Some people may have a perception of Christianity that it must be overwhelmingly polite and “nice.” This is certainly not the case. In a previous post, I talked about how moralism (legalism/perfectionism) and grace are truly different religions. So far in this three part series, I have addressed “Who is God?” and “What does God care about?” Here we look at a third question.
How does God work in people’s lives?
MORALISM: In a moralism frame, God provides good things and intervenes to help good people. In other words, people earn good things through good behavior. Good things happen to good people. I won’t go a ton into this here, because it is relatively simple and straightforward. In my ministry work, I have run into innumerable people whose moralism has been challenged or destroyed by the events of life. If you believe God rewards good-enough people with good things, and you believe you are good-enough, it is an enormous challenge or even trauma when life serves you up a different set of circumstances. In this frame, the solution to everything is to work harder.
GRACE: In contrast to moralism, the way God actually works in people’s lives is not a transaction where God simply blesses good people with good things. In a grace frame, God acts to free and empower sinners, restore people to healthy fellowship, and align people to his mission. This is where the difference between moralism and grace really breaks wide open as two separate religions. When someone is struggling in their life, moralism is going to ask what they did wrong or why they didn’t try harder. Moralism’s prescription is always going to be to do more and try harder. Grace has a different prescription for life’s struggles: every one is a sinner in need of God’s help, and this God wants to set sinners free, and bring people into relationship and fellowship with others, and align them with him in his mission. Grace says God withholds justice (mercy) and bestows blessing (grace) on sinners, on the basis of his own character and goodness. I will close this post with three basic points.
A grace frame is realistic. It works in real life. Moralism is not realistic for many reasons (good things happen to bad people, bad things happen to good people, people struggle to be good, etc.). Grace is realistic that every person is a sinner. Grace is realistic that God does actively work in people’s lives (but not in a mechanical tit-for-tat way rewarding good things to good people).
A grace frame is honest. It doesn’t have to pretend we are better than we are. It doesn’t lead a person to justify their own behavior on the basis of other people who are not as “good” as them. A grace frame does not emphasize good behavior and expect God to bless good behavior with good things. A grace frame emphasizes God’s action as first, every good thing as God’s blessing and an expression of God’s character, and good behavior so to speak as a response to God’s design and initiative (not because we are so amazing).
A grace frame is conditional. Grace is not mechanical like moralism. In moralism the mechanics are simply, good behavior leads to good things and good things trace back to good behavior. In a grace frame, everyone experiences blessings from God and everyone experiences bad things. The difference of being a Christian is not at all that only good things will happen to a Christian. What is different about a Christian is they accept God in Jesus Christ by faith, and they are in tune with how God actually works in the world (as I talked about above: frees/empowers sinners, restores relationship/fellowship, gets people on mission). So the grace frame is there for anyone to grab on to, but it is conditioned on faith. People who trust in Jesus are freed from moralism and can walk this path of grace-based discipleship.