On Grayce

You read that correctly.

I am a very black-and-white person. Always have been. Lately, however, I've noticed that when I say that to people, I get a lot of reactions with a common main idea. The conversation tends to go a little something like this:

Me: "I am a very black-and-white thinker."

Person: "Oh, I'm just too gracious for that kind of thinking."

The implication is that because I see the world in black-and-white, I am incapable of expressing grace towards people. 

Now, I have nothing against the folks who've made such comments. In fact, I have found that this response is so overwhelmingly popular, that I can only deduce that it is a generally accepted idea that one is either black-and-white or overly gracious.

If you ask my Middle School students, I hope they would tell you that I am a fairly gracious teacher. I have patience to spare and am always open to listening when a student has trouble completing an assignment on time, or something else that may affect their grade in my class. But they know that the bottom line is this: an assignment turned in a day late is worth half credit, and an assignment turned in any time after that is worth no credit. Anything outside of extenuating circumstances or atypical behavior from the student is not an acceptable excuse for lateness.

Now, making an exception for a student for whatever reason is how I extend grace. But it's very clear when this happens that I am not extending grace necessarily because I think the student deserves it inherently; rather, I make sure the student knows that they made an error in turning their work in late, but that I will graciously accept the late work for whatever reason I choose is appropriate.

This is just one example of how grace looks practically in a black-and-white world. Let me explain:

Seeing the World in Black and White

First of all, my fellow Christians, I don't think that being black-and-white is a matter of opinion. It's not something that is a conviction for some, but not for others. It's something that I believe is universal.

We have the Holy Spirit here on earth with us to help us in our daily activity (Romans 8:26). I have prayed over the years that my heart and mind would be more sensitive to what the Holy Spirit is telling me. In addition, I spend time with God daily so that I can get to know him better, so that I am most likely to make the decisions he would have me make. In these ways, I set myself up to make right decisions (which is not to say that I never lose the battle with my flesh and make the wrong one anyway). In every decision, there is a clear right or best choice, regardless of whether or not that choice is immediately apparent.

There are also wrong (sinful) choices. Paul tells us quite plainly to "walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other" (Galatians 5:16-17). There is no gray area here; there are only the things the Spirit wants, and the things the flesh wants. And they do not agree with each other. He states earlier that we are to use the freedom Christ gave us, not to "indulge the flesh," (Galatians 5:13), but to crucify (or put to death) the desires of the flesh (Galatians 5:24). Again I say, there is no gray area. The desires of the Spirit oppose the desires of the flesh, which are to be completely obliterated in our lives.

To further his point, Paul says that the desires of the flesh are obvious (as in, easily understood, lacking ambiguity or subtlety, black-and-white): "sexual immorality, debauchery, impurity, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissension, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like" (Galatians 5:19-21). 

Paul does something I completely appreciate: he leaves no room for misinterpretation. I mean, that's just good writing. His whole objective is to ensure that the church in Galatia would not at all miss his point: obliterate fleshly desires because they oppose the Spirit and therefore the advancement of God's kingdom. Can I get an Amen?

It is for these reasons that I don't believe in gray areas. There are two sides: The flesh, and the Spirit. They do not agree. One leads to destruction, the other to the glory of God. There is no in-between, there is no "no-man's land," there is no gray. Only black and white.

There's No "Y" in "Grace"

If we accept that, as Christians, we need to see right for right and wrong for wrong: where does grace fit in?

It is easy to confuse gray areas with being gracious. They appear similar on the outside. In both cases, the wrongdoer does not have to suffer the full consequences of their actions. But only in the instance of grace--not gray--does the wrongdoer have to acknowledge the wrong committed.

Grace is "God showing his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). The operative clause here is while we were still sinners. Christ loved us so much that he bore the weight of all of our crimes (those aforementioned desires of the flesh) so that we wouldn't have to suffer the full extent of the consequences of those crimes, which would be death and separation from God (John 3:16; Romans 6:23). 

But we cannot accept this grace if we never acknowledge that we did anything wrong in the first place. Isaiah 30:15 says "in repentance is your salvation," meaning that we do no receive salvation without first repenting: admitting our wrongdoing and turning from it. 

Jesus himself was the most radical black-and-white, gracious person in existence. He says specifically that he came to the earth to call sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32). His entire mission was to save the undeserving wrongdoers; but they can only be saved through their own admittance of wrong. 

The Implications of a Gray World

Who needs Jesus in a world where no one is right and no one is wrong? 

How useless would I be if someone came to me with a moral dilemma and my response was: "well, morality is really a gray area, so you just do what you think is best"? 

How could we get the correction we so desperately need (Proverbs 12:1) if we never admit that we did anything that needs correcting?

A Gray World is a scary place to me. It is a terrifying culture in which we cannot tell the difference between right and wrong, life and death, sin and righteousness, fruit and weeds. 

There is no growth, because no one ever challenges anyone else, because everything is relative to the opinion of everyone else. 

It is a scary, fruitless place.

Does this place sound familiar? It sounds a lot to me like the world that those who do not know Christ live in. And, as I've said before on this blog, our lives should look nothing like theirs; they should look radically different. Thinking in black-and-white and acknowledging that we don't always make the right choices and that for that reason we need a savior is so humble and transparent and radical--and freeing. 

There are chains that come with accepting a gray universe for yourself. These chains look a lot like freedom--from condemnation of sin and such--but feel a lot like groping the darkness, being lost in the forest, and being separated from loved ones.

There's so much maturity and humility in admitting that we've done the wrong thing. And there's so much freedom that comes from the subsequent forgiveness of that wrong--because we know that God is quick to forgive and forget (1 John 1:9). And then we get to grow and move on instead forever dwelling in that wrong, unable to admit whether it's wrong or not.

It's time to live out an uncompromising faith. It's time to step up and own and take responsibility for our own choices and actions. It's time to be bold and courageous, humble and mature. It's time to think radically and differently. 

It's time to see the world in black and white, and experience full, complete, and total grace.