Philip Yancey, in his book, What’s So Amazing About Grace? asks some tough questions about the current state of Christianity. In reflecting on how people interacted with Jesus he noticed that people who once ran to Jesus now seem to run away from him (or at least his Church). The worse people felt about themselves the more likely they were to seek out Jesus. Today, not so much (again, at least not through the Church).
So what happened? Does the Christian story matter anymore?
Throughout history, as human beings have tried to come to terms with God (if there is a God), we’ve almost always seen God as angry; as a Being not only deeply disappointed in us but downright disgusted with us—or most of us, anyway.
Yet, this God seemingly and begrudgingly offers us a way out. If we
Follow certain laws
Get our act together
Make the right sacrifices
Believe the right things
then maybe, just maybe, God will accept us.
We see that storyline in almost every religion and spirituality known to humankind—a storyline that says that we have to earn God’s love somehow in some way. And once we’ve earned it, we’re in. And once we’re in we now have the right to judge and condemn those who are out.
All too often, Christianity, as a religion, seems to say the same thing. One doesn’t have to look far to see it:
Christians threaten non-Christians with an eternity in a fireball of torture and despair
Christians determine who can come to church and who can’t
Christians become the arbitrators of who God will love and who God can’t possibly love—all the while pretty certain, of course, that God loves us!
But when anyone, Christian or not, takes a look at Jesus, they see a shockingly and scandalously different view of God. A radical view of God. A God so foreign to our impressions of God that we simply can’t believe it.
Jesus shows us a God of messy grace:
A God who doesn’t condemn—but loves
Who doesn’t judge—but forgives
Who doesn’t demand right behavior—but transforms us with kindness
This view of a God of grace was so radical that Jesus was ultimately killed because of it. This view of a God of grace is so radical today that most churches built on the name of Jesus can’t fully buy into it.
And yet it’s precisely that radical, messy, scandalous, unearned, splashed-indiscriminately-on-everyone grace that makes the Christian story unique. It is the only religion or spiritual expression on planet earth that stakes its claim on God’s unconditional love.
Christianity is the story of radical grace. It’s the story of a God who always runs to us with love. It’s the story of
A rancher who paid those who had only worked an hour a full days’ wage.
A shepherd who leaves behind 99 sheep, risking his life to find the one lost lamb.
A woman who rips her whole house apart to find one lost coin.
A father who throws a feast for rebellious son.
The God who enters into human history as one of us.
Jesus who died for his enemies.
The God who finds us worth dying for.
Christianity may or may not be true. I can’t answer that question for you. But what sets it apart, what makes it unique is Jesus and his unrelenting grace. And the radical go-to-the-cross promise that
You are the one God loves
You are the one God forgives
God is for you
Period!
You can reach me at Tim@TimWrightMinistries.org