Grace

Have you ever felt compelled to do something? Maybe it was to go somewhere or say something to someone. You tried to resist. You told yourself it didn’t matter. You attempted to convince yourself that this compulsion was not really from God and therefore could be ignored. Yet, it wouldn’t go away. It wouldn’t take “No” for an answer and eventually you gave in.

In Acts 20, Paul writes of such a compulsion - one so strong that it drove him forward in spite of an ominous feeling that bad things lay ahead. Most of us are motivated, at least in part, to follow compulsions by the hope for a positive outcome - that something good will come of it. Paul had none of this. He wrote: “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me.” Acts 20:22-23

I don’t believe that Paul was a masochist. I don’t think he took unnatural pleasure in pain. We who are so often addicted to expecting positive outcomes, maximizing our returns, and enjoying the journey as well as the destination may well wonder what motivated Paul to press on in spite of his clear sense that “prison and hardships” were ahead.

Looking below the surface we discover a higher principle at work in Paul - one which made his natural desires for pleasure, comfort, significance, notoriety and the like fade into the fog. He explained it with these words: “I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me - the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.” Acts 20:24

Paul had a task, a job to do. He was to testify to the gospel of God’s grace. He wasn’t able to resist this assignment. To Him, this was the best job in the world and if some time in prison and some hardships had to be involved, so be it.

Jesus said that the one who is forgiven much would love much. (Luke 7:41-50) Paul represented himself as “the chief of sinners.” Whether this statement was absolute across the universe of human experience or relative to some particular subset of humanity, only God knows. Whichever the case, Paul clearly had been forgiven much and as a consequence loved much. He was prepared to suffer to the point of death for the One who had given him life.

Paul felt that he had a debt to repay - a responsibility to discharge. He had been bound by legalism. He had been shackled by rules. He recognized that he had been criminally zealous in the name of God. Rather than imposing the rules that had confined him, he developed a ministry of setting people free. Instead of hunting down the spiritually condemned to execute them, he searched them out to share good news - specifically, the good news of God’s grace.

When Paul experienced this grace, it revolutionized his life, changing him from the inside out. It overflowed and touched all who could receive it. Paul discovered that God loves people. His pleasure is to express His good will toward them. He showers them with loving-kindness. He extends His favour in ways that are inconceivable to the heart of alienated humanity.

This was the message that Paul had to communicate. In other words, God had given him this message with the expressed purpose that Paul was to share it with others. But it was also the message he had to communicate. In other words, sharing the message was something he had to do. He responded to the Spirit-driven compulsion to communicate God’s message of life through His Son and his own inner compulsion to give to others what he had received. Freedom from legalism. A purpose outside of himself. The blessed assurance of a glorious hope. Life in the Spirit.

That all sounds rather superlative, doesn’t it. I phrased it that way on purpose. I want to stir my own soul with benefits of God’s grace. Perhaps as I do that, you will share in that stirring and then share it with others and together, linked with Paul over the intervening generations of grace-favoured believers, we may have our part in the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.

Ron Hughes
© July 2007