Let Grace Flood In

The reformer, preaching on John the Baptist's declaration in John 1, 'Behold the Lamb of God'--

May you ever cherish and treasure this thought. . . . It would be spectacular and amazing, prompting all the world to open its ears and eyes, mouth and nose in uncomprehending wonderment, if some king's son were to appear in a beggar's home to nurse him in his illness, wash off his filth, and do everything else the beggar would have to do. Would this not be profound humility? Any spectator . . . of this honor would feel impelled to admit that he had seen or experienced something unusual and extraordinary, something magnificent.

But what is a king or an emperor compared with the Son of God? Furthermore, what is a beggar's filth or stench compared with the filth of sin which is ours by nature, stinking a hundred times worse and looking infinitely more repulsive to God than any foul matter found in a hospital?

And yet the love of the Son of God for us is of such magnitude that the greater the filth and stench of our sins, the more He befriends us.

--Martin Luther, LW 22:166

Did you get that? Everything in us screams: The less the filth and stench of our sins, the more He befriends us. After all, that's how we all function on a horizontal level, with other people. But Luther is right. The more sin, the more cleansing friendship. The only thing that can stop grace is our own self-________: self-reliance, self-justification, self-improvement.

Open it up. Let grace flood in. That's all it takes. We have but to ask. Grace is spring-loaded, ready to overwhelm us as soon as we stop playing the game.
Dane Ortlund