That Grace May Abound

Daniel and Abigail are in AWANA this year at a church in our neighborhood.  AWANA was the single best program I did as a child to cultivate a knowledge of and love for God’s word, and I am thrilled my kids have a chance to participate in it.  The sweet, sweet teachers at their club have offered to hear the kids say their verses on Facetime or via video so they can sign off on their books virtually.  This week, Daniel had to memorize Ephesians 6:1, which is a verse about obeying your parents and then he had to complete a five day chart with different categories to see how well he obeyed his dad and me.  Being slightly suspicious about a propensity toward legalism, I was at first opposed to the checklist.  But as the week went on, it became so cool how that little checklist was a wonderful avenue to discuss grace with Daniel.

Daniel is a classic first child.  Generally speaking, he is my perfectionist rule follower.  He wants to get things right.  He LOVES a checklist, and he anticipates that he will be able to check every box.  For the most part, he did check all the boxes: Come when called for dinner? Check!  Go to bed when told?  Check!  Pick up your room without being asked? Check!  But the last box caused him some issues.  Did you do everything you were asked today without complaining?  Look, I have basically good, obedient kids.  I run a tight ship.  But complaining often abounds – by all of us.  And more especially now when it feels like there is a lot to complain about – we can’t see friends or family, we can’t go play at the park, we can’t go to the library, we can’t go back to school.  As Daniel went through his checklist and tried to check that last box about complaining, I had to remind him of the ways that he had complained that day, and as a firstborn, the reminder made him discouraged and more determined to do it “right” the next day, which provided the perfect opportunity to extend grace.

Every day, for five days, as we looked at the boxes Daniel could not check off, we got to talk again about how none of us are perfect.  His face when asked: “Does Mommy make it through the whole day without complaining?” was classic – he knows the true answer to that question!!  Every day, we had a visible, tangible item to point to and remind him that he doesn’t do everything perfectly, that he sins during his day, and that as his parents, we expect to see sin every day.  We expect to see it in him and we expect to see it in ourselves.  That doesn’t mean that sin is right or ok, but in paying attention to where we see it, we are reminded again of our great need for a Savior.  It felt freeing to say, “Daniel, look at this chart.  You’ll never behave perfectly in a day.  Look at the boxes left unchecked.  But the good news is that Jesus came to cover all that up.  God knew you couldn’t keep the checklist, so he sent you a Savior to do it on your behalf, and when you stand before the Father, instead of seeing your spotty checklist, God sees a chart fully completed – by Jesus Christ for you.  That’s what grace is.  Grace is Jesus coming to do the right things for us to cover up our sin.”  It was amazing to see the change in his countenance as he learned about God’s grace for the sin that entered his day.

Furthermore, as I have thought about that chart this week, I have been reminded of the verse in Romans that says, “The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase.  But where sin increased, grace increased all the more” (Romans 5:20).  I have always struggled a bit to wrap my mind around the need for the law in the Old Testament.  If God knew that we would never be able to keep the law, why did he send it? Why not just skip to the Savior?  But as I worked on that chart with Daniel, it made me better aware how the law worked for Israel.  The law outlined what righteousness looked like.  And as the Israelites worked to keep it, what became more and more clear was that they couldn’t do it.  “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength?”  “Love your neighbor as yourself?”  Just two statements were already impossible to keep all the time without fail. As the Israelites thought about the law and thought about their actions in relation to the law, all they would’ve been able to see were the holes on their chart.  It takes an awareness of our sin to see a need for a Savior.  If we can’t define the sin in our lives, we will never understand how desperately we need Jesus.  If all we do is compare ourselves to the guy beside us, we might seem good enough to be acceptable to God.  It is only when compared with the standard of the law that we see how desperately short we fall.  Romans 7:7 says, “…if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin.”  But Romans 8:3 quickly follows with the good news that in knowing sin, we also have the opportunity to know great grace: “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.  By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin.”  So that… “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).