The Poison of Grace

See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled. (Hebrews 12:15)

I spent a little time looking up some of these words this morning and also where and how they are used elsewhere in the New Testament. I did not find anything very unusual from the word root; it seemed to be pretty straightforward in meaning just what it says, a root of a plant. This fits well with the meaning of trouble which can mean to crowd in. But the application here as something that can defile or contaminate many others would tell me that potentially this root contains something poisonous or dangerous, at least to some degree. However, when I looked up the uses for the Greek word translated comes short, I found a couple very interesting links that shed light on its relationship here to the grace of God.

First of all I found a similar phrase in Romans that parallels this one in Hebrews and also expands what it is that we come short of from God's perspective.

But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:21-23)

I have been learning more and more about what the true meaning of glory is even though I know there is much farther to go. Given the similarity in these passages I see two things: first that God's grace and God's glory are either very similar or are in fact one and the same thing, at least in part and secondly, I see that quite likely sin is the opposite of grace and glory. Sin is to glory and grace like darkness is to light; it is the absence of it. Therefore, when we fail to enter into the presence of God's glory or come short of accepting His grace that condition of lack in our heart is called sin.

I believe this is a far more accurate description of sin in place of the typical ideas of sin as external acts of disobedience to rules and standards. That has been the favored definition of sin for many centuries but fails to address the root of the problem, the internal heart issues that produce those outward symptoms. Simply cutting off the shoots that spring up from bitter roots repeatedly is not the method that effectively deals with sin in our lives, that is nothing more than a lot of hard work that both exhausts us and drives us to despair eventually. The roots are hidden out of sight, they are the internal causes, the false ideas and beliefs about ourselves and God buried in the heart that are not so apparent and therefore are often ignored in favor of attempted behavior management. But if the roots of bitterness are exposed to the grace and glory of God they will be eliminated or transformed and will no longer be a source of poison to infect us and those around us.

A couple days ago something came to my mind along this line that I quickly wrote down so I could remember it. Grace is the poison that kills the roots of bitterness. It is also possible that grace – or the glory of God, they likely are overlapping – can transform those roots into springs of living water producing life instead of death, to mix the metaphor.

One reason this may have come to my mind is that years ago I used to work during the summer in Texas killing trees for paper companies. Our job was to load up a tank of poison on our back which was attached to a special hatchet with a hose. The liquid traveled through the hose up through the handle in the hatchet to a spring-loaded piston in the head of the hatchet. Whenever we would strike the side of a tree and open up the bark with the hatchet, the poison would be squirted into the cut and would eventually be drawn down into the roots of the tree through the sap system and would cause the tree to die. We had to pay particular attention to completely ring certain species of trees with cuts that were all at the same height or they might survive the assault and keep on growing.

The reason we were sent in to poison most of the trees was so that a year or two later the only trees left standing would be the ones that the companies wanted to harvest for paper. The rest of the trees would all be dead and would be easy to get out of the way so they could harvest more easily. Then after all the cutting was finished some of us were sent back in to plant a new crop of pine trees to start the harvest cycle all over again.

In a strange sense, I realized that grace is like the poison that we used to kill the roots of those unwanted trees. Even though some of the trees were very hearty and vigorous in their resistance to our plans, if we were thorough in our application then the roots would fail to produce the life needed to keep the unwanted trees alive and the forest would dramatically be changed in its composition.

The same could be said in my own life. As I become more and more exposed to the reality of the glory of God and become infected with His grace and goodness, the roots that feed my bitterness and outward symptoms of sin begin to die and the landscape of my life slowly becomes more externally changed. It may take awhile for the results to be seen, but if I am faithful to continually receive the antidote from God, which is poison to the bitter roots, then the “poison of grace” will accomplish its work and the glory of God will become more clearly seen reflected in my own life.

Another text was found in my research this morning in the same book as the one I am studying. It also had some important insights to add to my understanding of this verse.

Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. (Hebrews 4:1-2)

What I see in these verses in relation to roots of bitterness and the effect of grace to neutralize them is that I need to respond to it by uniting faith to what is coming to me from God. If I choose to respond by believing what I am learning about God's grace and glory and allow it to affect me at the heart level, then I will find that I can enter into His rest (which is another word that is mostly understood in religion). This rest is the internal rest of soul and heart that is often referred to by Jesus as His peace.

But just like the Israelites talked about throughout the book of Hebrews who failed to enter into the rest of God because of their stubborn externalism and resistance to believing in His love and grace, I am always in danger of focusing too much on an external symptom-oriented religion instead of allowing His grace and glory to fill me with peace and rest no matter what circumstances are going on around me. I am realizing more and more the importance of spending time just resting in God's presence, contemplating the aspects of His character and glory and allowing Him to ravish me in His love and grace instead of constantly trying to stay busy with my left brain analysis or being distracted with a formula religion. I need to know from my heart what real rest is and what it can do to transform my spirit and attitudes if I allow it time and space to work in my life.

God, I choose to just sit quietly and listen to whatever you want to share with me, even if it is not something that can be formulated into words. I want to enter into Your rest, and I choose to put away all my own thoughts and imaginations as much as possible for a few moments and try to focus on whatever You want to communicate to my heart. Most of the time the things of the heart cannot be analyzed or quantified by my intellect, but I know that if I continue to expose myself with an open heart to Your presence and Your glory, my mind always appreciates the effects that come out of that experience and the time invested with You in intimacy. Set the tone of my heart this morning so that You may have more open access to my mind and influence my spirit all throughout this day. I ask You to use me as a channel of Your grace to help neutralize the poison from other people's bitter roots. Poison my roots of bitterness with Your grace and replace them with springs of joy. Demonstrate Your glory through me today for Your reputation's sake.

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