“As a prisoner for the Lord, then I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received… But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”
Ephesians 4:1, 7
It happens in chapter 3 of Ephesians…
“For this reason, I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for the sake of you Gentiles – “ (v 1)
“I became a servant of the gospel by the gift of God’s grace…” (v 7)
It happens again in chapter 4…
“As a prisoner for the Lord…” (v 1)
“But to each of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it….” (v 7)
It’s as if Paul is pleading, ”Make sure you notice the return address on the envelope of this letter!”
Paul was no stranger to suffering. This wasn’t the first time he had been in prison, (although depending on which prison stay you believe this to have been it might very well have been his last.) And this makes words like “grace” jump off the page in an unthinkable juxtaposition.
His ministry landed him in prison…several times.
His ministry was the reason his body was pelted with stones until it seemed that there was no way he could still be alive.
His ministry was what constantly got him in trouble with city officials, religious leaders, street peddlers…
AND his ministry was a “gift of God’s grace?”
In fact “to each one of us grace has been given?”
At times, grace is unmistakable. All the world seems light and fresh and aglow.
Other times the darkness is so oppressive that even the sun seems like a faint and distant and unreachable light.
But those who have gone before us seem to beckon that grace is not ultimately tied to circumstances, even when those circumstances are suffocating.
That we currently live in the cold, dark days of winter is probably starkly and even painfully obvious to you. Not just because you recognize it in the story but in an even greater and much more personal way you aware of it in the context of your everyday existence. In his book Reaching for the Invisible God, Philip Yancey describes our current circumstance in three simultaneous and equally potent movements.
- The world is good
- The world is fallen
- The world can be redeemed
This creates a tension within which we live every single day. Consider the first two of Yancey’s propositions:
You stand on the shore taking in the incredible scene as the last rays of daylight streak across the sky in an array of vibrant color…the world is good.
In the same moment a mosquito buzzes around your face eventually catching you in an unguarded moment long enough to get his snout into your skin before you smack him down splattering a small portion of your own blood (at least you hope it’s yours) on your cheek…the world is fallen.
The example is overly simplistic and petty but you get the idea. At any given moment we are both surrounded and saturated by these two dichotomies. Sometimes one seems far more apparent than the other but the two are always present.
Most of the time, depending upon the circumstances, we focus primarily on one or the other. So while the mosquito is an annoyance you still find yourself completely enamored with the goodness and beauty of the sunset. On the other hand if the same sort of striking sunset is happening over the crumpled and steaming hood of your new and now wrecked car, you are rather unlikely to even notice the way the light plays off of the clouds.
But then there are times when the paradox of it all comes in like a swift kick in the butt and you find yourself trying to make sense of the irreconcilable.
(excerpt from Ellipsis curriculum)
For a mother who holds her newborn, healthy baby, grace is easily recognized.
But when a mother is making preparations to bury her son…?”
Grace carries with it faith and hope, especially in seasons and at times when those both seem in short supply.
The world is good.
The world is fallen.
How can the world be redeemed?
…at least in part by the very ministry that Paul calls grace despite his current circumstances.
It takes courage and conviction to “live a life worthy of the calling you have received” regardless of the circumstances. And this courage and conviction overflowing into action is what demonstrates and unleashes the redemptive work of God in the midst of a broken world.
Relenting to the darkness doesn’t usher in the light.
Fighting back against evil using the same sort of weapons only perpetuates the evil that we long to expel.
Allowing anxiety or depression or anger to roam unexamined and unrestrained leads only to even more brokenness.
But grace in the midst of suffering changes things. The cross bears testimony as do those who walk in it’s light.
Even when the return address is a Roman jail…
Even when darkness seems to run rampant…
Even when you are so overwhelmed with the brokenness of our world that you wonder how you will even survive….
“…live a life worthy of the calling you have received…to each one of us his grace has been given…”
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