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Most preachers talk about grace all the time, but have we become blind to its specific implications for our congregations? PreachingToday.com editor Matt Woodley sat down with preaching professor and PreachingToday.com contributor Bryan Chapell to discuss how a passion for the grace of God can impact preaching and application strategy.

Matt Woodley, PreachingToday.com: You have good perspective on the big picture of preaching in our age. What are you passionate about passing on to your students and other preachers?

Bryan Chapell: Good question. My primary passion has not changed, even after thirty years of teaching. But my emphases have.

My primary passion is to identify the grace in all of Scripture that culminates in Christ Jesus, so that no matter what Scripture we're preaching from, we're not simply looking for duty and doctrine, but rather to identify the relationship that God is establishing—a relationship that gives me hope so that I can do what he calls me to do and know what he wants me to know.

So I'm very concerned that as we're preaching our focus is on taking the truth of the Scripture and applying it to human struggle and the fallen condition, so that we give people hope that it's the grace of God rather than human performance is the cause for the joy that is their strength for the Christian life.

It sounds like you have been thinking about this a long time. Do you see a gap between that passion and the way most of us preach?

Yes. My sense is that most preachers open their Bibles looking for one or two things. They are either looking for what behavior God tell his people to observe in a given passage, or what doctrine God tell his people to observe. It's one or the other or both.

What I am hoping people will see is that duty and doctrine—as important as they are—are not ultimately what God is communicating. What he is communicating, fulfilled in Christ, is his own relationship with us, secured by the grace of God. Not by our duty or by our doctrine.

I tease sometimes. You know, I'm from Presbyterian circles. And we are absolutely convinced that good works do not get you to heaven. But we're almost as convinced that good thought will get you to heaven. I have to say—as important as correct doctrine is it's not our doctrine that secures our relationship with the Lord. It's his grace. Of course, grace has obligations—duty and doctrine—but grace is not established by duty and doctrine. It's established by the mercy of God.

When I know that, I'm not dependent upon either my performance or my knowledge to make me right with God. Instead I'm dependent upon his mercy. And that's not just important for preachers to know. It's so important for the people to whom they preach to know. God is not accepting or rejecting us on the basis of whether we did better or worse today or know more or less than the person down the street. Our hope is based on what Christ did. The language of the hymn. "Not all my prayers and sighs and tears…" That's not the basis of my relationship with God, but rather, his grace towards me.

That's great. Can you make that emphasis on grace more specific to preaching?

Yes. Preachers should think through the standard four questions of application. Though they don't often think of it this way, what preachers always have to answer—if they are doing holistic application of the Scriptures—is:

1. The what question. What does God require?
2. The where question. Where does God require it particularly in my life? If we just leave it in abstraction it's not helpful to people.
3. Why should I do it? Doing the right things for the wrong reasons is wrong. So if I have told people to do right things but their motivation is self-protection or self-promotion, then selfishness is driving them. So even if they are doing right things it's actually abhorrent to God if it doesn't have the right motivation.
4. Finally, how can I do what you're telling me the Bible requires me to do?

Often preachers don't put enough energy into specific application of the text, thinking, Well, that's not really my obligation. Well that's just plain cruelty, because if I say to someone, "You must do something," and their question is, "How?", if my response is, "I'm not going to tell you, that's cruelty.

And yet, I must tell you that most people sit down in the pew or the folding chair and they already know what to do. They know they're not supposed to lie, and they know they're not supposed to steal, and they know they're not supposed to commit adultery. They already know what to do. They'll struggle a bit more with, "Where does that make a difference in my life?" But the real questions that most people struggle with are the ones we least address, which are the Why? and the How? questions. Why should I do it? How can I do this apparently impossible thing you're asking me to do? As obscure as it may seem, I will actually say that grace is answering the How? and the Why? question.

The Why? question is the motivation by love. If I ask the question, "Why should I obey God?", the answer is, "The love of God should constrain me." And so I say, "Well, how do I learn to love God?", the answer is, "I love him because he first loved me." That means grace is actually providing the loving motivation for obedience to God and as the direct response to what Christ said. So clearly, "If you love me you'll keep my commands."

Many people think that grace will lead to antinomianism or disobedience. And my response is always the heart that is most full of love for Christ wants to walk with him. And that's actually what Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commands." There is a math of the mind that says, "If God's grace is so great then he'll forgive me and I can sin. He'll forgive me later." And you really can't deny that math, because we actually believe that God will forgive you later. If you confess your sin he's faithful and just to forgive your sin.

But the reality is that there is a chemistry of the heart that is stronger than the math of the mind. If I am fully in love with Christ, I do not want to abuse his grace. That chemistry of the heart is what Christ was after when he spoke about "If you love me you will obey my commands." He didn't say if you love me you'll abuse my grace and take advantage of me. That would not be a definition of love.

Love for Christ is the motivation the Bible is requiring when the Lord says the greatest commandment: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength." That love is engendered not by self-protection, not by self-promotion, but by an understanding that God loved me when I was yet his enemy, and he continues to love me even when I fail. So knowing the grace of God as motivation is why I'm insistent on the grace of God being preached from all the Scriptures.

Be sure to read Part 2 of this interview.

Bryan Chapell is the senior pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church in Peoria, Illinois.