I was visiting an out of town church recently and the minister was preaching on Paul’s description of how we are called to freedom by God’s grace. While the sermon proclaimed the centrality of grace in the Christian life and how it makes us free, it was missing a key component. I would describe this component as masculine grace.
I will come back to what I mean by this term but first it is important to say that we are saved by grace; it is the gift of God. We don’t bring anything to the table. The only thing required for salvation is that you are a sinner. In this sense, the bar for entering salvation is as low as it can get.
But the temptation is to think that we will stay at this low entry point: every Christian will always be the same weakling sinner he was when he started and he will never move beyond this starting point. Now it is true that we never leave the foot of the cross until we are done with this life but it is important to understand that salvation has an impact on us here and now. Another way to say this is that if a person does not really change after the point of salvation then it would be legitimate to ask if the person has really experienced salvation. Which is to say, the gospel changes people. It really does. So how does grace change people?
The only way we can answer that question is by looking to the standard of God’s character and law. This is what I mean by masculine grace. Being the good Father that He is, God doesn’t leave us where He found us, dead in our sins, but He raises us up and matures us. A key way that He works this out in our lives is by showing us more and more what He is like. As challenging as it sounds, He is the standard of righteousness and holiness that we are shooting for in our own lives. This is God’s plan. He won’t settle for anything less and neither should we.
The danger then in speaking of grace is that we can make it sound like the bar is so low that we will always stay the messy creatures that we are. But we need to be careful with this kind of teaching on grace because it can actually become a self-fulfilling prophecy. We start out as wretched sinners and that is where we will always be. But that’s just not true. God’s work is efficacious and He really has brought us out of the darkness of sin. We really are the righteousness of God.
So it is important that we understand masculine grace. Grace expands our vision so that we are drawn away from ourselves to look to the nature and character of God. As we enter into salvation by grace, we need to see how grace also sets the path for us and shows us where to go next. Grace is not static. It is an engine driving us to God.
Here’s an illustration of this. One of my goals as a teacher is always to teach just a little over the heads of my students. There is an important balancing act here. If I shoot too low as I am teaching, then I will discourage my best students and the whole class will get sucked down to the level of the poor students. It is important that I challenge my best students by shooting over their heads and being ahead of them as I teach. The goal is to challenge students so they will be moved to step beyond their current station.
The same is true for the gospel of grace. God is the highest standard we could ever shoot for and yet we are called to reach for that level of perfection. In our presentation of grace, we must explain clearly that we are not called to stay in the muck of our sin. We are called to mansions of glory that God has prepared for us. The key then is to preach clearly to the church the full scope of that challenging task. God has a plan for where He is taking us and it is beyond us. But we need to see clearly God’s perfection and holiness.
Now this kind of presentation might sound discouraging. How will this encourage the congregation if all we talk about is how God calls us to perfection and holiness? That goal is an impossible goal. We will never get there.
Yes, that is true and that is why we need to hear it. We could never move beyond where we are without God’s grace. The goal is impossible for us; but with God nothing is impossible. And that is how we can see more clearly what grace really is. It is not a kindly pat on the head or a grandfatherly wink. It is a scalpel and God is a surgeon. He is going to cut you up and remake you. Masculine grace will mess with your life.
This kind of presentation is key, especially for men in the church. In our feminized culture, it is far too easy to shoot below the men in the congregation. A feminized gospel is one of the most discouraging things to men in the church. They don’t want a kindly pat on the head; they want a sword. As the minister preaches and teaches, he must always shoot over the men’s heads by teaching masculine grace. Men need to hear about masculine grace because it clearly shows us what our Christian duty is and how much work we have to do to get there. And this is how you motivate men. You don’t preach at them; you preach over them. And by God’s grace, men rise to the challenge.
To be clear, this is not a call to works righteousness. To call the Church to perfection is a call to have true faith in God’s grace and mercy. A key example of this masculine grace is Jacob wrestling with the angel. He wrestles with the angel and he is actually winning until the angel touches his leg and he wounds him. But even then Jacob doesn’t let go. In Gen 32:26 Jacob says “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” When a minister is done preaching he should leave his congregation like Jacob, hanging onto God for dear life. Here is the standard of perfection and you can never get there in your own strength. So you must wrestle with God. You must take hold of God and never let Him go until He blesses you. That is the call of masculine grace. There is much to be done. There is also much to be believed.
