It's me, mike hillebrecht

This is the tag line to every late night infomercial. There is a formula that can be followed by anyone wanting to sell a completely senseless product to those insomniacs who troll the television networks. Pitch the product; give a series of outstanding testimonies; prepare the viewer to hear the price; pitch more of the product with testimonies following; then ask the viewer what they think it would cost to receive this outstanding product. Reduce the expected price three times and then show them the final cost broken down into four equal payments. Once you got their interest, hit them with the tag line, “But wait, there’s more!” Now you can unload all the add-on products that they might never have thought they needed to make their purchase truly a thing of beauty.

Do advertisers really think we’re that naive? Do they truly believe we can’t see beyond all the hyperbole, all the extravagance of video hype which goes into these infomercials so that the “more” is really that important to us? Apparently, someone is calling right now to one of those operators who are standing by even as we speak, ordering this next great wonder, so I guess that their job is considered a success.

How, you might be asking yourself, does this entire monologue have anything to do with the gospel of grace. Really it is quite simple if you understand Greek. Well, not really the language as much as the customs. You see back in the day when Greek conquest was all the rage in the known world, the term we know as “gospel” had the equivalent meaning as our infomercial do of today. Yes, the term does mean good news, however, in the social discourse of the time, everyone knew it to be the news that was too good to be true. Because of this understanding, it was a term which wasn’t employed a lot. Everyone knew it was hyperbole and exaggeration when the term “gospel” came into use.

So consider this as the backdrop to Paul’s message to the Gentiles. Here is this scholarly Jewish rabbi, one of God’s chosen people, telling the “heathen” that God not only wants a relationship with them too, but He has gone out of His way to see to it that they receive all the benefits of blessing, healing, cleansing, power and authority which come from this relationship. No this isn’t just some quaint little Sunday – excuse me – Saturday sermon with two quick points followed by a couple of songs. This is crazy good, I mean extravagantly acceptable; you know, over the top, blow-your-mind-kinda good! In a word: Gospel.

Paul would deliver his message and people, not religious people, but real desperate people would hang on every word he spoke. “How can this be so good?” would float through their mind. Then Paul would pause for a moment and hit them right between the eyes with, “…but wait, there’s more!” This would cause them to reel with anticipation at the next amazing benefit that grace has supplied to them. On and on he would regale them with this eternal love story until they were so full of the love themselves that they willingly offered the only acceptable response Paul wanted.

“What does it cost me to have this…this…whatever you have?” Paul would look at them with a deep penetrating gaze, nostrils flaring and bellow, “Price! The price has already been paid! It’s a gift. This is God’s gift to you! You don’t have enough money or influence to purchase this valuable gift. All you have to do is believe and receive what Christ did for you, for all of us.”

Outrageous! Outlandish! Wild foolishness! Those are some of the statements of faith from those who never “bought in” to Paul’s infomercial of grace. Did that deter him? Not one bit, because he knew that the next day would bring a whole new group of people who didn’t know what God had done for them. He just wasn’t some pocket fisherman. He was determined, like a good fisherman, to cast his net as broad and far as he possibly could. And the story he told may have seemed, like all good fish stories, to be a bit of an exaggeration. Yet is was his “gospel” that reeled them in.

So how is your Gospel of God’s grace? Does it invoke statements as piercing as Paul’s detractors? Can you deliver it with “…but wait, there’s more!” authority? Does your congregation, whether it be one or thousands, often respond, “…That’s just too good to be true!” Wouldn’t it be grand to have such infectious people surrounding our communities and barraging us with such…such…good news? It might even cause a person to give up late-night television! Nay, that is just too extreme!

You vs me. Us vs them. Competition is all the rage across the globe. It is fashionable to support your team, your company, your school, your community, your church, your country, your way of dressing and a whole host of other choices that are designed to separate you from someone else. Yet despite all that we attempt to huddle around for our own particular distinction, we are all equal according to the gift of grace.

Paul tells the Ephesians, a Gentile church of believers, that Christ, through the cross, broke down the wall of separation which kept Jews and Gentile from mingling in the Temple during worship, in order to create one new man through His sacrifice. Paul also tells the Galatians, Romans, and Colossian people, all who are Gentile believers, that there is no difference in them and the Jews, between slaves or free men for Christ is in all of them.

We all are familiar with the claims of John 3:16, “For God so loved the world…” The world was God’s concern, but Christ reconciled all of it back to God. Reconcile is an accounting term meaning to balance a matter to equal value. This stresses out a lot of people who live in the mentality of you vs me. From their perspective, there is a difference, or a value, that makes one of us superior to the other. However, the price of Christ, the measure of the grace given to each one of us through Him, has made us all equal in the eyes of Father.

Now I need to stress something here. All. What does that word mean to you? If your answer goes something like this, “Everyone but…” then you have a faulty understanding of All. To fix your understanding, you just have to get your “but” out of the way. That “but” has been the cause of more wars than anything else in all of the human endeavor. It was at the Garden when the serpent enticed the woman. “But” creates difference when there isn’t one present except in the mind of the “but-er.”

The critical matter here is that any renewing our mind has to take about the kingdom of God operating in our lives must first happen with our thoughts of equality. Jesus prayed that we would be one as He and the Father are one. This is equality. We are one with them too through the grace given to us. Yes, there is the question of who received more grace, however, what doe that matter? Are you jealous that someone got more than you, or happy that you got more that your neighbor? Pretty foolish thinking, isn’t that?

Grace, however much we each needed, amply abounded beyond any measure of sin that infected our lives. It made us all, you and me, them and us, believer and yes, unbeliever, all equal 2,000 years ago. Today we’re just as equal as we were then. Grace has not diminished at all.

So while you cheer on your team as the better, more worthy example of the contest, remember that God is cheering on His team too. They, you and I, are the worthiest of all through the gift of grace He has given us.

When was the last time that you were jealous because your neighbor watched television or mowed his yard? Or how about the last time that your coworker drove to work? Or perhaps the last time that our spouse washed clothes?
All of those things are pretty ridiculous reasons to be jealous I’ll admit. Being jealous means that you see something that someone else has and you feel that desire to have the same thing. It’s not a small desire but a burning passion that can cause you to even become highly enraged in certain instances. Take a moment to remember a moment you were jealous of someone and what it was that you so adamantly desired to have. Feel the passion once again rise within you at just the mere thought of this. Jealousy if pretty powerful.

The Apostle Paul writes in chapters 9 thru 11 of the book of Romans about his earnest desire to see his family members of the household of Israel to see the truth of what God has done through Jesus Christ. He recounts many passages from the prophets and the law which clearly indicate how Israel’s unbelief and adherence to the works of the law has blinded them to the grace of God. As you come to the close of the eleventh chapter Paul makes a remarkable claim. His desire is that Israel will become so jealous of the grace shown to the Gentiles that they will finally have their eyes open and embrace the gospel of grace which he is a minister of.

That is a remarkable statement that cannot be seen, let alone claimed to be in action, anywhere in the church today. How can I make such a claim? Look at your church, or even yourself as a believer. What would make Israel jealous? What do you have that they intensely desire to possess? Practically every church looks and operates just like the Jews do in the following of the law. Yet Paul says that it is the law that has blinded Israel to the message of grace. Well if Israel is blinded by it, how can the church not experience its same effect?

Paul is quite clear that it is the message of grace, the new covenant, the new creation realities found in the finished works of Christ are the driving factor to what will make Israel jealous. I know this is hard to accept, but as long as your life and the community of believers that you associate with are bound to any thing from the law you aren’t that special. You’re just plain. There is nothing super about you that anyone will be jealous about. In other words, you lack the ability to change the hearts and minds of people.

Now there’s something that most preachers won’t even think about telling you grace is capable of doing. Why? Because the moment that they begin preaching the truth about the liberty found in grace they know that they lose all control of the people they have gathered around them. Kind of a oxymoron approach isn’t it? You want people to experience the freedom found in Christ but not the freedom from my controlling you? The true, unfiltered, pure word of God’s grace cuts through all that **** and will make people who don’t have it jealous, period. So why not make it your mission to just make people jealous of you? I dare you!