07/18/2022
By Pastor Vinnie Cappetta
"Great Grace… I don’t really believe in it."
Why don’t I believe in great grace? Well, its embarrassing to say it, but I’d rather pretend that everything is okay even when it isn’t. I’d rather try to deal with my own sin by myself than let another extend God’s great grace to me.
But there is another way. As Bonhoeffer points out, our Christian friend “stands in Christ’s place… Other Christians stand before us as the sign of God's truth and grace. They have been given to us to help us. Another Christian hears our confession of sin in Christ's place, forgives our sins in Christ's name. Another Christian keeps the secret of our confession as God keeps it. When I go to another believer to confess, I am going to God. Thus the call within the Christian community to mutual confession and forgiveness goes out as a call to the great grace of God in the congregation.”
Great grace. I wish I believed it more. I wish I would receive it more. I wish it could help me be less awkward when I do confess my sin to my Christian friends. I wish I could take encouragement from it. I wish I would not hold back as often as I do.
What irony that the only man who never sinned is the only One who can make these wishes a reality.
But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” James 4:6
