The Waltz of Grace
Text: Romans 7:15-25
The essential truth of salvation in Jesus Christ is that you have to participate in the process: you admit that you are in need of being saved, you choose to turn away from sin and by doing so, and you receive forgiveness from God. This is like a waltz: a three-step rhythm. If you miss a beat, or try and skip a step, the dance falls apart.
Participating in this ‘dance’ is what gives meaning to being a follower of Christ. If you won’t acknowledge your need to confess your sins and own up to your sinful nature, the grace of God will never mean a great deal to you. The consequence of this choice is that your faithfulness to your life in the body of Christ will reflect this lack, and it will be impossible to be sanctified and transformed by God’s grace. In the end, your soul will not be at peace with the Lord.
I interpret this passage in the light of the daily struggle we have to rise above the temptations and the failings of our sinful nature, and be the persons God created us to be. I think anyone who has taken seriously the Christian obligation to spiritual growth understands what Paul has said at a “gut” level: that sin is “…waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members” (Romans 7:23 NIV) – and that laxity toward sin is unacceptable.
We don’t ignore sin. We don’t let sin define us. We don’t justify sin. Instead, we put off our old ways and fight against our personal demons, all the while treasuring the grace message of the next chapter: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1 NIV)
The great thing about God’s grace is that we are given new opportunities to be faithful, and we don’t have to make the same mistakes that we did last time.
I want to pause for just a moment to let you think about a few things in the privacy of your mind and soul.
- What struggle exists in your life that makes this passage a true description for you?
- What do you hear God telling you to do differently to change the course of this battle?
- Who knows your answers to the first two questions, and can lovingly help you work on this problem?
A reason why it is helpful to include another person, someone whom you trust enough to help you, is that it helps you with your perspective.
As I said, confession has the rhythm of a waltz: “I need forgiveness, I turn away from wrong, I receive forgiveness.”
We’re all pretty good at identifying willful sin. So, the waltz is readily apparent if we consciously commit the sin. When the Spirit convicts us of our need to repent, everything is very clear.
But what about sins that are unthinking – we didn’t plan to do it, but did it anyway? Aha! Now, we’re getting into what Paul is talking about.
Another, better-understandable way to translate verse 15 might be, “I did the thing I hate, because I didn’t practice doing what I want to do.” Paul’s confused because, instead of the result he intended his actions to produce, he did the very thing he hates.
If you look in the Bible, in the earliest passages where Paul is mentioned (Luke and Acts), Paul is a zealot who is passionately going about serving the law of God. Fast-forward to Acts 26, where Paul tells of his eyes being opened on the road to Damascus – and he realizes what his zeal has done: enslaved him to sin and not grace.
What God gives us is intended to FREE us, not trap us. Paul’s zeal for the Law (the Torah) – expressed in the persecution of those he believed to be unbelievers – brought him into conflict with Jesus, the Messiah. This was revealed to him by Christ, the scales fell from his eyes, and he finally saw the truth clearly.
A real-world example of unintended sin: some Welsh scientists studying mollusks off of the coast of Iceland found the world’s oldest living creature (a clam), 405 years old. Just think, this clam was “just a pup” before the colonies in America were started, before Shakespeare wrote Macbeth… wow!
The rest of the story follows. How do you know how old a clam is? You count the rings on their shells. The rings are like tree rings – one ring for each year of life.
Here’s the problem: You can’t count the rings without cutting the clam open… which kills it. So, these scientists, in the process of discovering that this clam was the oldest known living thing in the world… killed it. In their desire to understand and save life, they ended it. The good that they wanted to do, they failed to do; the evil that they did not want to do, they did.
It’s a paradox, isn’t it? That in our struggle to be faithful and find holiness, we sometimes kill what is most precious to us and keep alive that which is most detestable?
Take a moment and wrestle with this! Are there patterns in your life where this is the case?
If you think about God’s grace in this context, the idea that we are forgiven becomes amazing grace, considering the ugly realities of struggling with our sins.
As you wrestle, though, keep in mind that God doesn’t intend that we should wallow in the mud of failure. This can turn your life into a repeating, self-fulfilling prophecy that never has a good ending.
Keep also in mind that when you are justified by God’s grace, God’s grace stays with you and sanctifies you.
The important thing is that you don’t treat sin as something you can live with. Live according to the “waltz of grace,” and stay in step. Have respect for the deadly nature of what you’re dealing with, and work to keep it from spreading further into our world.
We need forgiveness, we turn away from wrong, and we receive forgiveness. Thanks be to God for this wonderful grace that leads to life eternal.
Amen.
Sources consulted:
“Clam Chowder Christians,” Homiletics, July 2008
TNIV Study Bible (Zondervan, 2006)
