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Do you know about PJS?
And I’m not talking about the nighttime clothes you wear to bed. PJS is a simple acronym to describe how John Wesley understood the grace of God. The letters, P, J, and S, stand for prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying grace. It may sound like Wesley believed in three different types of grace, but it might be better to think of them as STAGES of grace instead of different types. We move through the grace of God draw closer to him in that order – P, J, S – prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying grace.
But what is “grace?”
If you have a Bible or a Bible app please find Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, chapter 2, beginning with verse 1. Ephesians 2:1. We talk about grace all the time and in so many ways I think we sometimes lose sight of what it means. Put simply, grace is the unmerited, undeserved gift of God that moves us toward Him. God continually acts in the world to draw us closer not because of anything we said or did but just because he loves us and wants to be part of our lives. Paul talked about it in his letter to the church in Ephesus that we’ll read together this morning.
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Paul wants us to know we all need the grace of God.
Without it as Paul noted, we’re dead, meaning there is no future for us beyond this earth. Only because of God’s grace, because of his gift to humanity, we have a chance for a better, eternal life. By nature, we are disobedient people who follow our own wants and desires instead of listening to God. As Paul put it, we are often more concerned with “gratifying the cravings of the flesh” than drawing closer to God. Have you ever skipped church because you wanted to sleep in? Have there been times you told yourself you “deserve” a break from church as if church is a chore? Or you skipped taking time to give thanks to God? Or you didn’t feel like saying a prayer even when you needed it? We all make excuses for not doing what we know is good for us because there is something else we WANT to do more. We’d stay that way, too if it wasn’t for the fact that God keeps reaching out to us over and over and over again. At each point in our lives, God is there. And for us who consider ourselves followers of Christ, it was because of God’s efforts we finally understand how much we need him.
God is working in our lives 24/7, constantly reaching out to us.
Like Disneyland, God never closes. Did you know that when Disneyland closes its doors to the public there are always people working in the background? They have electricians who walk the park replacing lightbulbs, painters who touch up areas that get worn down, custodians who power wash all the streets so they are fresh and clean when the doors open the next day. God is like that. Even when you can’t see him, he’s working in the background, putting in the time so when you’re ready you can see all that he has done to prepare for you. That’s what Wesley called prevenient grace. Prevenient grace is the grace that comes before we know we need God. For me, the clearest example of prevenient grace came from my mom. It was when I was about eight years old and my grandmother passed away. She was the one who gave me those sugar cookies with the cherry on top. When she passed away, I had no idea what death was about. Nobody that close to me had ever died before, and so when she did, I asked my mom what happened and I’ve never forgotten her response. She said, “I believe she is in Heaven with God.” This might not seem all that remarkable to you if you grew up knowing about God and Heaven and living in a Christian home, but we were none of those things. We were nominally Buddhist at best. So, what in the world would have prompted my mom to say that to me, to frame death as something heavenly? I even asked her about it once and she said she didn’t know, but as I came to understand God better, I realized it was God’s prevenient grace. It was the moment I needed to jumpstart my thinking toward God. From that point on, I can point to different friends, family, and other people right up to Cassie who kept prompting me into a closer relationship with God. God didn’t come and give them some sort of playbook. He didn’t coordinate some massive campaign to turn me into a believer. It was his constant work in my life that finally got my eyes to see and ears to hear. And it was at that moment God’s justifying grace kicked in.
To Wesley, justifying grace is the grace of forgiveness God gives when we realize we are lost.
It’s that brief moment when our hearts and minds finally turn to God. Justify means “to make right,” and in our faith it means to bring us back into alignment with God. For some it comes much earlier than others. If you have a hard head like me, it takes a few decades. But when you finally come around, God covers up your sins and forgets about them. It’s a misconception to say God erases the sins of our past. What’s done is done, and God doesn’t have memory impairment. Instead, God CHOOSES not to see them. It’s like he puts a blanket over them and just pretends they aren’t there. It’s sort of like when your mom or dad told you to clean up your room before going to get ice cream or something. You wanted that ice cream BAD, so you shoved everything in your closet or under your bed so you could go. Your room LOOKED clean, but you weren’t fooling anyone, least of all your parents who probably did the same thing at one time. But they chose to ignore the mess and take you out anyway, and that’s what God does. That’s why it’s called grace. God CHOOSES not to see the mess we’ve made and instead accepts us back. And once we’ve turned to God, his sanctifying grace moves us forward.
Sanctifying grace is the ongoing grace of God that moves us toward Christian perfection.
Wesley thought it was possible for human beings to achieve spiritual perfection in THIS lifetime. Most of us will never achieve it, but he did think it was possible. Not that we would forever BE perfect, but that if we kept moving in that direction, we could, for a moment or for small moments at a time, we could experience it if even for the briefest amount of time. He defined perfection as having 100% focus on God. That wasn’t a punishment. It was being in the peace of Christ and knowing you were aligned with God’s will. Wesley himself only thought he achieved this milestone at the end of his life. This was a man who would get up at four in the morning and pray for three hours straight before devoting the rest of his day to God. Needless to say, this idea of Christian perfection is not easy. God’s sanctifying grace is what makes this even possible. God’s presence, God’s inspiration, God’s forgiveness, God’s mercy – all of these are what makes the goal of spiritual perfection possible. But Wesley also felt we could backslide, meaning we could fall from grace. Not that God would remove us but that we would choose to remove ourselves. Either by our pride or stubbornness or greed or other human trait, we could go back to being the way we were before we accepted God in our lives. So let us stay vigilant and that means attending to the means of grace – worship, prayer, study, thinking of others, doing what is right instead of what is easy.
For now, I hope you will practice grace in your own lives.
Like God has shown grace to us, we should show grace to others, or we might end up being like the Sheriff of the Internet.[1] Ben Edelman is an associate professor at Harvard Business School. He’s also a lawyer, an $800/hour consultant, and known as the “Sheriff of the Internet for pursuing companies he believes have committed online fraud.”[2] He ordered $53.35 worth of food from Sichuan Gardens, a small locally owned Chinese restaurant, including Shredded Chicken with Spicy Garlic Sauce and Braised Fish Filets and Napa Cabbage with Roasted Chilis.[3] Sounds yummy right? Turns out he was overcharged by $4 so the Sheriff of the Internet took it upon himself to right this most grievous of wrongs and threatened legal action against the restaurant as well as demanding $12 be refunded to him according to “Massachusetts Protection Statute, MGL93a.”[4] This professor of the Harvard Business School decided it was worth the time, effort, expense, and energy to hassle a restaurant over $4 which they offered to refund right away. He notified the authorities, he sent long email after long exhausting email, and made a monumental mountain out of a molehill. The story broke on social media and soon people were coming from all over to eat at Sichuan Gardens to support the owner and blast the Sheriff. A campaign even got started to donate $4 to the Boston Food Bank. Eventually the Sheriff of the Internet relented and issued his own apology. But all of this could have been avoided had Ben at any point in time decided that grace was better than justice. It was obvious this was not malfeasance but instead a small and simple mistake by a local guy just trying to earn a living. Had he offered forgiveness, mercy, or empathy to the owner of Sichuan Gardens, all would have been solved. Besides, he even admitted the food was delicious.
Don’t be the sheriff.
Be filled with grace as God made you and show that grace to those around you. To your spouse. To your kids. To your friends. Even to the stranger who just can’t seem to operate the self-checkout line. Show grace in the form of love, mercy, kindness, and forgiveness just as God has done for you. Perhaps you will be an inspiration to someone else. Perhaps your actions will lead others to act with more grace as well. And perhaps, just perhaps, we’ll make this world a better place to live. Just remember, God’s grace has, is, and always will be available to you 24/7.
[1] http://www.npr.org/2014/12/13/370347429/outrage-over-chinese-takeout-brings-to-mind-a-maxim
[2] Ibid.
[3] http://www.boston.com/food-dining/restaurants/2014/12/09/harvard-business-school-professor-goes-war-over-worth-chinese-food/KfMaEhab6uUY1COCnTbrXP/story.html
[4] Op Cit, npr.org
Craig's Corner 