It’s a political term to be sure. And haven’t we heard it ad nauseum over the last 18 months? Republicans attempting to stay “on message.” Democrats resolving to swing the party back “on message.” The phrase carries the idea of the central theme, the big points, the idea we exist to promote.
Avoid rabbit trails. Anchor to core values. Relentlessly promote unique ideas. Stay on message.
This morning–post-election morning–I’m wondering how we Christians are doing when it comes to staying on message? That question begs a prior one. What is our message? To ask the pundit on the internet, the Christian message is “pro-life, traditional marriage; more red than blue, more conservative than liberal.”
But is this our core message? Paddle upstream to the earliest framers of the Christian message. The story the first disciples were dying to tell was this: the grace of Jesus Christ.
[blockquote]“Though we were spiritually dead because of the things we did against God, he gave us new life with Christ. You have been saved by God’s grace….you have been saved by grace through believing. You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God…. In Christ Jesus, God made us to do good works, which God planned in advance for us to live our lives doing.” (Ephesians 2:5-10 NCV)[/blockquote]
Behold the fruit of grace: raised by God, saved by God, seated with God. Gifted, equipped and commissioned. Grace is the word God uses to describe his radical commitment to redeem and restore to himself a people with whom he will reign forever. Grace changes everything! We are spiritually alive. Heavenly positioned. Connected to God. A billboard of mercy. An honored child. This is the “aggressive forgiveness called grace” (Rom. 5:20 MSG).
Grace declares that God knew what he was doing when he made you and is dead serious about saving you for something out of this world. Grace goes where no government can. Grace speaks to the core questions: why are we here? Where are we headed? Does anyone care? Grace gets to the bottom of this thing called life.
Grace. This is the big message of the Christian hope, the unique idea we bring to the social conversation. Let’s major in this story. Let’s unleash our clearest thoughts on this question: How can we best articulate the greatest announcement in history? “And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” (John 1:16 ESV)
Let’s champion the cause of the pre-born. Let’s hold to deep-seated convictions about family and the practice of faith. But let’s begin and end with the highest of all hopes: “The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.” (Titus 2:11)
© 2012 Max Lucado
