Rug Doctor Grace

This summer at camp each of our Thursdays focused on David and Bathsheba.  Prior to this day, the stories about David's life had been about his growth, his triumph over struggles, and the way he devoted his life to God.  Then David, like all of us, makes a harmful decision.  The moments that unfold are not so glorious as when he slayed Goliath.  It is hard to recognize the beloved Psalmist.

David sins.  Commits a transgression against the God he loves.  He decides to sleep with another man's wife and a scroll of misfortune continues to unravel from there.  Bathsheba becomes pregnant.  David makes a few failed attempts to make it look like Uriah, Bathsheba's husband, is the father.  When that doesn't work, David sends Uriah to the front lines of battle where he loses his life.

David's sin snowballs.  He becomes buried in it.

And then there is grace.  Never ceasing.  Grace that covers all transgression.  Jesus death redeems David's sin.  Jesus death redeems our sins.  It is a promise.

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Sometimes I feel like I live with God's grace as a rented Rug Doctor from our local Sears.  It's like bringing out the big guns.  I let a lot of stuff accumulate.  I spilled grape juice on the rug.  A few days later I added an orange juice stain.  Dirt from my boots.  But it's all ok, because I can bring in the Rug Doctor.  It will eliminate every stain.

But God's love for us calls us to something better then just the Rug Doctor grace in times of need.  Paul articulates it beautifully: 

"What then are we to say?  Should we continue to sin in order that grace may abound? By no means!  How can we who died to sin go on living in it?"  Romans 6:1-2.

God's grace will cover us, but His love calls us to live a life glorifying and pleasing to Him.  He calls us to fight uphill battles and resist temptation.  He calls us to die and rise again with Him.  He knows in the flesh we will fall short, but He calls us to begin living and walking in the Spirit.

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There's another thing about sin: it creates distance.  Because we have God's grace, could we go on living in sin?

God knows.  He sees the stumbling blocks and the pitfalls.  I also know this to be true: in Psalm 40, David talks about God "reaching into the miry pit."  I would have to imagine that the miry pit is someplace that is very deep, and very far off.  God will reach for you.  But He wants something better for us than to live life in the miry pit.

God doesn't want the distance between your heart and His.  He desires closeness with you.  Sin prevents that closeness.  It buries your heart; hardens it.  If you call out to God in the valley He will reach down for you.  He never tires.  Never grows weary.  Yet, He wants you to know that if you choose it, He will walk with you on solid, stable ground, and lead you up to the mount of His love.  You do not have to live life chronically in the valley.

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We are called to say no to a life of sin, because it is no life at all.  It is death.  God wants life for us.  He wants us to live for the home we were made for.  A final thought on Paul's words: If we do fall short, and sin, God's grace will abound; if we strive to live a life free of sin, God's grace will still abound.  God's grace is not dependent on us, but rather we are dependent on it.    

~SP