Are You Trapped In The Gap?

To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. (Romans 2:7-8)

These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.” If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. (Second Peter 2:17-21)

“The observation of convention is not necessarily an indicator of depth of relationship, nor of understanding.” –Dr. Genise Aria Reid

In Sunday’s sermon, Pastor Sam noted an extremely important aspect of grace as a process. I’ll call this aspect the convention-commitment gap. Below is our list from earlier this week, with the gap added:

Ø  Sensitizing Grace

Ø  Saving Grace

~The convention-commitment gap~

Ø  Sanctifying Grace

Ø  Serving Grace

Ø  “Setting-Free” Grace

As our pastor shared, this gap occurs when a person has responded to the grace of God for the experience of salvation, but then rejects the grace of God that moves one along the path of spiritual growth and development. These are they who regularly attend church for years, or even decades, but show zero evidence of spiritual growth. Their words, and their lives, reveal nothing of the Spirit of God who desires to work in them (see Galatians 5:13-26)-- though they are in church, and though they are reconciled to Christ through salvation, they are not demonstrating Christ-likeness. And as we see in the Second Peter passage above, persons who fall into this gap are a serious danger to themselves, as well as a serious detriment to the body of Christ.

How is it that Christian ministries can endorse all sorts of wickedness, without remorse? They’re trapped in the gap. How is it that Christian individuals can share worship experiences with a fellow believer, then pay a practitioner of dark arts to attempt to curse him? They’re trapped in the gap. And we dare not gloat at those who have stopped (or stunted, or reversed) their Christian growth by remaining in this gap; rather, we grieve.

Those of us who have bridged the gap between saving grace and sanctifying grace must show love and compassionate care to these, our siblings in the faith, who have set themselves up for a most severe judgement from God by rejecting the call to bridge the gap. Our Lord Jesus declared the consequences of a life lived in the gap:

“The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” (Luke 12:47-48)

We have been given much. We are recipients of the grace of God. We know the Master's will! He has caused us to recognize our need for Him, and He has empowered us to find our way to Him. Our great God always has our best interests at heart, because He loves us. Out of love, He calls us to draw ever nearer to Him, growing in our relationship with Him, so that we can become more like Him. If you, dear reader, have been resisting the call to sanctification, I pray you will cease resisting.

The LORD of all glory, the Lord who loves us, has made provision for us to grow in our relationship with Him. Thank You, Lord, for Your grace.

All Scripture references are from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.