Clay in the Hands

I read an article last night by John Ortberg, a pastor and author in California who often writes about the spiritual life (You can link to the article here).  In this particular article, John made a statement with which I am still wrestling.  He said that we as a church, teach people that we are saved by grace – we cannot earn our salvation.  However, we fail to teach how to live by grace.  The conversion process happens when we realize there is a gap between us and God and that we cannot bridge that gap without a relationship with Jesus.

But then, we proceed to try and live the Christian life, and it is not very far down the road that we begin to see another gap – the gap between the person we are and the person God wants us to be.  The problem is, we have conditioned ourselves to believe that this gap is on us to bridge.

Ortberg points out that we can not bridge either gap.  All we can do is humbly desire to be led by God’s Spirit and do what Jesus says to do.  But what does this look like?  The church has defined this “maturity” level as being committed to the church and the it’s programing.  The problem with this criteria is that Jesus condemned the Pharisees for having the same expectations.

Perhaps the real measure of spiritual maturity is how we love.  Do you love the Father and your neighbor as Jesus does?

Real spiritual maturity can be depicted in selfless love humbly offered with no strings attached.  And we can only offer this kind of love out of the abundance of love we have received from God as a result of our relationship.

Live by grace today!