Charis and the Sermon on the Mount

I had a preacher that taught, "justification by grace as shown in deeds."  The deeds (or works) follow the salvation, and the salvation is not dependent on it.

 

The word "grace" in the New Testament is "charis" in the Greek.  If you go back to the first century understanding of "charis," it applies not only to gifts and the giving of gifts, but to the appropriate response of the receiver.  The Greeks pictured "charis" as a dance, the Greek "Graces" in a circle, hand in hand, dancing together.  The symbolism is critical - if the giver, the gift, and the response move together, the dance continues.  The minute any part of the chain is broken, so is the grace.

 

So what is the appropriate response?  Josephus said that we should receive the gift, and then do everything in our power to repay the giver, even though we cannot repay in kind (lest it be a loan, not a gift).  We repay by bestowing honor and praise to the giver.  And I can think of no better way to repay a giver than to try and follow their instructions on how to live my life.  Isn't that what the Sermon on the Mount is?  So if I neglect Jesus' teachings (or try to use logic to get around them), I am not demonstrating my responsive grace because I am not honoring the giver.  And the circle of grace is broken.  But if I try to live life according to Jesus, just the effort is a form of honor and praise.  Thus the circle continues.

 

To me, that is a wonderful illustration of what the Gospel really means.  Yes, salvation if free.  But if I really want to show my thankfulness to God, I need to at least make an effort to live out his teachings.  To claim "grace alone" without expecting a response is really to say that my actions don't matter and God will forgive and still give grace.  But that is the heresy of "cheap grace."  It is an attractive earthly proposition ("Lie! Cheat! Steal! Fornicate!  You are a believer and God will forgive!").  But it has no relation to the teachings of the Bible, Old Testament or New, Gospel or Epistle. 

 

Therefore, I cannot claim that God does not want some response from me.  Not that he wants the OT Law necessarily, but God is also not granting freedom from any of his guidance about how to live.