Grace, and a Child of God
Usually at funerals you hear eulogies that speak of all the
things a person did in their life, their likes and their dislikes, and funny
stories about them. As I was considering
what to share about my mom, I started thinking about the word ‘identity.’ What
gives a person their identity? Their actions? Their words? Their interests?
Their education? Their DNA? Their career?
I would like to suggest that our identity is MORE that all these things,
for when we pass away, all these things are left behind. So, what makes us who
we are? What gives us our true identity?
For my mom, I know she found her identity - her true identity - in one
thing – she was created by God and was His
own. She was a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
Mom loved to sew, to cook, to read. She was fanatical about
keeping the kitchen clean. She loved gardening and watching birds. She was a
wife, mother, grandmother, and aunt – but she was more than all of those
things. One of the most memorable days
of my life was August 1, 2000. On that
day I listened to my mom stand up and share her story before she was baptized.
She was 72 years old, and she wanted to declare before the whole world her
identity – that she had chosen to follow Jesus, that she was buried and
resurrected with Him in baptism. If you
knew my mom well, you know she was terrified of water. She was so afraid of drowning. When we were
kids and we would go to Canada every summer, she would make us wear these ski
belts 24-7 because she was sure we would fall in the lake and drown until we
learned to swim (we hated those things!). But yet, here she was, at the age of 72,
willingly being baptized by immersion. Why? Why would she choose to do that
when she had already been baptized and confirmed in the Catholic Church? I think I can say with confidence that Mom
chose to do this because she finally understood GRACE. It’s a concept most people, including many of
us raised Catholic, do not understand. I
confess, that as a child I never understood the words to the hymn “Amazing
Grace.” What is this grace that Mom
discovered? The simplest definition is
“gift.” Sometimes it is defined as
“unmerited favor.” In other words, it is
getting something YOU DO NOT DESERVE. It is getting something YOU DID NOT
EARN.
You see, in Mom’s testimony, she told how she never felt
good enough, that God could not possibly love or accept her, like she never fit
in – even in a family of 10 children she felt alone and unwanted. As an adult, those feelings continued –
especially when we moved to Euclid from Akron.
There she felt like she could never be good enough, like she would never
fit into her new home and community. But then, she learned about grace – God’s
gift of His love, His forgiveness, His mercy, His desire for her – and God’s gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ. She learned that God loved her so much, He was willing to
become man, live a perfect life, and die on the Cross and rise from the dead for her. We sing a song in our chapel at Bethel
College, and part of it says, “There is a love forgetting my failures, there is
a hope that’s setting me free.” Mom
found that love, that hope. She knew that through Jesus she was forgiven – that
all of her failures were forgotten, that all of her mistakes were erased by
Jesus’ blood. She finally realized that
GRACE is a GIFT. There was NO TEST TO
PASS, NO GRADE TO EARN. All of her F’s
in life were turned into A’s. A’s of
acceptance, approval, adoption, amazement, and adoration.
Mom was not perfect, and she would not want me to stand here
and say she was. She had learned humility.
She knew she wasn’t always the best wife, mother, grandmother, or
daughter – and she regretted those things.
In her final years, she was trying to become more like Jesus - she
desperately wanted to be like Him. But, with all of her failures, she now found
joy, hope, and peace. Her F’s were
turned into A’s. She knew she was
ACCEPTED by God just as she was – He would NEVER reject her. She was APPROVED
by Him. She knew the Christian life was not about being good, about following
rules, about winning God’s approval – she knew she was approved not because of her good works, but because of Jesus’ sacrifice.
She also knew she was ADOPTED by God. We are all spiritual orphans, but through
trust in Christ, God gives us the right to be called His children. In Romans 8:15-17, it says this, “For you did
not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the
Spirit of Adoption, and by Him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit testifies with our spirit that we
are God’s children. Now if we are God’s children, then we are also heirs –
heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in
order that we may also share in His glory.”
In the Roman world, people did not adopt babies and children
like we do now – they adopted adults so that they could have someone carry on
their family name and receive their inheritance. In other words, what Paul is
saying here is that my mom was adopted by God the Father and received a new
identity in Christ. She became a member of His family with all the rights and
privileges of a natural born son. The laws regarding adoption in Rome also gave
the person such a new identity that they had all of their former debts
forgiven. They literally were a new
person with a new identity.
For those adopted by God, this means we, too, have a new
identity - we are His children and
co-heirs with Christ. We receive the
same inheritance as Jesus and all of our sins are forgiven. So, as someone who was accepted, approved,
and adopted by God, Mom could be nothing less than AMAZED at His grace, His
love, and His forgiveness. This
amazement also led to ADORATION. She
loved to worship Jesus. She wasn’t
perfect, she made many mistakes, but through Christ she finally knew she
BELONGED, that she was LOVED, that she was FORGIVEN, that she was being made
NEW.
A few years ago I was at a conference when a speaker asked
us to spend 5 minutes in silence and contemplation. During that time God gave me a vision of
Jesus standing and holding my 80-year old mother. Her back was to me, and He was looking at me,
and the look in His eyes was FIERCE. He
was holding her tightly and his eyes said, “She is MINE. I AM jealous
for her. I always protect my own.” I
told Mom about this vision, and she cried and thanked me. It was assurance for her that she was HIS OWN. Her identity is this: She was God’s, His
child. Now she is with Him for eternity, worshipping the Savior she so
loved. We are going to listen to a song
that Mom loved. I used to watch her close her eyes and raise her hands over her
head when she sang this song. She was AMAZED by God’s Love. He was her King,
and she adored Him.
My hope and prayer is that we will learn from my mom’s life
that WE ARE LOVED. There is NO TEST TO
PASS. We are FORGIVEN, ACCEPTED, and APPROVED by Him. Through Christ, God adopts us and makes us
His own. May Mom’s life be a reminder to
us that our identity is more that our interests, our actions, and our
labels. Our identity stays with us for eternity. From before time God whispers to us, “I love you. You are My own. You are My
Beloved.”
Heaven is not full of ‘perfect’ people.
It is full of prostitutes, drug addicts, alcoholics, tax collectors, and
other imperfect people. But they all have one thing in common: they believed and trusted in Christ’s
sacrifice for them, and they exchanged their old identity for the Spirit of
Adoption. They are His, and they share in His glory. Mom is now with them, rejoicing forever.
In 1 Corinthians 13 we are given a depiction of God’s
eternal love – of how HE loves US. It is
an exhortation by Paul to his people to be people of LOVE. It is familiar to many: “Love is patient,
love is kind, it is not rude, it does not boast. It always trusts, hopes,
perseveres. It never fails.” Paul tells us that one day we will be
perfect, but for now we see through a glass darkly. I used to tell Mom that my
great hope of heaven was not mansions or streets of gold, or even the River of
Life, but rather, my great hope of heaven is that there we will be perfect – we
will have perfect love and perfect relationships. We will KNOW as
we are known. I look forward to the day
I will be with Mom and other loved ones in heaven where we will love one
another perfectly and forever.
