Fallen From Grace

It's one of the most controversial issues in the Western Church today. Everyone has an opinion on it. People ask me this question every so often when they have objections about Christianity.

What about Jimmy Swaggart? (or Jim Bakker, or --- fill in the blank.)

People who aren't churched or who are disillusioned by Christians can't get past the hypocrisy. People who are Christians generally fall into two opposite camps. Either he's the devil incarnate or he's the most anointed gospel singer/preacher ever to hit the airwaves since Billy Graham. I guess I fall somewhere in the middle, and I suspect Jimmy would too. Jimmy is human. He's no better or worse than you or me.

I'll be honest here. I never used to like to listen to Jimmy's singing - or his preaching. He was too phoney (I thought) in his singing, and he was way too dogmatic when he preached. "Methinks the man doth protest too much," was my comment to myself.

Then, as is the case with many in visible ministry, he fell into the abyss of sexual infidelity. Because he was in public ministry and so vocal against some of the very same things that were now being exposed about him, the media were crazed - like sharks in a feeding frenzy, they could smell blood. The faithful, his followers, were deeply hurt.

When he wept in repentance for his sin before his congregation - I was one of those who wondered if he really meant it or was this just grandstanding. I'd heard him preach before, felt verbally abused, and changed the channel. But this time, for a while I again started listening to him when he talked. I was pleasantly surprised.

Gone was the cocky, judgmental, wag-the-finger-in-the-face style I'd cringed at before. He had learned a thing or two about the depths of God's grace, and he talked freely about it as it pertained to his own life. Humbly. Inside, I nodded. This was better. This was real.

I'm not saying that I agree with everything the man has said or done since. But I'm saying that at least he's real, he's human and he knows it - and it's led him to be more compassionate toward people, and for that reason, I like him a lot better now than I used to.

In fact - and you may tar and feather me for this - I don't believe that Jimmy "fell from grace" when he sinned. And I don't think that he "needed to get saved again." Christians sin. When we sin, (and we will, John said in 1 John), we have a perfect Advocate with the Father.

Jesus never gives up on us.

I've had a look at that expression, "fallen from grace," in the Bible, and it's really not what everyone thinks it is. The term itself appears only once - in the book of Galatians. Galatians was written to people who thought they had to add their observance of religious rituals and rules to what Jesus did for them, in order to keep themselves saved. Paul told them that if they thought they could do that, they had fallen from grace. (In other words, they'd missed the whole point of what grace is: God's UNMERITED favor.)

So it isn't sin that causes a person to "fall from grace." On the contrary, it's rigid adherence to the shoulds and the oughttas - out of a sense of fear of losing what God has so freely given ... if we don't toe the line. Wow. There's a lot of folks in the church - apparently those who think they have this thing in the bag - who have fallen from grace. I have myself, a time or two. Or a hundred.

Thank God He is so patient!

God's grace is so very much more, so much deeper than we can imagine. It covers all sin: every single one, no matter how big or small - past, present and future - of every person who has ever lived, is living now, or ever will live. The extent of it is so great that the Christians of Paul's day were accused of preaching that they could do evil so that good might come of it. Grace permeates everything; it is what makes possible our next heartbeat, our breath. We underestimate its reach, its power, its ability to rescue ... to the uttermost. If the realization of the greatness of God's grace doesn't result in a life filled with gratitude and love back to Him, there's something wrong. We've missed the point.

God loves us - each of us - unconditionally. Imagine that!!
I think Jimmy finally "got it."
I think that we can "get it" too.