The sound of the saw cut through the silence in the large garage. An air compressor clicked on as the punching sound of nails from a pneumatic nail gun joined two pieces of pine together in a perfect right angle. I watched this wizardry as a young boy in my grandfather’s workshop. He was a master craftsman; I believed he could build anything.
Grandpa never used plans. He just knew how things were supposed to fit together. He could cut lumber with laser-like precision, and with what appeared to be very little effort he could create a masterpiece. I remember he once turned a stack of excess decking lumber into a set of Adirondack chairs. From my eight-year-old perspective, the transformation was nothing short of miraculous. Where one person saw unneeded lumber, Grandpa saw great potential, and I always admired this about him.
Humanity is God’s greatest creation. He made us all unique in His own image. While we enjoy this unique connection with God, we fall short of God’s expectations through our sins. Romans 8 says “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” However, by grace the entirety of humanity has been reconciled with God through Christ’s great sacrifice.
In the candidacy guidebook Answering the Call I read of John Wesley’s definitions of the three aspects of grace. These three aspects (prevenient grace, justifying grace, sanctifying grace) are described in the book in relationship to a house. (I’d like to go into more detail of this particular metaphor in another post. Trust me, it’s worth the wait.) While the illustration of a house is useful in understanding Wesley’s aspects of grace, I think the craftsman is a more salient comparison when discussing humanity’s need for divine grace.
Prevenient grace is the grace that “surrounds us” and “precedes us.” No matter where we go in life, no matter the decisions we have made, God goes before us and meets us at every turn in our lives. Even in times of chaos or aimlessness, God sees our potential, he knows each name and he has plan for each life—much like the craftsman sees a masterpiece in the raw materials.
For a craftsman to do his work the raw materials must go through a significant transformation. Saws cut and form lumber and the pieces are joined together to make new shapes. With each cut and adjustment, the craftsman brings the masterpiece together. Similarly, justifying grace is the grace that is present in spiritual growth. In the moment a person recognizes sin in his or her life and trusts that he or she is forgiven, he or she is once more aligned, or justified, with God. These moments, as we are cut and formed, are challenging to say the least, but these formational experiences are truly life-changing. No more are we an excess pile of lumber. A new purpose may be revealed in our personal transformations with justifying grace.
True craftsmanship is revealed in the use of smaller tools. As the craftsman sands the wood to a smooth finish and adds etching or carvings to complete the new piece, character and detail emerge. Sanctifying grace, in similar ways, reveals more of God’s image in us, and God becomes more visible in us. Because we have been forgiven, we forgive more freely. Because He is generous to us, we are generous with others. When one is able to tap into God’s beautiful sanctifying grace he or she creates a cycle that allows him or her to be more Christ-like to those he or she comes into contact with, which could encourage others to be gracious to those they meet too.
The fine sawdust hung in the light pouring in through the workshop window. Two beautiful chairs stood in the middle of the room where a stack of decking wood used to be. Grandpa smiled and asked me to take a seat. As I ran my hands across one of the arm rests, I thought earnestly about the day that I would build my own chairs because I now knew it was possible.