God’s Business
A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold. Proverbs 22:1 NIV
To be esteemed – For ten days we have examined the emotional climate of our rebellion. We discovered that YHVH accepts our self-serving criticism and casts it aside in an act of pure favor (hen). We recognized that we contribute nothing to His decision. We don’t merit what He willingly bestows. But He nevertheless determines to love us—and to act in ways that will bring about an acknowledgment and acceptance of that love, even in self-inflicted disparagement. In other words, grace (hen) is a gift.
Now we are quite used to the expression “grace is a gift from God,” but in all likelihood we have failed to realize just how monumental this action really is. According to the analysis of Fabry, because hen truly is a gift, it must be requested. “It is freely given and cannot be grasped or seized by force. The giver has every right to withhold his hen, and unless he is a person of rank, this may be done even at some risk. For the one receiving hen, this gift is unlike most in that it never really becomes his possession. One quite literally finds favor in the eyes of another, and this is where the favor remains.”[1]
Let’s examine this relationship for a moment. What Fabry notices is that favor is dynamic. It exists only insofar as the benefactor provides it. Favor is never actually passed to the recipient. It cannot be demanded, commanded or earned. Because it is the gift of the benefactor, it always remains within the power of the benefactor. In other words, grace is never yours. It is always a function of the dynamic relationship between God and you. If we think of salvation, the product of grace, in this way, we will realize that the experience we have of “being saved” is in fact the experience of God’s granting us His favor which He alone provides, on His terms and according to His desire. This entails that our estimation of worthiness is totally irrelevant to the act. And it also entails that grace is God’s business alone. If He deems to grant you and me favor, it’s His business, and nothing that we did can undo His act. It is, of course, possible that we might spurn this act and it is equally possible that He might withdraw it, but insofar as God alone determines His acts of favor, His promise not to abandon His children, not to count their inequities against them any longer, not to destroy them, is an eternal decision, independent of the evaluation of their worthiness (or unworthiness).
This is enormously good news. If it were up to us, we would never find rescue from our damaged state. Why? Because we know all too well the catalogue of our failures. Our own internal sense of justice would demand retribution. But God is not a man, and He doesn’t act as men would act. He has determined to rescue us, and that determination is all that matters. Our careful evaluation of unworthiness does not affect His decision to show favor. Therefore, it should not affect our willingness to embrace His favor.
This verse in Proverbs speaks directly to our need to re-evaluate our self-hatred. Although disguised in translation, the Hebrew text actually says “hen is better than silver and gold.” It is favor that really matters—and God has given it.
Who are we to refuse? Day 11.
Topical Index: hen, grace, Proverbs 22:1
[1] D. L. Freedman and J. R. Lundbom, hanan, TDOT, Vol. V, p. 26.
Grace , grace, god’s grace grace that is greater than all my sins!
I don’t want to assume that any Theology that I have been taught to this point is accurate so I will ask what seems to have an obvious answer just in case it’s wrong. How do I know God has extended grace and favor towards me?
What I have been taught is that the knowledge of who God is as creator of all things is the one and only God. He forgives my transgressions with my repentance and I do my best to learn His ways and walk in them. This the morphed understanding of course since I no longer believe I just pray the sinners prayer and follow the churches demands.
Anything I am missing in my understanding in knowing God has extended His grace to me?
Thanks
Cheryl
Skip has made several good points. If grace is a true gift, it has to be asked for. What? Why? If grace is unmerited favor, than why is it not just bestowed in one grand, blanketing, one-size-fits-all maneuver? He also observes that there is a relationship between “willingness to embrace His favor” and “our need to evaluate our self hatred”. Everything that stands in the way of me experiencing the full impact of grace in my life is generated by me; originates on my side of the ledger, and therefore, is up to ME to do something about. What? Why? Because grace is a done deal on G-d’s part; there is nothing more He can do because He has already done it all! Therefore, the world should have already cashed in this get-in-free ticket: this deal should have already been consummated. Why has it not been? Because we simply don’t, won’t believe it! Why not? Because when we worship self, which we all do, we HAVE to believe that at least SOMETHING good must originate with us; we have to have at least some part of the credit. Grace, by its very definition, tells me that there isn’t even a ghost of a chance that that is possible. SomeOne Else already evaluated the situation and concluded that it is hopeless for us to even try to gain merit. So much for my self esteem!
Y’all, I am going to tell you a dirty little secret: we don’t know what love is! Yep, if you go ask a person in the flesh to tell you what love is, we are all going to think we do, but none of us are going to get it right. Why? It comes from the fact that we are all, either overtly or covertly, worshiping ourselves; and further, because all of us think that because we worship ourselves, we (naturally!) are loving ourselves. We were created to think that way, in fact, so don’t go beating yourself up about it. Just sayin’. In fact, I think we assume that the two must be a tautology (saying the same thing). And because we think that, we will proceed to lay out how we actually treat ourselves in that worship as a demonstration of what love is. We get our definition of love from whatever we experience that we THINK is love. If I think I love myself, then I am going to assume that the way I am actually treating myself must be love. And I am going to be wrong! Guaranteed!
I worship all that I fear. I fear all that I perceive has power over me. I grant power over me to everything that I look to to satisfy my needs. My needs are generated by a surfeit of love in those places; my needs show me WHERE I should be relating with G-d, self, others, or the cosmos in general. My needs, then show me where I am, literally, ‘not in touch (relationship)’ with reality! When I grant myself the power to satisfy my own need for love (the world’s definition of self love), I then assume that I actually CAN do that! The reality, of course, is vastly different. I am not a source of love. Because I am not, I have set myself up to fail at loving myself enough to satisfy ALL my need to be related and connected to everything and everyone at all levels. Whew! No wonder I am failing myself! And, folks, as creatures hardwired for love, we hate everyone and everything that fails to deliver that love. (Even G-d does!) I hate myself as a natural consequence, then, of looking to myself for something I must have, but cannot provide.
The biggest thing; the ONLY thing, between me and the grace of G-d, then, is ME. I will not, cannot, know His grace unless and until I have surrendered my rebellious establishment of my Self as a rival for the love He offers. I cannot worship G-d and my Self: I cannot establish both as a source for love in my life. Until I repent for what I THOUGHT was self love (it was not; true self love is a derivative of relationship with a true Source for that love), I will never have the room in my life to receive His love. Here lies the paradox of sin. Sin is a TWISTING of the truth: it takes the WORDS of truth, and perverts the meaning and the application. I must repent for believing the twisting. I believed I knew what love was, and that I could provide it for myself. My sin was that I did not take His Word for what love was, and take Him as my Source for that love. Why did I not do that?
Sin lies to me with fear, and says that I must avoid all that I fear, which is a perversion of the way I was made.. I was made to fear only what would hurt me, and I was made to only hurt when I messed up. If I start from myself as a source of love, however, I will turn all that fear, hurt, and hatred in the wrong direction. Here is where I need the Comforter. I need courage from beyond myself to face that fear and that self hatred. I must wade back through all that mess and insanity that I have made of myself because I did NOT know what love was. Fear says “run!” “hide!”, but fear that is based on a lie must be called out and faced.
Grace was offered because my mess – my response to my need for love – is hopeless, but until I face the mess, I cannot repent that mess, and until I repent that mess, I cannot trade it in for that grace. Grace does not invite me away from my mess; grace invites me THROUGH my mess. This is why I think the world has not taken G-d up on His offer. We all want to be saved in our sins, or in spite of our sins, but the only thing that is offered is salvation FROM our sins. What is sin? A fracture point in relationship. What is grace? An offer to restore those relationships. How will I experience that grace? Y’all, I have to become willing to show back up at those fracture points (which is what repentance IS). Sin is where I ran from relationship; grace gives me another chance for relationship in three dimensions: with G-d, self and others, but I am the one who has to become willing to try again. How will I know if grace has shown up in my life? Well, grace shows up when I do!
I would like to recommend Skip’s book The Backwards Beatitudes as a good, fresh look at this subject. (Thank you, George Kraemer, for loaning it to me, and Skip for writing it!)
Hey Cheryl,
How do we know we have God’s favor and grace extended to us?
We all have asked that question…many times! I always go back to what I think is the prototype for the “Sinner’s Prayer.”
“Now, please, if it is really the case that I have found favor in your sight, show me your ways; so that I will understand you and continue finding favor in your sight. Moreover, keep on seeing this nation as your people.” Exodus 33:13 (CJB)
He has shown us His ways…long ago. And the adversary has done a very good job of keeping God’s people from God’s Word. But that is all changing thanks to the Ruach haKodesh. That is a sure sign of His favor and grace…by us receiving His Ways with all humility and honor.
Still, there will always be those who will dissent…Here is what Adonai says:
“Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask about the ancient paths,
‘Which one is the good way?’
Take it, and you will find rest for your souls.
But they said, ‘We will not take it.’ Jeremiah 6:16 (CJB)
…to their own peril. That used to be us…not anymore! Amen?
Amen
Amen!