From Degraced to Regraced: A Trek Worth Taking

At some point in life, you have been “degraced.” This may seem like a bold statement, but since “degraced” is my word (I invented it) you can’t be too sure, can you?

In simplest terms, if you have placed your trust in Jesus to save you and bring you into relationship with God, but then have come to believe that somehow you can affect your relationship with God by what you do or do not do, you have been “degraced.”

You may have been “degraced” in your personal study or observation by misunderstanding God’s Word. You may have been “degraced” by preaching or teaching or by your upbringing. You may have been “degraced” simply because it tends to be our default understanding: that there must be some way that we can affect that relationship, either positively or negatively. 

However you got here, this is the truth: if you have trusted Jesus to save you from your sin, then your relationship with God can be affected by one thing and one thing only and that is the person of Jesus Christ. Once He saved you, He affected your relationship with God, once for all time, by His sinless death on the cross on your behalf. The Father accepted you right then as if He were accepting Jesus, His own Son and that fact will never change (Hebrews 10:10, 17-22).

Preachers throughout the land will agree wholeheartedly with that paragraph. But then, for various reasons, something happens along the way in different sermons, lessons and coffee shop discussions. We preachers begin to “degrace” Joe Pewsitter on a regular basis by either explicitly or implicitly engaging in the pulpiteering of behavior modification. The result is that Joe walks out of church pondering how he can do better at making God happy rather than pondering how incredible that same God is. And so, Joe becomes “degraced.”

The main reason for writing this blog is that the church—in fact, the world around us—is full of people who have been “degraced” in one way or another and may not even know it. My passion is to show this “degracing” for what it is and convince you of the truth of the gospel of grace so that you might be “regraced” and live in the freedom for which you have been set free (“It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1).

In the fall of 2007, my beautiful wife and I were staying at our favorite cabin getaway on Silver Lake at the foot of Mount Baker in Washington state. One day we decided to get in the truck and find a place along the Nooksack River to enjoy lunch. It was a sunny but not-too-warm October day, perfect for going up the mountain a ways. We found an idyllic spot out on the flood plain, enjoyed our lunch together and returned to the truck, ready to head back to the cabin.

Rather than return the way we came, I decided to continue on the same gravel road, thinking it would eventually rejoin the main road. A sudden turn to the right—toward the river—quickly proved that theory incorrect as we then found ourselves on a one-lane bridge crossing the river. At the end of the bridge, just before the road took another hard right and then started up the mountainside, there was a sign that read: “This road not maintained for public travel.”

The short version is that this same road became bumpy, steep and rocky, switching back frequently as it climbed the mountain, so much so that I had to put the truck into 4-wheel drive. The road narrowed and we were soon looking for a place at which we could safely turn around. When there was an incredibly steep drop to our left, there was an equally steep incline on our right, and vice versa.

After a few more sharp turns and a couple hundred feet in elevation, the turn-around point nearly escaped our notice. As we wrapped around the cliff face to our right, my faithful truck scratched and clawed at the would-be road until I had no choice but to stop pushing forward and right before us across the deep, tree-filled canyon below and to our left, Mount Baker arrested our attention, commanding the entire moment.

The sun shone on her, detailing bluish snow that capped multiple rock formations all across her slopes. From that vantage point, her immensity was overwhelming, her sheer beauty beyond description. In that moment, on that precarious and rocky trail looking out our now dirty windows, we saw that mountain like we never would have been able to see her from down below while driving along some paved and orderly highway on an ordinary day.

“Not maintained for public travel” indeed. And those who would never brave such a road would be deprived of a view of the mountain that they could only see in a picture, never to experience her like we did that day. We marveled at the moment, took some pictures (which simply did not do it justice) and found our turning point. After making a six-point turn we were heading back down the trail from whence we had come.

I didn’t realize the parallel until later but our little getaway to this cabin was actually a temporary getaway from a life that, while once idyllic like our lunch spot on the river, had come apart at the seams. I had suffered a terrible ministry catastrophe that resulted in the split of a growing church and Heidi had found herself in what would turn out to be almost 12 years of a deep, dark depression.

Someone had taken us across a river and put us on this proverbial road that had no warning signs but it was every bit as precarious. We had no clue where it was leading us and we could not turn around anywhere.

But, praise God, somewhere in that 12 years in the wilderness, we suddenly caught a glimpse of something so wonderful, it defies description. God, in His incredible wisdom, brought us through that miserable wilderness so that we could see His grace like we had never seen it before.

It arrested our attention and commands our everyday still. Its immensity was overwhelming, its beauty beyond description. Through gut-wrenching heartache and wrestling with God, we were able to see firsthand what we had, as I now know, only given lip-service.

Had we not crossed that bridge, we never would have seen it. I would probably still be giving it lip-service today otherwise.

You may not have crossed that bridge quite yet or you may be halfway up that mountain already. But you need grace. Rather, you need to see it for what it really is. You need to get up there and see, up close and personal, what you have only seen partially or from a great distance while driving down the freeway of life.

This is not a blog on grace, per se. Rather, it is a blog on being deprived of the grace of God, and mostly about travelling the road to being “regraced.” With every switchback on that road, I discovered place after place in my theology where I needed to reevaluate and then rediscover this incredible thing we call grace and more importantly, the God who offers it so freely.

On this road to being “regraced,” there are obstacles at every turn that require our attention such as the fallacy of relational forgiveness (based on a misunderstanding of 1 John 1:9), the working out of our salvation (found in Philippians 2:12), that my lack of good works show that I am not saved (James 2), and on and on it goes.

These issues are only obstacles because they are misunderstood and incorrectly taught, the result of which is “degracing.” These issues seem to collect and contribute to a mood or culture that is oppressive and suffocating, causing Christians to fall from grace (Galatians 5:4) or to come short of it (Hebrews 12:15).

Are you ready to break free from that and to learn to live in the freedom for which you have been set free (Galatians 5:1)? Then stay with me. Travel this road with me. I will be your guide. Once you have seen that mountain we call grace, and then you hear the true, unadulterated gospel of grace, your spine will tingle and your heart will quicken every time.

It’ll happen when you hear a sermon that drips with grace. It’ll happen when you see a post on social media that nails it. It’ll happen when you discuss it with friends in the wee hours of the morning and just can’t stop. It’ll happen every time you see that mountain.

And it’ll happen when we finally see Him face to face. Oh, what a day that will be!