Grace Shouts Louder

Zschech

Introduction

General Jonathan Wainwright was the only US General captured by the enemy in World War Two.

He was left in charge of Corregidor, in the Philippines, by his superior, General Douglas MacArthur, who then fled to Australia and organised the armed forces' massive counter-punch which would eventually defeat Japan.

MacArthur's orders to Wainwright were very clear: Never surrender – fight to the end.

Wainwright tried very hard to stick to the letter of that order, however, the massive, merciless, systematic destruction he witnessed finally forced him to go against his convictions and surrender. He, and what was left of his rag tag army, were shipped off to Prisoner of War camps all over Asia. Wainwright himself ended up in such a camp in Mongolia.

Feeling like a failure for surrendering, during these terrible years of captivity, Wainwright laboured under the guilt of his decision. His body began to deteriorate, and he came to depend on a cane to move around, but it was his soul which would suffer the greatest deterioration.

In due time, MacArthur led his troops to total victory. He eventually occupied Japan and took up residence in Tokyo, a considerable distance from Mongolia, where Wainwright was still held. As a consequence the camp commandant was able to keep the truth from his subject, leaving Wainwright enslaved because of his ignorance.

The only thing enabling the Japanese commandant to persist in his fraud was Wainwright’s ignorance of truth. Wainwright was liberated but he did not realise it. The commandant’s power over him was based on a lie; Wainwright was free but didn’t know it.

When I read that story for the first time, something of Wainwright's situation resonated with me.

I related to Wainwright’s guilt-ridden conscience because he surrendered against his conviction. He made a promise never to surrender, but under pressure he gave in. The overwhelming burden in Wainwright’s life was not the condition of the camp, nor the treatment of his captors, or even the pain in his body – he almost felt he deserved this. No, the greatest weight he carried was the weight of guilt whispering menacingly that, because he surrendered against his conviction, he’d missed the mark. He made a promise; a vow he failed to keep. He had failed.

For many years my Christian life was lived with that same continuous sense of guilt Wainwright had felt, because my behaviour didn’t match my commitment. I was trapped in the whirlpool of performance, feeling compelled to set up my own three-ringed religious circus. I jumped through my own religious hoops, walked on my own religious tightrope, I even spun my religious plates hoping the audience of Heaven would break out in rapturous applause … but instead I felt the whip of my lying emotions demanding, taunting me, to perform some more.

Philip Yancey, in his liberating book, What’s so Amazing about Grace?, perfectly illustrates my frustration during that season of spiritual gymnastics.

He writes:

Instead of the sound of appreciative hand claps, I heard the shouts from the stalls hollering ‘sing the song of the Seven Dwarves’, but as I began to sing, instead of the familiar Disney wording, the words that came out of my mouth were ‘I owe, I owe, to work I have to go’, and the leering audience of lying emotion clapped in appreciation some more.

And did I work! I increased my Bible reading, upped my church attendance, changed my dress code, and even adjusted my tone of voice. I attended every meeting there was, hoping it would increase my favour with Heaven. I became a Pentecostal monk living in my own portable monastery of detachment and drudgery. I began to relate to Martin Luther who, like John Forbes Nash, the mathematician from the film A Beautiful Mind, had his own destructive emotional stalkers.

Luther believed the only way he could enjoy the smile of God was to impress Heaven with his spiritual workaholic lifestyle. In pursuit of holiness, not only did he decide to become a Catholic monk, but also to scale every mountain of spiritual discipline imaginable to make him fit for Heaven.

He would sleep fewer hours, fast more meals, spend more and more time in confession, until one day they found him lying on the floor of his room, close to death and worn out from his religious works and feelings of despair.

Raised against a Catholic background of mysticism and religious duty, he was taught that Jesus, Mary and the saints behaved much better than they needed to on earth in order to store extra credits of holiness in Heaven; this reservoir of extra holiness was available for anyone who worked hard enough, or was wealthy enough to pay the price.

It seemed that no matter what Luther did, religion demanded more.

Finally to his rescue came the sabre of salvation, cutting through the career of performance holiness, dividing soul from spirit.

The just shall live by faith.¹

"With one skilful swipe of the Master’s sword, Luther was free. His soul was cleanly divided from his spirit, his life transformed and the religious world reformed; with this came the discovery that the currency of penance his feelings demanded could be forever ignored, as his spirit embraced the truth of justification by faith.

Just like Luther, the story of Wainwright reminded me of how, through ignorance of truth, Satan was able to keep me living that way for years – robbing me of the liberty and freedom purchased for me by Christ’s victory through His finished work. I was liberated but didn’t know it and as a result lived as an enslaved believer, like Lazarus, having life but still bound by the grave clothes of law-based legalism and condemnation.

This book is a testimony to the truth that set me free, and is continuously setting me free. This revelation of the gospel of the grace of God has revitalized my life.

Grace disarms the executioner.

Grace dismisses the firing squad.

Grace dismantles the gallows.

A revelation of the gospel of the grace of God liberates us from living with a prisoner of war mentality. Understanding it is the difference between an executioner coming to your cell with an axe or a defence lawyer coming to your cell with a key.

My hope is that this book will be my contribution in helping fuel the revival of the gospel of the grace of God within the Church. It comes with a prayer that you too will experience the gospel's liberating power and join a growing army of believers who believe that Grace Shouts Louder.

I couldn't finish this foreword without thanking Pastor Joseph Prince of New Creation Church, Singapore, for being used by God as a catalyst in my own personal epiphany concerning the gospel of the grace of God. He was my Ananias.

During a shared platform in South Africa, scales fell off my eyes as Joseph, through his preaching and private conversations with me, expounded the Scriptures. I thought I was a grace preacher; I prided myself on my understanding of the grace of God. I was humbled and exhilarated at the same time as I listened to the gospel of the grace of God poured out from this man in a way I’d never heard before.

At first I was afraid to accept some of the things he was saying as it almost sounded like heresy: The Holy Spirit does not convict the believer of sin…, The 10 commandments are not given to the believer for sanctification…, It’s impossible to lose your salvation….

As I listened to him, I was beginning to understand how the apostle Paul felt as the religious, law-based, performance-orientated mat was well and truly pulled from beneath his feet.

"With questions racing through my head like cars at the Monaco Grand Prix, one statement he said was the key that opened a door to the personal, revelational discoveries I have written in this book, and it was this:

Condemnation and guilt have no part in a believer’s life.

Immediately my mind focused on Romans 8:1:

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.²

I felt I had to challenge him on this one.

I agree, I said, but the blessing of no condemnation for the believer is conditional. It clearly states that in Romans 8:1. I quoted the Scripture and even pointed it out to him from my NKJV Bible.

There is, therefore, now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, and with great authority I read the last point of verse one, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit."

I thought to myself, explain that one!

With a smile on his face, he said: Ray, what does it say alongside the last part of verse one in the margin?

Something amazing happened inside my spirit when I read these words in the margin:

NU-Text omits the rest of verse one.³

As Joseph looked at me sitting there in stunned silence, the Holy Spirit opened a door of revelation and bid me walk through into a place I had never been before.

For many of you these words may be something you already know, but for me it truly was an epiphany. Like the apostle Paul’s visit to Arabia after his conversion, where the Holy Spirit led him to delve into the Scriptures, revealing to him the mystery hidden for ages, so the subsequent years after that meeting with Joseph Prince, the Holy Spirit has been leading me by the hand and showing me the amazing richness of the landscape of the gospel of God’s grace.

I have since devoured Joseph Prince’s book, Destined to Reign, and everything I could find dealing with the doctrine of God’s grace. The commentary on the book of Romans by Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones unfolded a depth of truth that I had been ignorant of for years. As I walked into the gold mine of Romans with Dr Jones, the golden nuggets of truth placed on my heart took my breath away and created an insatiable hunger to dig for more. I plan to never leave this mine for the rest of my life and I'm committed to share what I find to enrich the church and help her grow in grace.

Like me, for many of you the voice of grace has been overpowered by the voice of religion, legalism, condemnation, and performance-based Christianity. I pray this book will turn up the volume to show that Grace Shouts Louder.

I believe it’s time to join our voices with the growing army of grace-liberated believers to make a sound so loud all other voices will be drowned out, and experience, like Joshua, the walls of guilt, fear and insecurity crumble on a heap as God’s people shout His command.

Whatever voices are defiantly shouting at you from walled strongholds in your life, Grace Shouts Louder. It’s the only shout that will demolish strongholds and frustrate the enemy’s plans to hinder, rob and steal from you.

The voice of persecution bellowed in the apostle Paul’s ears, so loud in fact he begged God to silence its unbearable roar. God’s response: My grace is sufficient for you.

Persecution, trial and hardship may be insisting you give up, give in and turn back; in your desperation, like Paul, you may have asked God to take you out of the firing line, or to turn down the volume on their harsh condemning voices.

His response to you is the same: My grace shouts louder, my grace is sufficient.

As Jesus stood before the grave of Lazarus the Bible says:

He groaned within himself.⁴

In the amplified it says:

Sighing repeatedly and deeply disquieted.

It was obvious to those observing Jesus' reaction at his friend's tomb that he was troubled outwardly, emotional and angry. His inward agitation was physically expressed outwardly, so it could be seen. In fact, according to Timothy Keller, these translations are too weak to describe how Jesus reacted that day.⁵

The Greek translation in its original form reads: to bellow with anger. To bellow, according to the dictionary, means to make a deep loud noise like a bull or to shout angrily as if in pain.

What John is actually telling us is that Jesus approached the grave of Lazarus not in a state of uncontrollable grief but of irrepressible anger. He stood there in the face of death and decay and bellowed like an angry bull.

If you want to know what God thinks of the robbers of life as he designed it to be – there it is.

If you want to know how much Jesus wants you healed, blessed and abundant-life filled – there it is.

As I meditated on this scene in the light of the context of this book, I saw it – the perfect picture of grace shouting louder. Through law-based, guilt-producing preaching, the Church has been lying behind the stone of the law, wrapped in grave clothes, imprisoned by the ministry of death.

Before Lazarus enjoyed abundant life, two things had to happen:

1     the stone had to be rolled away

2     grace had to shout

It’s time to obey the command to roll the stone away and, through the liberating Gospel of Jesus Christ, it’s time for grace to shout louder. It’s time to speak grace into a Church that has been decaying and stinking behind a ministry of law based condemnation.

In John 11:39-44 (NKJV) it says:

"Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’

"Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, ‘Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.’

"Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?’ Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, ‘Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.’ Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come forth!’ And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Loose him, and let him go.’"

I used to think I was over-reacting to legalism and law based slavery in the Church until I read how Jesus reacted when confronted with the enemy of abundant life, both spiritual and natural. But now I am more committed than ever, armed with the gospel of Grace, to command the stone of law to be removed from churches everywhere so believers can hear that Grace Shouts Louder, and calls for their deliverance into freedom.

Steve Brown, in his wonderful book, A Scandalous Freedom, made a statement which stopped me in my tracks and again opened up a door of revelation to explain the wonderful freedom we have through the grace of God. He said this, Grace invites us to dance.

That’s the difference between law and grace. One commands you to march, the other one invites you to dance.

Grace redirects our focus from our need to obnoxiously look upon our goodness, our commitment and our correctness and invites us to dance, allowing the Holy Spirit to be our partner.

A good dance partner can make a bad dancer look good. The popular programme Strictly Come Dancing illustrates that. On this TV show even the worst dancers are made to look good because of the skills and showmanship of their professional dance partners.

When you march it’s your faults that are hi-lighted, the commands you’re not obeying. You’re falling behind…, Try to keep up… etc. On a march the drill sergeant commands. In a dance your partner leads. He will lead you into all truth, not drive you.

I used to dance with my mother when she and my dad would come home on a Saturday night from their local club after a night of dancing. She wanted to carry on at home and I was her dance partner.

I was hopeless. I didn’t know how to waltz but my mother wanted to dance. Because she took the lead I found that, even though I did not have a clue, it looked like I could dance. Not because I obeyed orders, but because I let her lead me.

Jesus invites us to dance. Religion has turned the dance into a march. Always critiquing to see if we are doing it right, walking in step, and in line with the other soldiers. We know a dance will be more fun, but religion demands we keep marching.

While dancing with my mother I stepped on her toes; I wanted to go in another direction but, with a smile on her face, she would whirl me around sometimes with a loud, wwweeeeeeee, and if I stepped on her toes, she would just laugh. If I tried to go in an opposite direction, she would just hold me tighter and steer me in the right direction.

When you’re marching you’re on your own, obeying an order. When you’re dancing you have a partner, enjoying the music. What has happened? How have we taken a message and turned it from a dance to a march? A message that was so good, so exciting, so freeing, has been made into a religion that creates people who have been given a misery pill and then instructed to medicate the rest of the world with the same pill.

Ever seen someone after a long march? They’re just glad it’s over. They’re tired, exhausted, and in some places demoralised. None of them say let’s do that again!

Compare that with someone who has been dancing all night. They’re tired, but exhilarated and joyful and they say, Can’t wait to do that again.

Law marches. Grace dances.

Sometimes Christian teachers are like sergeant majors always pointing out Jesus’ disappointment with our lack of commitment, our shallow theology and our selling-out to culture.

Often the Church looks more like a parade ground than a dance floor. A place of drudgery rather than a place of joy. There really is something neurotic about Christians who spend all of their time on the parade ground desperately trying to please and impress God with their marching, when God is already pleased with us without it. There is hardly anything that will beat you down and rob you of your freedom more than your efforts to get better and please God the wrong way.

God is not a drill sergeant. He’s your dance partner.

With all of the teaching I received on the parade ground about holiness, obedience, and commitment, with all the marching in step to perfect my behaviour, dancing with grace has taught me more. It has brought me closer to Jesus, given me more security as a believer, released me from the guilt of an imperfect performance, and restored my joy.

When you’re commanding you’re detached. When you’re dancing you’re involved.

That’s the difference between the relationship God had with people under the Old Covenant and how God now relates to us under the New Covenant.

Under the Old Covenant it seemed like he was a drill sergeant detached from his people, commanding and demanding. In the New Covenant He got involved. He became flesh. The Bible says, the Law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came.⁶

The Law demands. Grace supplies.

This book is not another set of commands to help you march more effectively, but an invitation to dance with someone who will make you look good even when you’ve performed your worst. Someone who will hold you tighter when you want to go in another direction. With someone who will love you, unconditionally, even if you step on His toes.

Grace sings in the silence. Grace sees in the dark. Grace prays with no words. Grace helps with no help. Grace gives with no conditions. Grace stays when others leave. Grace dances and invites you to join.

___________________

1 - Romans 1:17 (NKJV)

2 - (NKJV)

3 - The NU-Text (Netsle-Aland Greek New Testament /United Bible Society) is the oldest surviving Greek manuscript of the New Testament. It does not contain the second part of Romans 8:1; many modern translations omit this verse also.

4 - John 11:38

5 - The Grieving Sisters, Tim Keller

6 - John 1:17 (NKJV)

Chapter One

Grace Shouts Louder

Though sin runs rampant, Grace Shouts Louder.

While preparing for a series of meetings, I was invited to preach at a Church in Cape Town, South Africa.

I was challenged by the response of a blind beggar to a bunch of self-righteous bullies because he simply asked a question concerning Jesus. His response to their bullying is the catalyst for writing this book.

We find the details of his courageous defiance to these bullies in Luke 18:35 – 43 (NKJV):

"Then it happened, as He was coming near Jericho, that a certain blind man sat by the road begging. And hearing a multitude passing by, he asked what it meant. So they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. And he cried out, saying, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’

"Then those who went before warned him that he should be quiet; but he cried out all the more, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’

"So Jesus stood still and commanded him to be brought to Him. And when he had come near, He asked him, saying, ‘What do you want Me to do for you?’

"He said, ‘Lord, that I may receive my sight.’

Then Jesus said to him, ‘Receive your sight; your faith has made you well.’ And immediately he received his sight, and followed Him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.’

The story is simple, but the lesson profound. A blind beggar, who had enough of his daily misery, heard that a miraculous solution to his problem was just