mary: You are graced by God— highly favored— but walking this grace out will be a disgrace in the eyes of the world. 

      Now, how is it that the favor of God may earn you such disfavor among men? The thing we discover early on, long before Jesus ever taught about the difficulty of following Him as a disciple, is that sometimes obedience has a high cost.  The high cost to young Mary was her reputation.

      For Mary, grace meant being an unwed mother in a culture where that was not only uncommon but a reason to be disowned. Being "highly favored" in this case meant risking almost certain divorce from her betrothed. Grace meant shattering the most important relationships of her life—her future husband and her parents—and bringing dishonor upon her family name. What is graceful about this?

     For Mary, the phrase "You are favored by God" basically meant "You are going to lose everything."  Yes, you will gain everything in the big picture, but it will require that you lose everything you thought was important.  Strangely, it all sounds very much like a teaching that Jesus would one day proclaim. It sounds like a Kingdom principle that if you would seek to gain your life, you will lose it, and if you lose your life for Him you will gain it (Luke 9:24-25).  But Mary had to figure this out before Jesus was even born.

     God was teaching the nature of His grace and His Kingdom long before Jesus ever sat down on a hill in Galilee. Grace will involve obedience, not before, but after it is announced by God. Grace cannot be earned or deserved (Eph. 2:8-9), but it calls us to awkward, even scandalous, obedience. Mary did not earn God's high favor by her obedience, but she was called by grace to walk in obedience.

     This walk of grace may be scandalous.  Sometimes we get the idea that walking with God means everyone will admire and congratulate us.  The Bible shows that this is, more often, not the case.  If you are looking for star status, grace is not the place.

      Early on in the Gospel of Luke, we hit this major lesson in faith.  Can we trust the grace of God even when doing so will not make us admired by our peers?  Or when, in fact, following Jesus makes us despised or ridiculed by some?  Or when following Him attaches a signature of shame upon us? 

       Of course, things are different today, but the cost is the same.  You don't have to look very far to discover that today's culture is upside down compared to first-century Nazareth or even America a few decades ago! 

       Today, the scandalous choice is to walk in purity.  Television and movies ridicule traditional values. Scriptural values are dismissed as "old-fashioned" these days, and sin is endorsed as normal with increasing frequency.  Don't misunderstand.  God loves all sinners; that is why He sent His Son to die for us!  He calls us to repentance.

        Today's scandals occur when churches welcome sinners to repent but go against the culture and refuse to bless lifestyles of sin.  How parochial. Today, the scandal is when the media scoffs at teenagers pledging themselves to purity before and in marriage, and parents who prefer not to have birth control distributed to their children in school. This is deemed "unhealthy" by the "experts."

        Oddly, Mary's "scandal" would have fit right in with today's culture.  The need for His grace was never greater.  Today, the scandal is to actually consider what God wants in our lives.  The scandal is to consider the teaching of the Scripture as truth and walk in obedience. 

      Are you ready to live scandalously today?  Another way of saying that is—Are you ready to live and walk according to the grace of the Lord today?

 

      Father God, keep me and my church from being assimilated by the culture of the world.  Give me the grace to walk in obedience to Your Word and Your way.  As You did to Mary, give me strength for those times when following You is scandalous to those around me. In Jesus' name.

 

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© Jeffrey D. Hoy 2020

Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy - Faith Fellowship Church (EFCA)       

2820 Business Center Blvd.

Melbourne, Florida 32940 (321)-259-7200

Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com

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The Words of Faith devotion is published five days a week by E-mail, excluding Federal holidays. Please feel free to forward this devotion to a friend who might be blessed by this devotion. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2010 Jeffrey D. Hoy. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to forward this copyrighted material or use portions of it with appropriate notation of the source for non-profit purposes.