Not to the Right or the Left

Ephesians 2:8 tells us: “For by grace you have been saved through faith;”. If salvation is important to us, then also should grace and faith be of importance. But the path of grace and faith is narrow. There are dangers, on the right, and on the left. 

Several years ago, Vince Hinzmann and I hiked Angels’ Landing at Zion National Park. As you can guess, the end of the hike (or, if you want to go home again, the halfway point) is a perch high up more suited, it seems, for angels than for men. But the part of the hike that was most difficult for me was a narrow section with a steep drop on either side - a quarter mile down to the parking lot on the right; a sharp drop to jagged rocks on the left. As I walked on this narrow path, it was as though there were a magnetic pull, one way or the other, as though staying dead center was most difficult. It may be that way with grace and faith.

Grace is sidled on the right by legalism, and on the left by license. The first danger involves adding duties alongside of grace as a means of gaining God’s favor, or perhaps, keeping God’s favor. But grace is the gift of God’s undeserved favor, all the favor that you will ever get or need - all of grace. Stepping off to the right is a departure from grace.

On the left is license (the old KJV used the word “licentiousness;" theologians use the word “antinomianism”). It is the idea that sin is no big problem in that forgiveness is free, and therefore sin is inconsequential. Once we understand that Christ actually died for our sin(s), then we can see the lie in that idea.

Grace should be celebrated, and its purity protected. We need clear understanding, and we must stay in the center of the path, going neither to the right or the left.

Faith, also, has a “right” and “left” danger. On the one side, we can doubt God’s goodness and care, and retreat into fear. Now fear is a difficult subject, in that we are clearly told to live in “the fear of the Lord,” though many of us have trouble explaining that concept without explaining it away. We should also remember Paul telling Timothy that God has not given us a Spirit of fear. Fear can eat away at our confidence, and erode our joy.

But on the left of faith is another danger: foolishness. The fool may well profess faith, but then live according to his own fallen senses, or simply follow the crowd that he follows. To wander off into fear or foolishness is to rob ourselves of the privilege of  walking by faith, not by sight, and of actually living, in the present moment, as believers - that is, people who live through faith.

So let’s help one another stay on the path, that most basic of Christian paths characterized by grace and faith. Let’s stay right on the center, and help others to do the same.