February 25: By Grace Alone
♫ Music:
WEEK THREE INTRODUCTION
TITLE: STARTING ON THE CHRISTIAN WAY
February 25 - March 2
What does the New Testament have to say about salvation and the path to eternal life? Paul and Silas told the Philippian jailer to “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 16:31) and he would be saved. But belief entails much more than simply agreeing that what the Bible says about Christ is true. Real belief involves repenting of and forsaking the sin which was formerly part of our old self-rule and putting our complete faith and trust in God alone, turning everything over to the only one who can save and keep us forever. Hebrews 7:25 says,”Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.” Slave ship captain John Newton wrote, “Take an estimate of all our sins, all our temptations, all our difficulties, all our fears, and all our backsliding of every kind, still the word ‘uttermost’ goes beyond them all.”
Paul writes in his letter to the Romans, “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10:9–10, NKJV).
The pervasive New Testament model seen throughout the early church also suggests that water baptism in the name of Jesus Christ was/is another directive that plays a significant role in the lives of new believers. “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Galatians 3:26–27). Baptism sets the young Christian apart, creating a new identity. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
The apostle Paul taught another kind of baptism as well. “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:13, NKJV). The Holy Spirit is the “seal of salvation” or the guarantee of an eternal inheritance with Christ. “Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:13–14). Paul tells us in Romans 8:9 that if a person does not have the Holy Spirit, that person does not belong to Christ.
This week we explore what it means to be a true Christian and the great gifts God has given to those who are in Christ Jesus!
Day 12 - Sunday, February 25
Title: BY GRACE ALONE
Scripture #1: Ephesians 2:4-9 (NKJV)
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Scripture #2: Romans 5:1-2 (NKJV)
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Poetry & Poet:
“Grace”
by Orlando Ricardo Menes
We cannot buy it in bulk at Trader Joe's,
Swap it for gold, or hoard shares of Grace, Inc.,
To hedge against bad luck. We acquire it
Without contract, promissory notes, or IOUs,
Neither codicils nor fine print. We gather
Grace safe from litigation or severance,
And though we might breach the strictures of creed,
It cannot be forfeited or suspended. Rather,
Grace is asymmetric, parabolic, skewed to love,
Immanent and absolute, but also unpredictable
As quantum particles, both here and there,
Both full and empty, so it might arrive
Inopportunely and thus slip under hope,
Upsetting the earnest prayer, teasing our faith,
Like some rain bands, copious cumuli,
That appear astray, unbidden, in stagnant skies
To drench at last the drought-scourged earth.
BY GRACE ALONE
The phrase, “by grace alone” can sometimes feel like shackles of shame. These shackles hold fast when we try to cover failures, striving to ensure that the appearance of good is maintained, and privilege has been earned. God’s true grace becomes hard to see through the lenses of strivings, appearances, and fear of failure.
Paul puts forth a calling to see and experience true grace by inviting the Ephesus church into experiencing God’s profound love (Eph 2:4, 3:18) It is a love characterized by expansiveness, empowerment, and rejoicing (Rom 5:1-2). “Skewed to love” is the picture painted by poet Orlando Ricardo Menes. As he attempts to describe a grace that is overwhelmingly rooted in love, not shame. The love of God is so vast that Menes utilizes a word picture denoting lack of symmetry and unequal distribution. Grace that is skewed to love.
This skewed love is beautifully illustrated as we gaze at the flowers in Mercy’s Garden. The artist Makoto Fujimura describes a garden cultivated by a grad student named Mercy. She took a plot of soil and tenderly cared for it until it was filled with beauty. It became a haven of flowers where hummingbirds flocked. These fluttering birds can see infinitely more colors than humans can even understand. The artist attempts to create the beauty beyond what his eyes can understand, the beauty of the flowers through the eyes of the hummingbird. This image beckons us towards a fuller understanding of “grace alone” A grace, which is skewed by God’s love and invites us to new understandings of its beauty and experience than we could previously see.
I am in a refining season where I am struggling through new depths of my own brokenness and acceptance that God’s love is enough. Amidst this struggle I walked in on my daughter crying on my bed and loudly proclaiming, “I’ve failed!” She sobbed and tentatively put forth a piece of paper as evidence. I glanced at the “B” on her test and was tempted to launch into an exegesis about what the word fail meant but the depth of her anguish gave me pause. Instead, I held her as she sobbed and, in that moment, the only thing I said was in a whisper as I stroked her curly hair. “I’m so glad you ‘failed,’ it gives me a chance to say my love for you is not found in your success or achievements.” She looked up at me a bit like a hummingbird exploring a garden, tears running down her cheeks, her eyes wide with discovery, “really?” she responded.
God’s love, like the eyes of a hummingbird, leads us to deeper beauty in His grace than previously experienced or even imagined. The message of Paul is to keep experiencing God’s grace anew, whether you are just discovering it or have gazed upon it for a lifetime. This grace is rooted in love and found in the places where good intentions fail. Its vastness can be explored in the gardens of our souls when we realize that there is more of us to be saved, and more grace to experience than we imagined.
As the year came to a close, my daughter drew herself with a paper marked “B” as her favorite memory of the year. Her achievements and strivings failed, and her experience of love grew, her eyes could see richer aspects to love, like the hummingbirds that can intake more beauty. Grace alone beckons if you listen carefully. It echoes in Mercy’s Garden, in the rich tones of Amazing Grace it sings out there’s more love to experience, behold, receive by grace alone.
Prayer
God, grant us eyes to experience and know your love in deeper ways. Expand our ability to see the beauty you grant us in grace alone.
Amen
Amie Cross, M.Div.
Alumna of Torrey Honors College
Biola University
Chaplain and Missionary
For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.
About the Art:
Mercy Garden 10
Makoto Fujimura
2019
Watercolor on paper
10 x 7 in.
Private Collection
Mercy Garden 10 is part of a series of watercolors started in artist Makoto Fujimura’s Pasadena studio, where he ran a fellow’s program at Fuller Theological Seminary’s Brehm|Fujimura Studio. One of the students, Mercy, became involved in one of the capstone projects for creative expression, but she did not have a particular affinity in the arts. A colleague at the center found out that she was an avid gardener and suggested that she do her thesis project with a garden as her creative expression. Within months, the “wasteland” of space in the front of the studio turned into an oasis of growth and rejuvenation. Fujimura remembers, “I once came into the studio, and I noticed that now hummingbirds, who used to just come and go after feeding on the nectar I provided, now would stay, with several of them dashing about in and out of the new garden. When I told Mercy this, she said, ‘Did you know that hummingbirds can see colors that we can’t? The reason they are staying in the garden is because the plants are exuding colors.’” https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5664bf45e4b0f65463f659cb/t/5f2c68779befb7221514e6a7/1596745855041/MakotoFujimura_Mercy%27sGarden%282019%29.pdf
About the Artist:
Makoto Fujimura (b. 1960) is a leading contemporary artist whose process-driven, refractive “slow art” has been described by David Brooks of The New York Times as “a small rebellion against the quickening of time.” Fujimura is also an arts advocate, writer, and speaker who is recognized worldwide as a cultural influencer. Fujimura's paintings are a combination of the traditional Japanese painting style known as Nihonga and abstract expressionism. A presidential appointee to the National Council on the Arts from 2003 to 2009, Fujimura served as an international advocate for the arts, speaking with decision-makers and advising governmental policies on the arts. Fujimura's journey of faith is recounted in his book Silence and Beauty. When he was in Japan studying traditional methods in Japanese art, Fujimura was searching for deeper meaning and purpose in life. It was not until he read the poems of William Blake that he found new meaning in Christianity and began his journey of faith in Christ. His books Refractions, Culture Care and Art & Faith: A Theology of Making reflect many of his views on arts advocacy, creativity, and faith. Fujimura founded the International Arts Movement (IAM) in 1992 and IAMCultureCare in 2011, which oversees the Fujimura Institute. In 2011, Fujimura launched the Four Qu4rtets project, a collaboration between painter Bruce Herman, Duke theologian/pianist Jeremy Begbie, and Yale composer Christopher Theofanidis, based on T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets. He is a recipient of four doctor of arts honorary degrees from Belhaven University in 2011, Biola University in 2012, Cairn University in 2014, and Roanoke College in February 2015. Fujimura’s art has been featured widely in galleries and museums around the world, and is found in collections including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo; the Huntington Library in San Marino, California; as well as Tikotin Museum in Israel.
https://www.makotofujimura.com/
About the Music:
“Amazing Grace” from the album Amazing Grace
The official audio of "Amazing Grace" by Aretha Franklin with James Cleveland and The Southern California Community Choir from the album Amazing Grace (1972). Amazing Grace earned Franklin a Grammy Award in 1973 for Best Soul Gospel Performance and remains the best-selling gospel album of all time.
Lyrics:
Amazing grace how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now.
I'm found was blind but now I see.
'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved.
How precious did that grace appear,
The hour I first believed.
Through many dangers, toils, and snares,
I have already come.
This grace that brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.
When we've been here ten thousand years,
Bright, shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise,
Than when we first begun.
Amazing grace how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now I'm found,
Was blind but now I see.
About the Composer:
John Newton (1725–1807) was an English evangelical Anglican cleric and slavery abolitionist. He had previously been a captain of slave ships and an investor in the slave trade. He served as a sailor in the Royal Navy and was himself enslaved for a time in West Africa. He is noted for being the author of the hymns “Amazing Grace” and “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken.” Newton went to sea at a young age and worked on slave ships in the slave trade for several years. In 1745, he himself became a slave of Princess Peye, a woman of the Sherbro people in what is now Sierra Leone. He was rescued, and returned to sea and the trade, becoming captain of several slave ships. After retiring from active seafaring, he continued to invest in the slave trade. Some years after experiencing a conversion to Christianity, Newton renounced his slave trade activities and became a prominent supporter of abolitionism. He was ordained as a Church of England cleric and served as parish priest at Olney, Buckinghamshire, for two decades and wrote a number of hymns. Newton lived to see the British Empire's abolition of the African slave trade in 1807, just months before his death.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Newton
About the Performers:
Aretha Louise Franklin (1942–2018) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Referred to as the "Queen of Soul," Franklin began singing gospel as a child at New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan, where her father was a minister. At the age of eighteen, she embarked on a music career as a recording artist for Columbia Records. While her career did not immediately flourish, she found acclaim and commercial success once she signed with Atlantic Records in 1966. Her commercial hits such as "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You),” "Respect,” "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” "Chain of Fools,” "Think," and "I Say a Little Prayer" propelled her into stardom. Franklin recorded one hundred twelve charted singles on Billboard, seventeen top-ten pop singles, one hundred R&B entries, and twenty number-one R&B singles. She won eighteen Grammy Awards, including the first eight awards given for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance (1968–1975) and a Grammy Awards Living Legend honor and Lifetime Achievement Award. Franklin received numerous honors throughout her career, including the National Medal of Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1987, she became the first female performer to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and she was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2012. In 2010, Rolling Stone magazine ranked her number one on its list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time'' and number nine on its list of "100 Greatest Artists of All Time.”
https://www.arethafranklin.net/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aretha_Franklin
About the Poetry and Poet:
Orlando Ricardo Menes (b. 1958) is a Cuban-American poet, short story writer, translator, editor, and professor. Born in Lima, Peru, to Cuban parents, Menes immigrated to the United States at the age of ten after a leftist coup d'etat forced his family out of Peru. Menes earned a B.A. and a M.A. from the University of Florida and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He currently teaches in the creative writing program at the University of Notre Dame. Menes is the author of seven poetry collections, apart from anthologies and numerous translations of Latin American poetry, and his work has appeared in many publications, including Poetry, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, Hudson Review, Yale Review, Harvard Review, Indiana Review, Colorado Review, and Green Mountains Review. In his poems, Menes explores themes of identity, family, faith, and sustenance. Menes is the recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlando_Ricardo_Menes
https://www.orlandoricardomenes.com/
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/orlando-ricardo-menes
About the Devotion Writer:
Amie Cross, M.Div.
Alumna of Torrey Honors College
Biola University
Chaplain and Missionary
Amie Cross completed her undergraduate studies at Biola as a part of the Torrey Honors College Society cohort. She received her M.Div. in Community Chaplaincy from Liberty University and finds joy in holding hard stories with her eyes raised. For ten years, she has lived in East Africa, where she lives and serves with her husband and five children. She currently serves as the elementary school chaplain for an international school and as a crisis response chaplain for global workers. Watching God bring comfort and helping carry the burdens of others while awaiting his redemption brings her joy.