I have a thought that’s been bouncing around in my head and I have been hoping to come up with some really clear and helpful way of expressing it.
But being impatient, I’m just going to blog it now.
Maybe we rhapsodize about grace in order to stay self-righteous.
Maybe saying that God was so gracious as to use Rahab (prostitute), Jephthah (son of prostitute, outcase, gang leader), or Tamar (one-time prostitute via father-in-law), etc, we are missing the point.
If we say the Bible is teaching how gracious God is, what are we saying? That we don’t need grace as much.
Maybe the real point is that we’re not supposed to be self-righteous. Jephthah was rejected until God reduced his hometown to desperation so they were forced to agree to make him their ruler. At first, Judah was ready to have Tamar burned to death for the exact same sin as himself (one that he must have been guilty of repeatedly). If Joshua had sent you and me to spy out Jericho, would we have been willing to be caught dead in Rahab’s house?
This is why it is important to know what sinner means, not anyone so that you can continue to separate those who are loathsome from those who are tolerable, but so that you can know that how you treat someone who is loathsome is really yours and my true test of faith.
Yeah, it is really about grace.
Maybe it’s not talking about grace “too much,” but talking about it so much with reference to being amazed at how God uses other people, or does things that we’ve somehow decided are unexpected by our standards, and not with reference to being amazed that we’re even allowed to have a Bible at all instead of having been wiped out in the flood or something.
I guess that’s what you mean, as well.
Nice post.
I might put it like this: we use the word “grace” as an abstraction without realizing the full depth of what it means.
With my ethics students, I will sometimes ask this: “It’s currently 1 PM. You’ve been up for about six hours now. What percentage of that time have you being engaged in loving God with heart, soul, mind, and strength and loving your neighbor as yourself?” The responses are (depressingly) predictable: less than 5%.
It’s true for me, too. I have my head in the feed-bag, and God and neighbor simply aren’t on the radar screen — that’s how arrogant I am.
“Grace” means, among other things, that God lets me live, arrogant as I am. More, Jesus is not ashamed to call me ‘brother.’ That fact now has horizontal implications.
I think you’ve tapped into a wonderful trajectory here.
Jeff Cagle
It seems that God is trying to teach me something about grace and my own arrogance lately. Thanks for your thoughts, honey. They are helpful as well as convicting.
Jennifer, when I read you latest blog post (Girl Meets God – Quote 2), I thought the second part (her attitude toward many of the people in her life and church) echoed some of what Mark is getting at here. And I agree with you – helpful and convicting.
(If I knew for sure how to link your post directly I would, but Mark has a link at the top of his right sidebar.)
Mom,
Yes. That second quote was I was thinking of when I made the comment here.
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