Kyle Gangel discipleship, Grace, Sanctification

Mary Took God at His Word

Everyone seems to have an opinion this Christmas about Mark Lowry’s song “Mary Did You Know?” 

“She knew!”

“She didn’t know!”

“It’s just a song. Get over it!”

I do not know how much she knew or how much creative license we should give musical artists, but I am intrigued by how Mary responds to the message she receives prior to the conception of Jesus. Her response is instructive to us as Christ-followers and those who help others mature in Christ. 

In Luke’s gospel, both Mary and a priest named Zechariah are facing impossible odds of having a child (Mary’s being slightly more impossible). Despite this, they both receive a message from the Lord via a messenger that each will have a son. The impossibility for Zechariah is that he and his wife Elizabeth have been unable to conceive and now find themselves well beyond the age of bearing children. Luke leads us to sympathize with Zechariah and Elizabeth’s hardship. We can understand Zechariah’s hesitancy to believe the angelic messenger. Given their lifelong struggle with infertility and their current age, it makes sense to us that he asks for a sign. However, God expects him to believe the message. So Zechariah receives his sign, but it certainly isn’t what he is hoping for—he is made deaf and mute until his son is born. This short-term judgment falls precisely “because [Zechariah] did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time” (Luke 1:20). 

Of course, the impossibility for Mary is that she is a virgin. However, she too is promised a son. She is told that her son will be the Son of the Most High who will rule on the throne of David forever. Mary, having never known a man and understanding basic biology wonders aloud how God could bring this about. Whereas Zechariah demonstrates unbelief, Mary’s response is more humble, more faithful. Zechariah is seeking a sign—“How shall I know this?” Mary, on the other hand, is curious how God will do what he has promised to do—“How will this be?” The response of the angel seems to confirm that Mary is exercising faith even in asking her question. No temporary judgment falls on Mary as it did Zechariah. Instead, she gets her answer. God himself will act and cause the impossible to be possible. 

We are challenged by remembering all that Mary has on the line in submitting herself to the Lord. Her reputation is on the line: Who will believe her report? Her upcoming wedding is on the line: Indeed, Joseph is ready to end the relationship until the Lord intervenes. Her body is on the line: Mary is likely a young teenager at this point and from the information I’ve received from those in the know, pregnancy is hard on the body. With all this at stake, Mary gladly submits herself to the word of the Lord.

Notice her response to the incredible message that she will bear a child by the power of the Holy Spirit: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word.” The teenaged Mary becomes a model for us of taking God at his word. Without denying Mary’s frailty and sinfulness, Luke holds her up as an example. Mary is God’s humble, listening, and willing servant. Consider how unthinkable it would be for Mary to say, “No, thanks” to the message she receives. It ought to be just as unthinkable for our hearts to cry out, “No, thanks” to his message.

God has every right to tell us what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and with what motive to do it. He has done so in the Bible. That would be scary if God were a cruel, untrustworthy Lord. Yet we see the nature and character of God in Jesus. As “God with us,” Jesus perfectly reveals the character of God to us. And what we see in Christ is compassion that leads Jesus to weep over lost people, humility that compels Christ to suffer the indignity of becoming a helpless infant, and sacrificial love that costs Jesus his very life. 

And if that is the Christ of the Bible, we can take him at his word by obeying his commands, resting in his promises, trusting his character, and submitting to his perfect will. We might even say with Mary, “I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”

Kyle Gangel counseling, Grace

3 Ways God’s Grace Shapes Our Counsel

“You are the best mom in the world!”

Those words were spoken to a friend of mine by her daughter. This sort of affirmation would understandably melt the heart of nearly any mother.

However, before my friend could express her gratitude for such kind words, her baby girl warned her: “But that could change.”

The young girl didn’t want her mom to become complacent. Mom had to keep earning the status of best mom in the world. That sort of title isn’t automatically conferred on just anyone. It could change. 

This exchange reminds me of a fear I’ve had in counseling—that speaking too often or too highly of God’s grace will somehow give the counselee a license to sin. It reminds of the natural tendency we all have to falsely believe that legalism and threats are a better motivation to grow than God’s grace in Christ. 

The gospel brings me back to reality. The good news of God’s grace is that there is no threat about moving beyond God’s kindness in Christ. There is no follow up warning about a believer’s status changing.

My goal is to consider 3 ways this sort of radical grace shapes biblical counseling.

1. We can encourage the struggling counselee because grace is inexhaustible

In Romans 5 Paul highlights one of several benefits of justification: “Through [Christ], we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand” (Romans 5:2). We stand in grace. The realm of grace is the kingdom in which we reside. Those who have been justified through faith in Christ have been granted an all-access pass to the unlimited supply of God’s grace. The unending availability of favor for those in Christ is rooted in the infinite nature of God. If grace proceeds from the Infinite One, the well never runs dry. 

We rest in the assurance that we do not move in and out of God’s favor and smile. If you are a child of God today, you will not be an orphan tomorrow. Therefore, the child of God does not have to wonder if God has forgotten about her or if He has finally given up on her. In Christ, there is sufficient grace to cover every sin, to grow in Christ, and to persevere in a hostile world. What an encouragement to the counselee who blew it this week. What a help to biblical counselors who have likewise blown it in many ways this week.

2. We can call counselees to do the hard work of putting sin to death because grace empowers change

Inexhaustible grace? Doesn’t this kind of grace encourage sinful living? Should we tap the brakes a bit? These sorts of questions arise in the book of Romans. Surprisingly, Paul does not pull the emergency brake, he hits the gas.

The Apostle gives his emphatic reply to those thinking grace encourages sin, “By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (Romans 6:2). Paul’s response is not that we need a little of the Old Covenant to keep us from going too far in our understanding of grace. Instead, he argues that we simply need a more comprehensive understanding of grace. 

To sum up Paul’s argument in Romans 6, the grace that unites us to Christ does not free us to indulge in sin; it frees us from the dominating control of sin. God’s kindness manifests itself in freeing his people from the penalty and the power of sin. Those who stand in grace are empowered to obey the “righteous requirement of the law” (Romans 8:4). By God’s wise purpose, grace not only justifies it also sanctifies. Thus, our believing counselees have no license to sin but are given everything they need in Christ to freely glorify God.

3. We can warn the unrepentant counselee because grace is not license

If grace cannot be exhausted, how should we understand the warnings like the one Paul includes in Romans 8:13, “If you live according to the flesh you will die … ?” Are these warnings the equivalent of pulling back on the promises of grace? Is it Paul’s way of slowing down so that we do not rely too much on divine favor? Not at all. Paul ends this chapter triumphantly declaring that nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Warnings in Scripture are not meant to devalue grace, but to challenge the reader to consider whether they have truly experienced God’s grace in Christ. The warnings form a standard by which we can assess if we have been united with Christ through faith. Grace is freely given in Christ, but this grace manifests itself in a changed life. Therefore, if we put the promises of limitless grace together with the warnings given by Paul and others, we might conclude that grace is free, but it is not empty. It is powerful and effects change in those who have truly partaken of it.

Further, these warnings are used by the Holy Spirit to continually drive believers back to the throne of grace. As we understand the deceitfulness of our hearts and the dangers of walking away from Christ, we run again and again back to the Lord recognizing our need for undeserved favor. Schreiner explains, “the warnings are one of the means by which believers are kept until the end. All those who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit heed the warnings and obtain final salvation.” So, we can warn professing Christians of the danger of unrepentant sin and anticipate that God will use our warning as a catalyst for change in those who are genuine believers.”. Only God can look upon the heart, but we must assess the fruit of someone’s life and plead for repentance in those who are in danger of deserting the gospel.

Grace is effective, so we warn. 

Grace is powerful, so we call for change.

Grace is inexhaustible, so we comfort.  

If we can step out of the book of Romans for a moment, we might end by saying that grace is more than just a concept, it is found in the person of Jesus Christ. The grace of God has appeared in the Son of God and He saves so completely that those he calls to himself are not only justified, but sanctified, and one day glorified (Titus 2:11-14).

Thomas R. Schreiner, Commentary on Hebrews: Biblical Theology for Christian Proclamation (B & H Publishing Group: Nashville, 2015) 489.

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