Outrageous Grace

Grace.

 

My first thoughts when I hear the word grace are of forgiveness and second chances and 'how sweet the sound'.  But they're quiet, unassuming, gentle ideas.  'Grace' conjures up someone who is just too nice, someone who is slow to anger and quick to forgive.

 

It is a sanitised, domesticated, safe word.

 

But it is not what God means by 'grace'.

 

Yes, God is slow to anger, quick to forgive and quick to love.  But His grace is also outrageous.  It is offensive and provocative and unbelievable.

 

It doesn't make sense.  It doesn't add up.  It isn't fair.

 

Those who are 'good' are no more entitled to it than those who are worse than the worst.  It has nothing to do with us and everything to with Jesus.  It is free for those who want it.  It is available to Christians, Atheists, 'good' people, charity workers, those in need of charity, the homeless, teachers, the uneducated, doctors, the sick, lawyers, law-breakers, children, adults, men, women.  It is available to all who want it.

 

It can't be bought, it can't be fathomed, it can't be exhausted.

 

I love this verse in Romans which describes it:

"Sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace.  When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down.  All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it.  Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life—a life that goes on and on and on, world without end."

 

[Romans 5:20-21 MSG]

 

The aggressive forgiveness we call grace.

 

Grace is not gentle, or softly-spoken.  It does not tiptoe around the edge of awkward situations.  It does not turn its back on our sin.

 

Instead, it plunges into our chaotic, sinful mess and invites us into life - deep, fulfilled, whole, true, eternal life.

 

Perhaps instead of singing John Newton's famous hymn, we should sing,

 

Outrageous grace

How fierce the sound

That saved a wretch like me.

 

 

Once In Royal David's City

There is a line in the Carol 'Once in Royal David's City' which I refuse to sing every time.

Christian children all must be

Mild, obedient, good as he.

Mild.  Obedient.  Good.

I don't disagree with the idea of Jesus being good or obedient.  In fact, He is only worth worshipping because of how good He is and how perfectly obedient He was to God's will. 

But mild?

 

The Oxford online dictionary defines 'mild' as -

 

not severe, serious, or harsh; not intense or extreme; gentle and not easily provoked

Yes, Jesus is, at times, gentle.

 

But He was also wildly provocative.  He asked uncomfortable questions, He gave uncomfortable answers.  He didn't just follow the religious leaders of the day with their hundreds of rules and regulations.  In fact, He frequently opposed or flouted them. 

 

Many times in the Gospels, we read that the people plotted to kill Jesus, because of the things that He said or did.

 

That's not mild.

 

On one occasion, Jesus was provoked by the way people were abusing the Temple by selling animals for sacrifice at extortionate prices.

 

"Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out all the people buying and selling animals for sacrifice.  He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves.  He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves!”

 

[Matthew 21:12-13 NLT] 

 

There is something wild and passionate and furious in the heart of Jesus here.  Something provocative and provoked, something intense and serious. 

 

He is far from mild.

 

As C. S. Lewis wrote about Aslan,

 

"Safe?  Who said anything about safe?  'Course he isn't safe.  But he's good."

 

 

He is not safe and He is not mild.  But He's good.  And He's on our side.
 

I love these words in the chorus of Jeremy Riddle's song 'Furious'

 

          "His love is deep, His love is wide

          And it covers us

          His love is fierce, His love is strong

          It is furious

          His love is sweet, His love is wild

          And it's waking hearts to life."

 

 

Perhaps this year, I won't sing mild, obedient, good as he, but wild, obedient, good as He.