Buy Cheap, Get Cheap
January 25th, 2009Polite Dissent
The Jews often use the phrase “cheap grace” to describe the salvation Christians receive through faith. And it is completely understandable. Many Christians believe that once you ask for salvation, you can pretty much do as you please in this life. It’s all forgiven, in advance. That’s not a hard bar to clear, especially when you compare it to the obligations observant Jews deal with. Six hundred and thirteen commandments. Kashrut. Ritual bathing. A dress code. A single day to prepare for funerals. The Jewish path is clearly harder.
As far as I know, it’s true that a Christian receives salvation upon asking and believing, and I think it’s very hard–maybe even impossible–to lose it. So maybe you can get away with your worldly, underdeveloped lifestyle. At the same time, it’s no way to live, and there is a huge cost. The Bible says over and over that you can’t enter the kingdom of God if you don’t live right. Does that mean heaven? I don’t think so. I think it means you can’t experience God’s presence and protection and guidance in this life. You can’t have his power in your life. And the Bible mentions two books kept by God. One is a list of people who are saved, and the other is a list of people’s deeds. So while you may enter paradise, there will still be some sort of cost for your sins, and it will not be trivial.
That’s the best interpretation I have come up with.
I believe–and Aaron says observant Jews believe the same thing–that when you pray, you don’t just ask for things. You search yourself. You look for things you may have done wrong, and attitudes you have that may be counterproductive. Aaron says that one of the Hebrew verbs translated “pray” is reflexive, because it’s a self-directed process. Look at the Psalms, most of which are prayers. They ask things of God, but they’re full of confession, contrition, and repentance.
I think God often answers prayer, even when people’s hearts and deeds are not quite right with him. But I also believe that bad acts and attitudes can prevent prayers from being answered, whether you pray for yourself or for others.
The Bible seems to confirm this. Over and over, the prophets tell us we can’t expect God to be good to us, if we have not been good to him and to other people. Malachi tells the Jews their prosperity will be ruined because they don’t tithe and they cheat God with flawed sacrifices. The Babylonian captivity resulted from idolatry. Paul said that a man who slept with his father’s former wife was to be turned over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh. The things we do in this life matter.
My mother died from cancer. Naturally, I prayed for her. And she had a fairly encouraging prognosis. I had experienced healing in my own life, so I believed she could receive it, too. I believed, as hard as I could.
I flew to Miami to visit her. She seemed to be doing fairly well. There was still hope. I got on a plane and flew back to Texas. And I kept praying. And then I committed a sin. I’m not going to say what it was. It doesn’t matter. But it was a bad thing for a man in my position to do. Here I was, believing for a miracle. Yet I acted like someone who didn’t believe in consequences.
I lost contact with my mother during this time. They moved her to a new hospital room without telling me. I wasn’t too worried. I had my faith. But after I had been in Texas a couple of days, I got a call. My mother was dying. Fast. I had to fly back to Miami. When I arrived, she was unconscious.
I believed and believed and believed. I believed so hard, I didn’t really feel it when she died. It didn’t seem real to me. But it was real. She was gone.
Ever since then, I have wondered. Would she have received a miracle, had my life been right?
With this in mind, I visited Mish Weiss’s blog last night and posted a comment, in an effort to help. It looks like her bone marrow graft did not work, and she is trying to decide whether to try a new chemotherapy drug or to take a cruise and die. I put a prayer request on my blog, and I posted a comment, asking if there might be anything going on in her life that might hinder the effort. I specifically stated that I was not blaming her for her illness. But I was concerned about Mish, who continues to have problems in spite of a veritable prayer army, and I felt that I had to ask the question.
Someone I will not name came here and found a post about Mish, and here is the comment she left:
How can you be so cruel or ignorant to suggest Mish is somehow responsible for her own illness? As a Christian you should have read Job (the chapter) at least once in your life. God plainly tells us Job wasn’t responsible for the things that came upon him. If you really want to do something for her why not be a real witness to her? Because true Christians know the only way anyone can EVER get their prayers answered is through JESUS CHRIST yet you conveniently left that out!!! No, all you care to comment about is how good looking she is, and how she maybe needs to repent in order to not be sick. What about her soul??? With milk toast Christians like you, no wonder our Earth is fast going to Hell in a handbasket. If you feel bad, you should with ignorant comments such as yours.
This must be that agape love we Christians are always bragging about.
Let’s see. First, I take issue with the claim that Job wasn’t responsible for the things that came upon him. Job claimed he could defend himself before God, and that was a big mistake. No one can claim righteousness before God, and in his answer to Job, God made that clear. And when did God restore Job’s family and possessions? After Job repented of this attitude.
Do I think every bad thing that happens to a person is caused by that person’s sins? No. But some things are.
Second, I do not believe that “the only way anyone can EVER get their prayers answered is through JESUS CHRIST.” The Bible says God is near to all who call upon him. I think it’s better to believe in Jesus, but I would never claim that God doesn’t hear the prayers of Jews and other non-Christians. The book of Acts says the alms and prayers of Cornelius (a Roman official) had come up before God as a memorial, and this was after the crucifixion and the miracle in the upper room, at a time when Christianity was already in existence. And God transported Philip across the country to help the Ethiopian eunuch receive salvation; clearly God was concerned about this man, even though he was not a Christian. Furthermore, I believe that the Jews are still the apple of God’s eye, as did Paul. They have not been discarded or replaced, and they are central to God’s plans.
I don’t think Mish would benefit much from a comment screeching at her to accept Jesus. I have been around Jews all my life, and I don’t think this is the way to win them over. Jews are like big fish. Big fish are big because they have seen the bait before, and they have turned it down. You can’t convert them by hammering on them like a drill sergeant. I pray for my Jewish friends, and I try to keep a dialogue open and lead a good life that will draw their interest. I don’t know what I can do, beyond that. Fire and brimstone have been tried, and so has the Inquisition. They didn’t work too well.
Third, regarding the part about how all I care about is to comment about how good-looking Mish is, here is what I said: “You are a beautiful girl with a wonderful spirit, and I cannot believe this is what God has planned for you.” It seemed to me that reminding a sick person of her good qualities and her potential might encourage her to try to beat her illness.
I was afraid Mish would be offended by my comment, but I never dreamed it would make another Christian furious. Aren’t we supposed to be the patient and forgiving ones? Let me check my notes. I think it’s in there somewhere.
I truly believe my good and bad actions have observable effects in my life. A while back, someone criticized me for opining that my problems raising fruit had something to do with my nature. A fruit is pleasant, and often my own fruit–my deeds and words and thoughts–were on the sour or bitter side. It made sense to me that I had great success growing sour things like limes and caustic things like peppers, while my tangerines fell off the tree and my papayas tasted funky. I still think I’m right about that. Over and over the Bible refers to crops and fruit failing, and the references are literal as well as figurative. Why shouldn’t my failings be reflected in the condition of the things I try to grow? It happened to the ancient Jews time and time again. Am I somehow exempt from the principle?
By the way, the papayas are all better now, and my citrus trees are doing better and better. In fact, my cara cara tree has so many blossoms I don’t see how it can carry the fruit. I’ll post a photo. It’s amazing. I’ll probably have to cull a lot of the fruit to keep the tree alive. Crazy.
All those little white things are blossoms.
Anyway, I am no authority, but I recommend you not be satisfied with “cheap grace.” In reality, it’s not cheap at all.
January 25th, 2009 at 12:56 PM
I deeply regret that you received such a negative comment regarding Mish Weiss. Her situation is terrible and lamentable, and I am sure that every prayer for her helps. Please keep trying in your faith and understand that most people in this world are not perfect and fall short of the glory of God. Such may be the case with your unhappy commenter. Meanwhile, both you and Ms. Weiss are in my prayers. I pray that everything will work out to the glory of God, even if I cannot see or understand how it fits. Please do not give up – I can see that you are trying and that you are making progress in your spiritual journey.
January 25th, 2009 at 2:14 PM
The biggest obstacle to the spread of Chrisitanity is half (give or take) of the Christians.
I would suggest that there may be a nuance missing in your thoughts on salvation. I have come to think that answering an alter call, or some othe sort of singular profession of faith, is not the sort of belief/faith that saves. The belief/faith must be fuly sincere and to the core.
When I was younger, had you asked if I was a believer, I would have said yes. But looking back, I can see that I was remarkably nominal in my belief and it reflected not in my life. I don’t really see that time as ‘being a believer’ time.
January 25th, 2009 at 4:30 PM
Three things from the Book of James I like:
2:17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
1:27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
5:14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: 15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
I like quoting 1:27 on the form that asks for “religion”.
January 25th, 2009 at 4:42 PM
Re a possible missing “nuance”: on the other hand, worrying too much about whether or not you’re faithful enough and/or doing it the “right” way can become an obsession that actually lessens your faith. I believe the Catholics call this “scrupulosity” and they discourage it.
Another notion of the Catholics that has some bearing on your question about what we get for our bad deeds is purgatory. I always thought that seemed plausible to me: no matter how good you’ve been, you have to wait a while before getting into heaven because you haven’t always been good, and you carry over unfinished bad thoughts and attitudes into death. (Assuming that we are still “ourselves” after we die, it stands to reason that we would still have our bad impulses as well as our good just the same as when we were alive.) Anyway, so you go to God’s waiting room to wait your turn. How you get rid of your bad attitudes while in there I have no idea. Maybe God and his crew are sorting out all the petitions from people on the ground — the prayers for your soul and so on. Then they weigh them against all those sins big and small you’ve committed. And then you get called into God’s office, and he gives you the biggest bitching out you’ve ever had in your life, which since you’re now dead and have nothing else to do takes forever, or as long as God wants. Imagine it, being chewed out by God. You don’t even like being chewed out by your dad for five minutes — now the ultimate Dad has you in his sights. And depending upon how you react — whether you get your back up and be defiant, or whether you are truly sorry and repentant — you’d get sent to either heaven or hell. It would seem to me that anyone would be repentant (I mean, this is God here, not just your dad), but we’ve cultivated a big crop of really defiant, proud people. Hell may get full. And then you know what happens after that… the dead walk the earth!
Sorry, I just had to throw in that last line about zombies. By the way, if I were God, I’d let that happen. Fewer and fewer people these days are afraid of God, but everyone is afraid of zombies.
January 25th, 2009 at 5:42 PM
“Because true Christians know the only way anyone can EVER get their prayers answered is through JESUS CHRIST…”
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I have the view that Christ is the Fulfilment of the Old Testament, not the Replacement of it. In my mind, that still means that the Jews are special in His eyes. And I can’t say that God ignores their prayers; I see no biblical basis for that thought (I do see references for God ignoring the prayers of the unrighteous, but I don’t believe that Jews necessarily fall in this category).
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As for the relationship between hidden sin and illness, I would point your commentor to James 5:15-16
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“And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.”
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Yes, some illness is not our fault, yet some is. Understanding that both possibilities exist and pointing that fact out is not mean; it is fulfiling a greater love. Would we rather pretend that people don’t sin (and let them die in that condition) without pointing out the greater truth and perhaps lead them to a greater understanding/relationship with God?
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And lest there be any misundestanding here, I don’t think your commentor is not a Christian for the above thoughts and treatment of you…I just think she is wrong in this matter and needs to look at prayer and healing in a new light (and perhaps consider her behavior in the light of Paul’s “Fruits of the Spirit”). In my life I have failed in this respect too, so I say this as one who has fallen and “gotten back up” through humbleness, prayer and repentance.
January 25th, 2009 at 5:56 PM
Belief and prayer are not going to mean a thing if a healing is not in God’s plan. When my Mom was diagnosed with lung cancer, I prayed that God would take care and keep her here IF IT WAS HIS WILL. It wasn’t. Seven weeks from the diagnoses, Mom left us for heaven.I really believe that while we, as humans, try to decipher the will of God, our small minds cannot grasp the true wisdom of His grace. Faith can move mountains, but only if the mountain moving is in God’s plan.
I will keep Mish in my prayers. A lovely soul is evident there. May God keep her close.
January 25th, 2009 at 8:46 PM
Hm. I thought your comment to Mish was sensitive and thoughtful.
January 25th, 2009 at 9:54 PM
Very rarely do I put myself in this position but I did feel compelled to mention that sometimes one can do all within their power through prayer and sacrificial offerings before the Lord and in the end the result is in His hands. That’s not offered as an excuse or panacea but simply is the way it is. Of course we are obligated to do all that is within us to try and persuade and glorify God.
It seems that 2 Samuel 12.15 through 12.23 speaks pretty clearly about this. Not that David would be any sort of example to hold before anyone, or then would he? Since he pretty much embodies all those things that lie within us, the good and the bad.
However, that is just sort of a reminder that men can speculate but only God knows his reasons. I too will pray for Mish to recover and for you also to have peace.
January 25th, 2009 at 9:59 PM
JeffW: Great minds think alike. Then there’s you and me.
Andrea: That’s priceless. Not scriptural, but priceless.
Steve: Nice plant, and thanks for a thought provoking post.
January 25th, 2009 at 10:53 PM
“JeffW: Great minds think alike. Then there’s you and me.”
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Sooo, does that mean we agree, disagree, or that both you and I are the statistical “outliers”???
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The Andrea Harris/Zombie thing did bring to mind a “Dirty Jobs” episode…
January 26th, 2009 at 1:56 AM
Check out 1 Cor 3 11-15
January 26th, 2009 at 2:03 AM
I believe that it is important to have your heart/head in the right frame of mind when you do good works or deeds. I think acknowledging truth, whether it is in a qualitative and/or a quantitative (spiritual & temporal) form is of the utmost importance.
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If your brother falls out of a plane at 50000 ft without a parachute and you pray to god to save his life as he descends, I am certain that the Lord is listening, but it may not be enough to save him, being that the temporal probabilities are very against him. However I think addressing the temporal probabilities as much as you can will help. For example: during the fall from the plane, your brother tries to create as much wind resistance to slow himself down and that you immediately dive out of the plane with a parachute (or two) in the attempt to catch your brother may increase the chance of his survival greatly.
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Prayer is an act of the will. Acting to save your brother, I believe, can also be part of the prayer process. Even then, there are no guarantees. In this clockwork world, to have God grant an _exception_ from the probabilities of ‘natural law’ for your loved ones can be a rather tall order considering the probabilities you’re facing. In other words, your reasoning (or plea) (…in regards to spiritual law with God) behind the prayer ought to be a strong one to defy the natural laws that have been set down since the beginning of Creation.
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I believe the more you know the more your held accountable.
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As I get more clarity that which is considered good and that which is bad, I find many times being confronted with things I have done or said in the past that were not correct. These reflections would then require some sort of action on my part. Many times all that was necessary would be to hold that history in the proper accounting so that when it is retold, it is done in a proper and truthful manner whether to the victim or to friends and family who were witness to what transpired.
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There is also the matter of debt to be addressed. Many times it is up to your heart as to what it may be – and it is not something like a merchandise transaction that you just go and pay up. You will know when the right time and place will be to recant what was done – but that requires patience. Sometimes it never occurs and the price is payed in some other way to some other person (ex: if the victim was long dead).
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I am sure that you have a good idea where I get my perspective. I believe that I am still within the pale when I write what I do.
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I really enjoyed what you wrote. Thanks Steve.
January 26th, 2009 at 3:04 AM
One more thing, Steve. If you go to Og’s website he just had a remarkable situation where he could have easily ended up… dead.
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I know things are not going well for Mish. I do hope she gets better – I really do. She’s so young and her loved ones have probably put a lot of love and care into her. But sometimes bad things happen to good people – even if they live like a Saint.
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As put by Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings: “There are some who live and deserve death. There are some who die and deserve life… But it is not from them to decide. All we have to do is to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world other than the forces of evil.”
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All I’m saying is to not try to blame anyone too much for a bio-chemical failure that is within Mish’s body (and not within Mish herself). How we face death can be as important as how we face life.
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I really do hope she gets better.
January 26th, 2009 at 9:20 AM
Steve,
I agree with the theme of your post, in that the way you live your life affects what happens to you. In fact, we preached Galations 6:7-9 yesterday. I take your comment to be supportive of Mish and that you are trying to help her find the best way. I continue to be in prayers for Mish to accept the path laid before her, and for confort to her friends and family.
Thank you for sharing so much of your faith with me. You have helped me reconnect with a faith I was atarting to lose.
Steve
January 26th, 2009 at 12:12 PM
ive just been going through this issue in Philip Yancey’s, “What’s so Amazing About Grace?,” which I highly reccomend.
he says, in essence, its a false choice. If you are at all serious about receiving the grace that Christ has freely offered, then you are at some deeper level probably interested in addressing sin.
put even more simply, God knows and reads your heart. asking for Grace because you feel like pulling Columbine part two…non-issue and non-starter. if you are engaged in mortal sins like wanton murder, and seriously repent and seek God’s forgiveness, then it is available.
its just no buffer against earthly judgement and punishment.
im sickened by poor Mish’s turn of events. Im really sorry for all here that know her, and this controversy is utterly imaginary.
January 26th, 2009 at 12:38 PM
Going back to the comment that spawned this thread, I was under the impression that God never breaks a covenant. He has given a new, improved Second Covenenant through Christ, but I don’t see how that invalidates his original Covenant made to Abraham.
January 26th, 2009 at 12:41 PM
I agree with Andrea’s comment that there is a danger of going overboard with doubts as to one’s salvation – it serves as the other end of the spectrum of error to being over confident in it.
I was raised Roman Catholic and learned its teaching as to purgatory, but never found any real warrant for it in Scripture. I guess we’ll all find out how that all works eventually – even if we won’t be able to tell the folks back here what we learn.
January 26th, 2009 at 1:07 PM
A teacher once told me “it’s ok to believe that you will have everlasting life if you simply believe. But your actions during life create your capacity for joy in paradise. If you’re an ass, you might find yourself in the afterlife with a thimbleful, which is all you can carry, but a decent man may find that a stadiumload is not even a burden” that has stuck with me as an interesting way for a mere human to attempt to understand a divine action.
January 26th, 2009 at 5:30 PM
Calvin put it well: “Faith alone saves, but the faith that saves is not alone”. If there are no fruits, you’re not saved.
As Christ said, Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
January 26th, 2009 at 6:15 PM
It’s classic theodicy. No way to reasonably discuss the death of an infant unaware of choosing wrongly nor the prosperity of the wicked.
I believe all prayers are answered… just not necessarily applied to the accounts we intended. The True Judge would not waste a single prayer of a typically good or bad person. I don’t think that a prayer could be utterly “ignored” as it is least an acknowledgment that there IS a Creator in charge. It’s that we need to understand that only He would know where a specific prayer is most needed and this will be revealed to us someday and what seems unjust now will be understood. Many of our prayers may be earning a high rate of interest in Heaven but haven’t been cashed in yet… because it’s not time.
I’m a big fan of the book and movie The Five People You Meet in Heaven. It’s worth a read/look.
Regarding “cheap grace” used often by Jews… I rarely see or hear the phrase uttered by anyone not Christian.
Regarding 613 commandments, about one third don’t apply today due to the lack of a Temple in Jerusalem. Another third apply to Passover and other holidays. There are laws that only apply to men, to women, to the single, to the married, to the widowed, to the divorced, to sons, to daughters, to orphans, to brothers, to sisters, to Cohens, to Levites, to butchers, to bakers, to owners of slaves, to slaves… It’s impossible to be all of the above at once. Therefore no one person could have fulfilled all 613 or even most of them. 613 require a community. There really aren’t THAT many commandments that apply on a daily basis. However there is a rigorous support structure to ensure that those Shalts and Shalt Nots aren’t transgressed. Tons of obvious stuff that the text alludes to but doesn’t describe in detail require the oral traditions. Find me one description of what tzitzit, mezuzot or tefillin are or what is the manner of kosher slaughter “in the manner which I have shown you”?
Regarding recommendations removing obstacles to God, it’s always appropriate because doing so increases closeness. If one is healed, one is closer. If one isn’t healed, one is closer. Removing obstacles in communication is ALWAYS a win. People are never beyond being inspired or inspiring, no matter the circumstances.
There is a Talmudic dictum from Pirke Avos (Sayings of the Fathers): “It is not up to you to complete the work, but neither are you at liberty to desist from it”. It’s not up to us to have the “winning” prayer that achieves what we think is the desired result, but neither are we at liberty to desist. God is going to care that we care and that we don’t stop trying.
January 26th, 2009 at 8:05 PM
I’m in a weekly Christian book-study group with a bunch of Bible-church evangelicals. They seem to think they’re all set because they answered an altar call at some point. In the interest of getting along — I do learn from them, as they learn from me — I haven’t raised the orthodox point that you do have to take your specific list of sins to God (meaning: confession) in order to obtain forgiveness.
These aren’t bad guys, of course. But for them I think Christianity is more like a club than a way to live. It’s about the cosmetics of being saved, rather than the deep surgery required to actually train oneself to sin less often.
January 26th, 2009 at 9:36 PM
Michael R: I don’t believe in “cheap grace”, but I do believe in “abundant ” grace. I live under the blood of Jesus. I know that I can’t approach the Father on my own. But I don’t examine every aspect of my life and look for every sin so that I can “confess” it. As the Holy Spirit pokes me about something, I apologize, learn and move on. I do believe that too many “Christians” answer an altar call and freeze. The altar call is the response to a Savior. Works is a response to the Lord. Too many don’t make Him Lord. I AM forgiven. Now I strive to live like it.
January 31st, 2009 at 7:31 PM
Having survived a life threatening illness not once, but twice in my life, I can say from personal experience, that the people who love you are often much more reactionary to anything and everything than you are and more likely to fly off the handle in the way of your commentor.
I can remember several instances where one friend got angry with another for some comment which seemed so outrageous to her and quite benign to me and I seemed to spend way too much time mitigating disagreements about that sort of thing. It was a minor annoyance and unimportant to me except that someone was so genuinely upset for no real reason.
That said, with the recurrence of the brain tumor last year, I was very fortunate to have an incredible number of people praying for my health, from all over the world, from all walks of life, from all religions. There were entire congregations of Churches all over dedicating services, and in Israel, thousands were davening.
Along with all of that prayer, there were also mitzvahs, good deeds, done by others in my name, to please G-d and help with my healing.
Be it the prayer, the mitzvahs, the gift of modern medicine which comes from G-d, or all of the above, I’m still here.
So. I will add Mish to my prayers, and I will do a mizvah every day, a good deed, in her name, and I will ask G-d to heal this good woman.
January 31st, 2009 at 7:34 PM
Thousands… heh. Make that thousands praying and hundreds davening.