Galatians 5:4
Growing up in a Baptist home that believed in the postman’s
motto, “neither rain, nor snow, nor heat, nor gloom of night, nor the winds
of change”, would keep us from being at the
church when any services were being held.
It mattered not that we did not own a car and walked about three miles
each way, and often mother was the one that got us up and dressed, because dad
worked shift work and was often, either sleeping or working. It was in that environment, that I
first heard the term “they have fallen from grace”.
I’m not sure the meaning of that term was ever discussed at
our home but you knew it was really bad, and we did not talk about really bad
things at 3738 Liberty drive, unless a deacon and his wife came to play
forty-two. It was one of those
times that the kids were expected to play outside with the mosquitoes and the
lighting bugs, but sometimes I would sit near the front door and listen. I must not have been good at the
collection of information because this became my understanding of the meaning
of “falling from grace.” It was
someone, who also lived by the postman’s motto and never missed a service and
then one day they stopped coming on Sunday nights and maybe even on Wednesday,
they had fallen from grace. Now my
self imposed job was to make our dog skipper a good Baptist dog, so I would
share these deep truths with him, and because it was not the kind of things we ever
discussed at our home, I always knew skipper would keep it between the two of
us.
How does a person fall out of grace? If you are going to fall out of grace,
then you must have been in grace, or it would be impossible to fall out of
something that you were not in. Is
it referring to backsliding? It
might be of some value to define the word backsliding, it is the relapse into
bad ways or error. Jesus took a
dim view of such a person, “Jesus
replied, No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks
back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62) Hebrews 10:38, gives us more
information; “But my righteous one will live
by faith. And if he shrinks back,
I will not be pleased with him.” It
seems as if my talks with skipper, the Baptist dog, were not that far off
course. But before you wag your
tail like skipper, maybe we should dig somewhat deeper.
Maybe we should have explored the word grace to understand what
we were falling out of; what is the meaning of grace? This is how my computer dictionary defines grace, (in
Christian belief) the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the
salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings. Therefore, grace is
something no one deserves or can earn, it is a free gift from God to man, and
that is what they are falling out of.
The Scriptures are also clear that the only way to enter into God’s
grace is by faith, it is not about you, but is a gift of God. You might want to check out Romans 5:1,
and 1 Corinthians 6:11.
Why is the apostle Paul dealing with this subject? Because some false teachers were coming
into the Gentile church and teaching Christ plus circumcision, read Galatians
5:2-4. When a person backslides,
it does not mean they have fallen from grace; poor skipper was given a wrong
understanding of what falling from grace meant. Falling from grace is man believing that faith is not enough
and that some actions on his part is required to enter into a relationship with
God.
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
No comments:
Post a Comment