Acts 5--Grace vs. License

Bible

Acts 4:32–5:11 NLT

32 All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had. 33 The apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all. 34 There were no needy people among them, because those who owned land or houses would sell them 35 and bring the money to the apostles to give to those in need. 36 For instance, there was Joseph, the one the apostles nicknamed Barnabas (which means “Son of Encouragement”). He was from the tribe of Levi and came from the island of Cyprus. 37 He sold a field he owned and brought the money to the apostles. 1 But there was a certain man named Ananias who, with his wife, Sapphira, sold some property. 2 He brought part of the money to the apostles, claiming it was the full amount. With his wife’s consent, he kept the rest. 3 Then Peter said, “Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself. 4 The property was yours to sell or not sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was also yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this? You weren’t lying to us but to God!” 5 As soon as Ananias heard these words, he fell to the floor and died. Everyone who heard about it was terrified. 6 Then some young men got up, wrapped him in a sheet, and took him out and buried him. 7 About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 Peter asked her, “Was this the price you and your husband received for your land?” “Yes,” she replied, “that was the price.” 9 And Peter said, “How could the two of you even think of conspiring to test the Spirit of the Lord like this? The young men who buried your husband are just outside the door, and they will carry you out, too.” 10 Instantly, she fell to the floor and died. When the young men came in and saw that she was dead, they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 11 Great fear gripped the entire church and everyone else who heard what had happened.

Introduction

Let’s pray: Lord, please help us to understand what you were doing at the beginning of the church, and how that still applies to us today. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I find the Bible passage we just read rather shocking. Here we are, right at the beginning of the church. The very first use of the word ekklesia—Greek for church—in the book of Acts is here in verse 11. So the church begins with the execution of two of its members. How can we answer those who accuse God of being a judgmental, unloving, blood-thirsty tyrant? What happened to the idea that the church is built on grace? Where’s the grace here?

Why so ugly to us?

Given our reaction, you may be surprised to learn that the church has not struggled with this account until recently. In fact, this account was often used to warn against straying from God’s will. Why, then, is this story so ugly to us moderns? I believe it is because we have bought into the fantasy that we can be both completely selfish and fully loved at the same time. We have confused license with grace. We have been tricked into believing that our actions ultimately don’t matter, that somehow God can make it all good no matter what we do.

But that is not how the world works. Our choices do matter. How we treat others does make a difference, both to us and to them. What we desire does matter.

Paul talks about this in Romans 6:

Romans 6:1–2 NLT

1 Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? 2 Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?

Grace does not set us free to sin more. It sets us free from sin. Paul explains further:

Romans 6:6–8 ESV

6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

The world has always thought that it can remake sin as something acceptable, and all the problems will go away. Roguish manliness was once used to justify rape and abuse. The fact that modern culture has recognised the damage this caused, has not cured us of our desire to justify other sins. Now we practice racism and say that it’s addressing systemic injustice. But that doesn’t make it right! Our society has replaced one set of approved sins with another, and despite our desperate attempts to ignore the carnage caused by all sin, we all suffer from it.

The church works differently. Paul exhorts us to be controlled by our new, spiritual self, not our old, sinful self:

Romans 6:12–14 CEV

12 Don’t let sin rule your body. After all, your body is bound to die, so don’t obey its desires 13 or let any part of it become a slave of evil. Give yourselves to God, as people who have been raised from death to life. Make every part of your body a slave that pleases God. 14 Don’t let sin keep ruling your lives. You are ruled by God’s kindness and not by the Law.

So, you see, our choices matter. They matter a lot. Ananias and Saphira each made a choice to turn away from obeying God, to be ruled by their bodily desires. They chose to live as if God gave license to indulge in sin, not grace to free us from sin. And that choice had consequences.

Worthy of death?

But was this worthy of death? Did they deserve to be struck down on the spot?

They were trying to do the right thing, weren’t they?

But think about it: if Ananias and Saphira had been allowed to set a model for the church, the church would be just another bunch of hypocritical humans gathering together to look down on those who weren’t a part of their group.

You see, Ananias and Saphira weren’t just keeping back some money for themselves. As Peter points out:

Acts 5:4 CEV

4 The property was yours before you sold it, and even after you sold it, the money was still yours. What made you do such a thing? You didn’t lie to people. You lied to God!”

This couple were not simply cheating the church, they were cheating God, not of money, but of their very selves. They were telling God: “You sent your son to die, so that we could die to sin. But we like sin. Jesus’ death was in vain. In fact, we want to make sin, selfishness and lies, a part of how we share in your project to redeem the world.”

Now, the interesting thing is, when people refuse to allow God to transform their lives; when they reject the power of Jesus’ sacrifice to regenerate us; when people don’t want to live like God, delight in his justice, love like him; when people want to cling to sin, God lets them.

Three options

This is important, so please listen carefully: there are three ways that God could have built the universe. To understand this, let’s imagine the simplest version of this world: two people with genuine freedom to do whatever they want in an environment that allows them to act freely. Let’s call it Eden. Now imagine these two people want to do something that is mutually exclusive, say one hates trees and wants to rid the world of them and the other person loves them and wants the world full of them. How can God allow both people to have the consequences they desire without the one disrupting the desires of the other? You can’t have a world that is both full of trees and empty of them.

There are three ways out of this:

God can remove their freedom to choose, so they won’t choose opposing goals,

He can transform their hearts (if they are willing), so that their desires are compatible, or

He can separate them from one another, so they can do their own thing without affecting one another.

Now, we know from the Bible that God never forces people to obey him. The very first couple demonstrate this in the Garden of Eden as God allows them to make a choice that has terrible consequences for the entire world. If he were going to force people to his will, he would have done it then. Obviously he considers forcing people to his will to be worse than all the evil and suffering of history. So that leaves two options.

The second option, a willing transformation of the heart, is what grace is. It is what transforms us from people who are in rebellion against God, dead in our sins, to people who desire to please God, struggling with our still-corrupt flesh to obey him and love him (and, therefore, one another). Grace allows us to live together in harmony and peace, because we all share our greatest desire: to please God. And his desire for us is abundant life.

The church is supposed to give a glimpse of this. But just a glimpse, because we are all still struggling with our bodies of sin, and so we don’t always care for God or one another.

But Ananias and Saphira didn’t take this choice. They refused to be transformed. Peter prompted them, perhaps hoping that they would repent, but they stuck to their plan, to their rebellion, to their lies.

Which leaves the final way: separation.

Ananias and Saphira chose to continue acting in their own selfish interests, and so God separated them from those they would harm. Did you know that throughout scripture death is portrayed as separation? Physical death is separation of body and soul. Spiritual death is separation of our soul from God. And the second death, which happens at the final judgement is the separation of both body and soul from everything else.

But, couldn’t they have been merely excommunicated? Separated from the church?

It’s important to remember the events that swirled around them. On either side of this story in Acts are accounts of the extraordinary power of God.

Acts 4:34–35 (ESV)

34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold 35 and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

Acts 5:12 (ESV)

12 Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico.

At the end of Acts 4 we find human beings so transformed by love that they share everything they have with one another. Immediately after the account of Ananias and Saphira we find the apostles continuing to work amazing miracles. This was no ordinary church. The first church at this time was full of the power of the Spirit. If you rejected this church at this time, you were rejecting the very presence of God himself.

And we know what happens when you reject God, right? He accepts your rejection and separates himself from you. When God separates himself from you, you’re dead. The shocking abruptness of Ananias and Saphira’s deaths, as if the very force of life had simply blinked out of their bodies, points to this.

Now, I know none of us need to worry about this, but the reason we don’t see liars and hypocrites in modern churches falling down dead is simple: we don’t see modern churches packed full of the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. Instead, our churches are packed full of people struggling with their sin. It’s sad, isn’t it?

But don’t give up! Jesus is coming again. And when he does, he will finish the job. He will destroy our bodies of sin and give us new, spiritual bodies which delight in obedience, and we’ll be wholly able to love him and one another in harmony and peace, forever. In the meantime, we are the new Israel, the people who struggle to follow and obey God. Let’s be honest in that struggle. Let’s remember that our choices matter. And let’s look forward to God finally saving us from the darkness within us.

Story

Before we finish, let me tell a story that illustrates the difference between license and grace. You might recognise it.

There was once a man who had two sons. The younger said to his father, “Father, I want right now what’s coming to me.”

So the father divided the property between them. It wasn’t long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country. There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had. After he had gone through all his money, there was a bad famine all through that country and he began to hurt. He signed on with a citizen there who assigned him to his fields to slop the pigs. He was so hungry he would have eaten the corncobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any.

Just as he was at his lowest, he received a letter from his father, “Son, here is more money for you to live on, I just want you to follow your heart.”

Now, you might recognise the first part of that story, but then it takes a bizarre turn. What is the difference between this version and the original? Isn’t it that the original shows a father who values relationship, not self-indulgence. A father who shows grace, not license.

Think about your reaction to these two stories. Which father would you rather have?

Let’s pray:

Lord, help us to understand your heart. Help us to value the new life you’ve given us, and the choices we can make to live out of that new life instead of our old, selfish way. Please draw us closer to you each day, and help us to love as you do.

In Jesus name, Amen.