Jesus never said, “Clean yourself up, then I’ll pay you some attention.” We’ve distorted grace when we think we can move closer to God only after we fix ourselves. Good luck with that. Even our best foot forward leaves us without a leg to stand on. God is looking for more than a moral facelift. He’s looking for an inner change of our identity—a change that can only come through Jesus. It’s our insides that need cleaning first, but we seem hard-wired to start with our outsides. Maybe we think if we look good, then we’ll be good.
But Jesus recognizes our helplessness. That’s why His offer is so loving. Just come as you are, nothing extra required. Our movement toward Jesus is not based on any virtuous contribution from us. And Jesus knows that.
We asked Joe Duke more questions about grace and GraceWorks.
GraceWorks: You started GraceWorks International, in part, because you saw a need. What is that need?
Joe Duke: Over many years now, I’ve become shocked by how easily people migrate away from God’s grace, both in their thinking and their behavior. There is a constant drum of anti-grace sentiment resounding from pulpits and podcasts throughout the world. But it’s often cloaked in spiritual sounding jargon so it’s not always easy to detect. I want to help people understand and experience God’s grace as described in the Bible and equip them to sniff-out that which is opposed to grace.
My wife is an avid cyclist. Sometimes I’m with Tricia on her rides, and sometimes not. On this day, I wasn’t with her when she called and said, “I think I need you to come get me. Something is not right with my heart.”
Just up the road, I found Tricia lying in the grass, her bike laid down beside her. Since she is a nurse practitioner, she had already assessed her condition. And her Apple watch confirmed she was in V-tach (ventricular tachycardia) with a sustained heart rate of over 200 beats per minute. Not good.
