Give People Time To Get Grace

Most believers have never heard the full message of the gospel of grace.

They have never heard they are fully forgiven of all sins for all time, and, therefore, can enjoy eternal fellowship with God.

They have heard they must confess their sins daily to be forgiven and remain in fellowship with God.

Full forgiveness of sins and forever fellowship with God are truths of grace they have never heard.

And there are many more biblical truths of grace they have never heard.

They have never heard the new testament is about the blood of Jesus poured out for the forgiveness of their sins.

Instead, they have heard the new testament is twenty-seven books of the Bible.

They have never heard they are not under law but under grace.

They have never heard the Ten Commandments produce death.

There are many other biblical truths they have been taught about incorrectly.

It is important when we communicate the truths of grace to believers that we give them time to get grace.

It is also important we communicate the truths of grace in a graceful way…humbly, patiently, gently, and kindly.

By giving them time to get grace and by communicating grace gracefully, their hearts will be more open to listening to others teach on grace and learning from others about grace.

But if we come across arrogantly and angry, they will refuse to listen to us and others and will reject the message.

To demonstrate this, here is an example I use often.

If we were taught in school 1 + 1 = 11, this would be correct to us…it would feel right because this is what we were taught from an early age.

However, years later, if someone taught us 1 + 1 is 2, this would seem incorrect to us, and it would not feel right because we were never taught this.

If the person teaching us was arrogant and angry when telling us that 1 + 1 is 2 and not 11, we would refuse to listen to that person and reject the correct math calculation.

Yet if someone else communicating the correct math calculation to us did so in a graceful way and gave us time to process and study it, then possibly, we would come to embrace the correct calculation: 1 + 1 really is 2.

It is the same with the gospel of grace.

By understanding that what people are hearing from us about grace sounds incorrect and feels incorrect, we will be prepared to communicate gracefully.

We must communicate the gospel of grace gracefully, humbly, gently, patiently, and kindly, giving people time to process and study it.

We must give them freedom to ask questions without being frustrated by their questions.

We must clearly and biblically answer their questions without being irritated or offended by their questions.

Questions are a part of the process.

Additionally, we must reduce our passion when sharing the gospel of grace.

Many times our passion comes across as pride…people are turned off by and turn away from prideful communicators.

It is important that we stay clam and slow down in our communication of the gospel.

Also, it is important that we do not unload the whole message of grace on someone in our first conversation.

Instead, give them parts of the gospel…give them the freedom to initially reject it…give them time to think about it and study it.

Then, possibly, eventually, they may embrace the biblical message of grace.

If they reject it, it will not be because of our attitude toward them; rather, it will be because they thoroughly studied it in scripture, yet came to a different conclusion then we did.

At this point, still show grace to this person, understanding that everyone does not have to agree with us.

So let’s present the gospel of grace gracefully, then give people time to learn more about it.

Verses to check out about this are Colossians 4:5-6 and 2 Timothy 2:23-26.