I have never posted a picture of a cute cat, but I shall do so today.
Why?
Because I am writing about those who have not fallen, because they never stood up and it is difficult to picture this without causing offense. I am told that kittens never offend anyone so I shall illustrate my point with an image of a kitty.
If you stay in bed all day, then an image of laying in bed is not an image of you in a fallen condition. You never got up. This is fairly obvious, but it is a point many people today seem to miss.
Long ago in West Virginia, a member of my family was present during a “confession time” in a country church. These redemptive services allowed members to cleanse their consciences as they confessed their sins to one another following God’s wise command. Nothing is so sensible that Christians cannot mess it up and so it was this one particular evening.
Two brothers sat in church together during the confessional and one began to moan- “Fallen from grace. Fallen from grace. Fallen from grace.” Visibly annoyed, the other brother finally became loudly annoyed saying:” How can a tree fall that never stood?”
And this was a good question.
I have certainly received spiritual grace only to sin and need grace again. It isn’t good to sin, even if grace abounds, but thank God that He is more merciful than I deserve. There have been, however, a few times when I was sorry to be down, but I had never done anything to stand. I was born lying down and though it made me miserable, I had learned to be comfortable in my misery.*
We never liked So-And-So and developed some amusing snark about him. Now we cannot avoid hating So-And-So, even if we know it is hurting the community. We even ask for prayer to stop hating So-And-So, but mostly as a means to share what a so-and-so he is. We are fallen, but we have never gotten up.
Talking to enough people has made me believe that this is not unique to me: we have not fallen, because we never got up. Sometimes we are (partly) to blame: we could have changed, gotten up, but we did not and now the muscles have atrophied. We hate our sin, but never quite enough to get up. There is a certain cachet in having a “problem.”
We moan that we are “fallen from grace,” but we are sinners that have never stood to walk with sincerity to the altar and receive grace.
What to do?
Listen to the other brother. Have I ever been sorry for my sin? Do I enjoy my hate? Do I like having a “problem” to share? If so, then perhaps I have never received the grace of God. The time has come to look from my sin to Christ and ask Him to give me the grace to change. I then must take tangible steps to change. If Internet porn is the problem, I can get accountability from my wife. If anger is my problem, I can finally make the appointments needed to see a therapist. If I am a racist, I can repent and begin to do works that show I have repented.
I must bathe in the grace of God and try to stand . . .
Jesus asked an odd question once of a man that could not stand:
When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
Jesus knew that sometimes we make excuses to keep from receiving grace because we do not really wish to stand. We must decide at that moment that we want to get well and attempt to stand. If the grace is there, then we will stand.
Of course, all of us have had the experience of “thorns” that we sincerely wish would be pulled from our skin but are not. We are fallen, we try to get up, and we cannot. That is where grace of a different kind comes. As we lay in our weakness, unable to move, we learn humility. Our accomplishments are put into perspective and the pain becomes medicinal. God makes all things good in time . . . even our fallen state.
We know this for certain: every person who wishes to stand will not just stand, he will run. Paradise is coming. We will all fall one last time, we call it death, and then we will never fall again. We will mount up on wings like Eagles.
Raised in His grace. Raised in His Grace. Raised in His Grace.
_______
*I am not talking about problems that have biological origins, like some kinds of depression. I am talking about sins that were besetting sins and now have become habits . . . a thing very hard to break.
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