Learning God's language

Later on this year, I hope to pay my first ever visit to the Iberian Peninsula. I gather I'm not the only one of my acquaintance who has never yet been to Spain or Portugal. This rather surprises me as nearly every Brit seems to visit one of these countries at some point. Indeed, 1.7% of the population of Spain is reckoned to be British. Spain is a popular destination for arthritis sufferers who want to escape the damp climate of the UK.

The reason I am going, however, is not to do with bodily ailments but to find out how gospel Christianity is faring. The Spanish Gospel Mission has operated in Spain for around 100 years, evangelising and planting churches. They offer an opportunity to stay in their Bible centre south of Madrid and tour some of these churches. The buildings are hardly architectural marvels like the great cathedrals. Yet they are places of worship for many brave local men and women who have overcome prejudice to honour God in the simple way of Evangelical Christians.

The Mission promotes this experience as allowing the traveller to meet "real" Spanish people. Presumably that means people in the interior of Spain, away from the coastal areas that are so geared to tourists. For that reason I am trying to learn Spanish, in the hope of entering into the experience more fully. It is a challenge. I have now turned sixty and most of my foreign language learning was done in my teens and twenties. I found an audio-visual course on the internet that suited me (there are such courses that are worth having, if you search long enough) and I think I have made rapid progress in easy steps. As well as learning words and grammar, I am trying to pronounce the language as authentically as possible. I had training in phonetics so am well aware what a difficult task this is. Over the course of centuries, each language develops its own unique speech patterns which come naturally to native speakers but which outsiders have to acquire painfully, sound by tedious sound.

It leads me to ask: how well am I doing learning God's language? Believe it or not, God is not an English-speaking Brit. Isaiah 55:8 "'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord."

However, God does not make it difficult to learn His language. True, His plan to save lost sinners took centuries to mature. Its intricacies are way beyond our feeble understanding. Yet we see the arms of the Lord Jesus Christ stretched out on the cross, open to receive us. It is a gesture that speaks volumes in any language. God simply offers it to us and asks, "Now, what part of that don't you understand?"

Grace and graciousness

When I began to go to evangelical churches, I quickly discovered that “grace” is sometimes used as a code word. Most Christians know that it is found both in the Bible and in everyday life. It comes in the benediction that many church services close with: “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14 NIV). Roman Catholics encounter it in the greeting given by the angel Gabriel to the virgin Mary in Luke 1:28. Translated out of the Latin language, this begins, “Hail, Mary, full of grace”. This unusual greeting prompted German Protestant reformer Martin Luther to comment something along the lines of, “The common people understand about a bag full of gold, but what do you do with a girl full of grace?”!

“Grace”, as in-group code word, is used by some super-spiritual Christians to pass judgment on the rest. “Is this person a true believer? Is he or she in on the secret mysteries?” For them, grasping its significance is like seeing the light. The one who knows the secret of “grace” has almost become more than an ordinary mortal.

The excuse for this snobbery is that “Grace” in divine terms is vastly different from grace in human terms. My dictionary defines grace from a theological point of view as “the free and unmerited favour of God as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowing of blessings”.

Among human beings, grace means this: “The quality of pleasing, attractiveness, charm, especially that associated with elegant proportions or ease and refinement of movement, action, expression or manner.” It’s not all that often that one word can have such diverse meanings! Apart from the fact that it is no doubt “pleasing” and even possibly “charming” to be on the receiving end of God’s grace, there seems little tie-up between the human and divine meanings.

Yet to use grace to prove your superiority is tragically misguided because God’s grace is practical; it doesn’t only belong in the rarefied realm of ideas. It rubs off on human behaviour in everyday life. Grace is a way of life and not just a technical term in theology.

God sets the pattern. Human sin grieves Him, but He graciously offers free and undeserved salvation, without strings attached, to all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. How can you and I honour Him by mirroring that in our own lives?

The Lord’s Prayer talks about forgiveness. At the end of it, in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus makes a pointed comment: “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (6:14-15 ESV). In other words, the person who has appreciated God’s grace in Christ will demonstrate the fact by displaying grace to others. His or her life will be one of graciousness. Let ungracious Christians take note.