Grace is not Acceptance

John 8:10-11

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I wonder if there’s a misunderstanding when it comes to God’s grace. A lot of people believe that God’s grace means that he has shown undeserved love for all people, and therefore he accepts them in their sin. Grace is not acceptance, but forgiveness. Grace is not the acceptance of sin, but the forgiveness of sin. Maybe one way to think about it is maybe in this way, imagine someone did something horrific to someone else. There was physical abuse involved in a relationship, and the abuser comes to the one that they’ve hurt and they apologize. They repent of their sin, and that person decides that they are going to forgive them. By showing grace and forgiving them. They are not condoning what they did. They’re not saying that it was okay to abuse them. Rather, they are saying they are not going to hold that debt over their heads anymore.

Certainly they were wronged. Certainly they were hurt, but they have forgiven the debt so that that relationship can be restored. A good story that describes this for us to understand grace not being acceptance of sin, but forgiveness of sin, is the story found in John eight of the woman in adultery. These religious leaders, they bring this woman who has apparently been caught in the act of adultery and lay her at Jesus feet, and they say, Jesus, according to the law of Moses, this woman deserves to die for her sin of adultery. And obviously, they’re trying to trap Jesus, trying to get him to do something so that then they can accuse him later on. But here’s how Jesus responds. He says to them that the one who is without sin should throw the first stone. And we hear that beginning with the oldest, they drop their stones and they all walk away. Jesus, who’s looking down at the dirt and writing something in the dirt, he says then to the woman.

Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
“No one, Lord,” she answered.
Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.” (John 8:10-11)

We consider Jesus’ words and actions for this woman. That these men wanted to condemn that woman. They wanted to give her judgment for the sin that she had committed. But Jesus wants to show her grace, doesn’t he? He wants to show her undeserved love, the undeserved love of God, and not giving her what she deserves, but instead allowing her to go free, knowing that he himself has paid the price and would ultimately pay the price for her sin on the cross. But note what he does, he doesn’t accept her sin. He doesn’t say, well, keep on committing adultery, great! No! He encourages her to not sin any longer. He encourages her now to live a life free from sin.

You know, it gets us thinking then, when it comes to grace and the grace of God, what that means for us and what it means for the way in which we forgive others too. You know that. That God has shown us undeserved love, right? He has shown us undeserved love, not by accepting our sin and saying, that’s cool, just keep doing that. No, he’s shown us undeserved love by forgiving that sin that we don’t deserve that forgiveness. We deserve hell. But he has said, I will pay the price so that you can go free. And now what does he want us to do? He wants us to no longer live for ourselves and live in our sin, but to live for him who died for us and gave himself for us as well. And also, when it comes to other people, as we consider those who have hurt us, maybe in a horrific way, maybe it’s been abuse or something even worse than that. How can we possibly forgive such a person? Even if they come to us and they apologize? Well, the motivation to forgive them is ultimately found in Christ, in the way that he has forgiven us.

And as we forgive them, we don’t do so saying that was okay, that wasn’t really wrong. That was cool that you did that to me. No. We’re still acknowledging it was bad. We’re still acknowledging it was wrong. What we’re saying, even though it was wrong, I forgive you. I clear you of that debt toward me. You owe me nothing else. The relationship can be restored. And how can we do that? Well, it’s only because of the way in which God has shown grace and love and forgiveness towards us in Christ.

So grace is not acceptance of sin. Grace is forgiveness of sin, but a good thing for us to remember when it comes to our own lives and the way in which we interact with one another. Amen.