The Worthy Walk - A Logical Response

When the New Testament talks about walking worthy of our God, it has in mind something other than being worthy of his standard of righteousness and justice. That had to be achieved for us by Jesus who was made to be sin for us that we might be made righteous in him. The worthy walk has to do with an appropriate response to Jesus and what he did. This introduces a new weight standard on the scales. That new standard is grace, and here we are vulnerable to a serious miscalculation. 

The paradigm of many voices in twenty-first century “Christianity” seems to unfold like this. 

Grace is about freedom.

Freedom is about no rules.

The absence of rules cancels sin.

Calling something “sin” is judgmental.

Being judgmental is a sin because it encroaches on my freedom.

When something encroaches on my freedom I am authorized to be both judgmental and ungracious,

Because Grace is about freedom.

The problem with the paradigm is that grace is not about freedom. Grace is about being redeemed from the penalty of our treason, made legal citizens of God’s kingdom, adopted into God’s family and given a role to play in God’s cause. It is the work of Jesus Christ through his death, burial, resurrection and ascension.  

Sadly, the hymn “Amazing Grace” does not identify this grace. It does not explain in what way I was a wretch, what being lost entailed and what being found looked like. It does not tell me why I was afraid or, specifically, what about grace relieved that fear.

A worthy walk weighs our works on the scale of gratitude, faith, and surrender which should be our logical response to the “amazingness” of grace. When this is thought through we understand we can turn our freedoms into an unworthy walk.

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