Grace Doctrine

So the anger of the LORD burned against them and He departed. But when the cloud had withdrawn from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow. As Aaron turned toward Miriam, behold, she was leprous. - Numbers 12:9,10

I was listening to Joyce Meyer quote this verse yesterday on my way to work. She was talking about people who speak against God's anointed. In this context Miriam and Aaron had spoken against Moses about his choice of marriage partner. As I heard it, the first thought that came to mind was "we are under grace, we will not suffer the same fate as Miriam did." While that is true I realised I missed the point of the lesson. Yes, God does forgive the person who does it and Jesus had borne our sins and punishment as well. But if God is the same yesterday, today and forever, this attitude still irritates the socks out of Him. And I realised a flaw I have, coming out of the grace teaching many years back.

I seem to be more focused on myself rather than Jesus, who is grace personified. Whenever I come across passages which entail discipline for wrong attitudes and actions, my first reaction would usually be that Jesus had taken the bad stuff upon Himself so it will not happen to me. So in the end it really points to me and my well-being rather than the lesson put forth. I will assume I am the only person who has such a problem. ;)

Some will argue that it is the embrace of the grace doctrine that leads to such issues. I will put forth my two cents worth: It is the embrace of ONLY the grace doctrine while discounting others that leads to issues. Often, I notice that people who embrace the grace doctrine and only the grace doctrine seem to go way off in life. They mouth slogans often but their lives don't seem to mirror their slogans. They can be downright irresponsible in their actions but yet use grace as their excuse for it. I find it amusing how some can talk so much about grace as if there is nothing else in the bible. If the grace doctrine was the ONLY doctrine around as some seem to make it out to be, the bible should be just a few pages thick since it will then only contain the verses about grace......