Monday, April 30, 2012
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Friday, April 27, 2012
I Am Going to Him
On August 23, 1683--the day before he died--John Owen dictated a final letter to his friend Charles Fleetwood. Part of it reads:
Dane Ortlund
I am going to Him whom my soul hath loved, or rather who hath loved me with an everlasting love; which is the whole ground of all my consolation. The passage is very irksome and wearysome through strong pains of various sorts which are all issued in an intermitting fever . . . I am leaving the ship of the church in a storm, but whilst the great Pilot is in it the loss of a poor under-rower will be inconsiderable.--quoted in Sinclair Ferguson, John Owen on the Christian Life (Banner of Truth, 1987), 18
Dane Ortlund
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Grace Brings Us Into A New Covenant
Grace introduces us to a new covenant, a
new agreement between God and us. It’s not like the old covenant. What’s the
difference? Here are some of the terms of the new covenant that God has made
with people in Christ Jesus.
He forgives our sins freely. “I will remember their sins and their lawless
deeds, no more” (Heb.10:18). “Behold
the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John1:29). The
Lamb of God has removed them and put them aside forever!
Christians are now God’s people. “I will be their God and they shall be my
people; I will be a Father to you and you shall be sons and daughters to me” (2Cor.6:16-18).
Christians are God’s people in this intimate relationship of father to
children. We are the special objects of his concern.
What is God’s purpose for His people? “This is the will of God, your sanctification” (1Thess.4:3).
Paul wrote to Titus our “Savior Jesus
Christ, who gave himself for us” Why? “To
redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own
possession who are zealous of good works” (Titus 2:14). Jesus last
prayer for before he died, was “Sanctify
them in the truth: your word is truth” (John17:17).
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
The Law Is Abolished and the Law Continues: Why Matthew and Paul Don’t Disagree
Vern Poythress:
Some people might suppose from a superficial reading of Matthew that Matthew asserts almost pure continuity of the law, and enjoins us merely to keep the same old law in the same form as always, only now empowered with the presence of Christ. In fact, however, the coming of Christ is the coming of the kingdom of God, the climactic fulfillment of all to which the Old Testament pointed. Reality supersedes shadows. Hence radical transformation of the law is included.
Conversely, some people might suppose from a superficial reading of Paul that Paul primarily asserts only discontinuity in the law. The law is dead and gone, not to be obeyed, virtually irrelevant for Christian living (cf. Eph. 2:15; Rom. 7:1-6; Gal. 2:19). But Paul too sees the law as comprehensively fulfilled in Christ (Rom. 15:4-6; 1 Cor. 10:1-13; cf. Rom. 8:4; 13:10-14). When understood properly it is a most impressive means of communion with Christ (2 Cor. 3:15-18).
The apparent differences between Matthew and Paul arise largely from the differences between their immediate concerns and goals.
Paul asserts the abolition of the law loud and clear, lest anyone miss it and destroy the unity of Jews and Gentiles as free people in Christ.
Matthew asserts the continuation of the law loud and clear, lest anyone miss it and think that Jesus is not the true Jewish Messiah.
But at a deep level they agree.
Matthew’s assertions are qualified by the idea of fulfillment, which involves radical transformation through Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection.
Paul’s denials are qualified by his vigorous affirmations concerning the character of the law: it is God’s prophetic revelation looking forward to Christ and still now revealing him in his righteousness and mercy. The law is abolished in the sense that the fulness has come and the temporary has come to an end. The law continues in the sense that seen in the light of Christ, it still speaks his word to us.
In short, we may speak either of abolition or of continuation, as we wish, provided we understand the depths and richnesses involved in what we should affirm in a total picture.
—Vern S. Poythress, “Fulfillment of the Law in the Gospel according to Matthew,” The Shadow of Christ in the Law of Moses (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 1991), 281-282.
Justin Taylor
Some people might suppose from a superficial reading of Matthew that Matthew asserts almost pure continuity of the law, and enjoins us merely to keep the same old law in the same form as always, only now empowered with the presence of Christ. In fact, however, the coming of Christ is the coming of the kingdom of God, the climactic fulfillment of all to which the Old Testament pointed. Reality supersedes shadows. Hence radical transformation of the law is included.
Conversely, some people might suppose from a superficial reading of Paul that Paul primarily asserts only discontinuity in the law. The law is dead and gone, not to be obeyed, virtually irrelevant for Christian living (cf. Eph. 2:15; Rom. 7:1-6; Gal. 2:19). But Paul too sees the law as comprehensively fulfilled in Christ (Rom. 15:4-6; 1 Cor. 10:1-13; cf. Rom. 8:4; 13:10-14). When understood properly it is a most impressive means of communion with Christ (2 Cor. 3:15-18).
The apparent differences between Matthew and Paul arise largely from the differences between their immediate concerns and goals.
Paul asserts the abolition of the law loud and clear, lest anyone miss it and destroy the unity of Jews and Gentiles as free people in Christ.
Matthew asserts the continuation of the law loud and clear, lest anyone miss it and think that Jesus is not the true Jewish Messiah.
But at a deep level they agree.
Matthew’s assertions are qualified by the idea of fulfillment, which involves radical transformation through Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection.
Paul’s denials are qualified by his vigorous affirmations concerning the character of the law: it is God’s prophetic revelation looking forward to Christ and still now revealing him in his righteousness and mercy. The law is abolished in the sense that the fulness has come and the temporary has come to an end. The law continues in the sense that seen in the light of Christ, it still speaks his word to us.
In short, we may speak either of abolition or of continuation, as we wish, provided we understand the depths and richnesses involved in what we should affirm in a total picture.
—Vern S. Poythress, “Fulfillment of the Law in the Gospel according to Matthew,” The Shadow of Christ in the Law of Moses (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 1991), 281-282.
Justin Taylor
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
His Eye Is On The Sparrow
God knows everything about us and our
circumstances. His eye is on us, so we are never alone. The great song, “His Eye Is On The Sparrow” tells us,
“Why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows come, why should my
heart be lonely and long for heaven and home, when Jesus is my portion? My
constant friend is He; His eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me”.
When you feel all alone, when you feel you
are in a dark place, you know that the eternal God, who knows everything, is
there with you. And even though you don’t have comprehensive knowledge and have
many blind spots in your life, the God who sees everything is helping to
navigate the way for us, through life.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Levon Helm - Gloryland - Michigan Theatre - March 19, 2012
This song is from the Levon Helm Band show at the Michigan Theatre in Ann Arbor on March 19th, 2012. The band closed the show with "The Weight", but Levon Helm, Amy Helm, Teresa Williams, and Larry Campbell returned to the stage to perform this song. I recorded the song that night on my phone and wanted to post it for other fans in tribute to this amazing man. He certainly touched our life as he did many other fans.
Gloryland:
If you have friends in Gloryland,
Who left because of pain
Thank God up there, they'll die no more
They'll suffer not again.
So weep not friends, I'm goin' home
Up there we'll die no more
No coffins will be made up there
No graves on that bright shore
The doctor will not have to call
The undertaker, no
There'll be no pain up there to bear
Just walk the streets of gold
So weep not friends, I'm goin' home
Up there we'll die no more
No coffins will be made up there
No graves on that bright shore
Metta World Peace decks James Harden with elbow: Oklahoma City Thunder at Los Angeles Lakers
Ron Artest is the guy who started malice at the Palace when Indiana played Detroit, and he attacked fans in their seats. He changes his name to World Peace and then purposely elbows a guy in the head giving him a head concussion. World Peace should be thrown in jail and his name should be changed to World Moron.
The Central Core of My Life
Jack Miller:
Dane Ortlund
Personally I do not see anyone as a special case with special problems. . . . As Christians we all believe in the forgiveness of sins. Whenever we confess them to God through Christ, we know that they are released from having power over us and the guilt is removed through His atoning sacrifice. But often this does not really control where we live on a practical level. What we are saying is just words, good words, yes, but words nonetheless which have no reference to where we really live and believe.
But it does not have to be this way. I can begin to build my life on the platform of God's forgiving grace. I can make the central core of my life the knowledge that Christ died for me and thus removed my guilt and with that accepted me permanently as His son.--The Heart of a Servant-Leader: Letters from Jack Miller (P&R, 2004), 253
Dane Ortlund
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Charles Colson (1931-2012)
The announcement is here.
Some obituaries and reflections:
Sarah Pulliam Bailey at Christianity Today
Emily Belz at World
Jonathan Aitken at CT
Tom Gilson at The Gospel Coalition
Ed Stetzer
Rich Lowry
Mr. Colson’s memoir Born Again was published in 1975. Earlier that year he had been released from a seven-month stint in federal prison after pleading guilty of obstructing justice in the Watergate investigation. He had converted to Christianity in 1973 after serving four years as Special Counsel for President Richard Nixon. C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity was pivotal in his spiritual repentance and awakening. The memoir was made into a 1978 film starring Dean Jones.
In 2005 Jonathan Aitken—himself a former politician turned prison turned convert to Christianity turned author—penned an authorized biography, Charles W. Colson: A Life Redeemed (WaterBrook Press).
Justin Taylor
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Lyle Lovett’s "God Will": Why We Don’t Like Grace
Anyways, this all put me in mind of “God Will,” a great Lyle Lovett song from his first album way back in 1986. It gets at the radical difference between God’s forgiveness and the human tendency towards law-enforcing and grudge-bearing. It also points to the fact that for humans to forgive, it really takes a work of the Holy Spirit. That is, God needs to change you on the inside.
Who keeps on trusting you
When you’ve been cheating
And spending your nights on the town?
And who keeps on saying that he still wants you
When you’re through running around?
And who keeps on loving you
When you’ve been lying
Saying things ain’t what they seem?
God does
But I don’t
God will
But I won’t
And that’s the difference
Between God and me
So who says he’ll forgive you
And says that he’ll miss you
And dream of your sweet memory?
God does
But I don’t
God will
But I won’t
And that’s the difference
Between God and me
Mockingbird
Friday, April 20, 2012
Home At Last - Looking Forward To My Real Home
Jewel the unicorn in The Last Battle at the end of all things in Narnia:
Hebrews 11:13 - 16 - The Living Bible
“I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here.
This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now.”"These men of faith I have mentioned died without ever receiving all that God had promised them; but they saw it all awaiting them on ahead and were glad, for they agreed that this earth was not their real home but that they were just strangers visiting down here. And quite obviously when they talked like that, they were looking forward to their real home in heaven. If they had wanted to, they could have gone back to the good things of this world. But they didn't want to. They were living for heaven. And now God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has made a heavenly city for them."
Hebrews 11:13 - 16 - The Living Bible
Unimaginable
C. S. Lewis, in an August 1956 letter to a certain Mrs. Johnson:
The good things even of this world are far too good ever to be reached by imagination. Even the common orange, you know: no one could have imagined it before he tasted it. How much less Heaven.Dane Ortlund
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Levon Helm dead at 71: Drummer for The Band succumbs to cancer
Levon Helm died Thursday at the age of 71, and a piece of the rich roots music now called Americana should be buried with him.
Helm, who was best known as the drummer for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group The Band, had been suffering from a recurrence of the cancer that cost him his singing voice a decade earlier.
Larry Campbell, music director for the Levon Helm Band, said he died peacefully at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, "surrounded by friends and bandmates and family."
Helm won three solo Grammys over a 65-year career in which he blended all the music he heard as a youth in Turkey Scratch, Ark.: country, blues, bluegrass, gospel, R&B, pop and rock 'n' roll.
"He was just a great rock 'n' roll drummer," said his long-time friend and admirer, radio host Don Imus. "He was also a genuinely sweet person - a true angel. There was no one like him."
Helm and The Band played for 600,000 fans at the 1973 Watkins Glen music festival, but his focus the last decade was the intimate weekly jam sessions he called Midnight Rambles at his studio/ barn in Woodstock, N.Y.
Artists like Emmylou Harris and Elvis Costello often dropped in for the sessions, which were open to the public. Helm said he modeled them after late-night performances by the traveling medicine shows he knew as a child.
Helm, who was best known as the drummer for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group The Band, had been suffering from a recurrence of the cancer that cost him his singing voice a decade earlier.
Larry Campbell, music director for the Levon Helm Band, said he died peacefully at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, "surrounded by friends and bandmates and family."
Helm won three solo Grammys over a 65-year career in which he blended all the music he heard as a youth in Turkey Scratch, Ark.: country, blues, bluegrass, gospel, R&B, pop and rock 'n' roll.
"He was just a great rock 'n' roll drummer," said his long-time friend and admirer, radio host Don Imus. "He was also a genuinely sweet person - a true angel. There was no one like him."
Helm and The Band played for 600,000 fans at the 1973 Watkins Glen music festival, but his focus the last decade was the intimate weekly jam sessions he called Midnight Rambles at his studio/ barn in Woodstock, N.Y.
Artists like Emmylou Harris and Elvis Costello often dropped in for the sessions, which were open to the public. Helm said he modeled them after late-night performances by the traveling medicine shows he knew as a child.
Levon Helm, of 'Band,' in 'final stages' of cancer
Helm, 71, was known for his soulful voice and for his involvement in The Band as drummer and backing vocals.
His daughter, Amy, and wife Sandy posted the following message on his website:
"Please send your prayers and love to him as he makes his way through this part of his journey," Thank you fans and music lovers who have made his life so filled with joy and celebration... he has loved nothing more than to play, to fill the room up with music, lay down the back beat, and make the people dance! He did it every time he took the stage…Helm was previously diagnosed with throat cancer -- on his vocal chords -- in 1998, CBS News reported. The disease nearly took away his voice, leaving him able to speak at just a whisper.
Helm was a smoker, and he smoked as many as three packs every day, according to CBS News.
"I think there's that secret little spot back there in your mind where you know something's wrong, but you don't want to admit it," Helm told the Albany Times Union in 2000. "You put it off, you know. But my family and friends made me go to the doctor, and that's when you start dealing with it."
Arkansas-born Helm was the only non-Canadian member of the Hawks, a group that first backed early rocker Ronnie Hawkins, and then gained fame in the mid-1960s accompanying Bob Dylan when the singer and songwriter "went electric" to the consternation of many hardcore folk music fans who'd previously supported him.
The Band worked closely with Dylan after he went into seclusion following a near-fatal 1966 motorcycle accident, recording a batch of influential songs that were widely bootlegged and only surfaced in official form in 1975 as "The Basement Tapes." The Band released its first album on its own in 1968, "Music from Big Pink," to broad critical acclaim. It included one of the group's signature songs "The Weight." It followed with the even more highly lauded sophomore album "The Band," which included "Up On Cripple Creek," "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" and "Rag Mama Rag."
As one of three lead singers for the band, along with Richard Manuel and Rick Danko, Helm was the dominant voice on such signature songs as "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," "Rag Mama Rag," "Ophelia," "Don't Do It" and "Daniel and the Sacred Harp." Manuel committed suicide in 1986 and Danko died of drug-related heart failure in 1999.
Members of the Band decided in 1976 to quit touring, and threw a gala final concert they called "The Last Waltz," which was captured on film by director Martin Scorsese.
Allman Borthers Band & Eric Clapton - Stormy Monday
Allman Brothers Band with special guest star Eric Clapton, live at The Beacon Theater on March 20th 2009 playing Stormy Monday.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
God's Bottomlessly Selfless Love
C. S. Lewis in the “The Problem With Pain” says, “God has no needs. Human love as
Plato teaches us is the child of Poverty— of a want or lack; it is caused by a
real or supposed good in its beloved which the lover needs and desires. But
God’s love, far from being caused by goodness in the object, caused all the
goodness which the object has, loving it first into existence and then into
real, though derivative, love-ability. God is Goodness. He can give good, but
cannot need or get it. In that sense all His love is, as it were, bottomlessly
selfless by very definition; it has everything to give and nothing to receive. Hence
if God sometimes speaks as though the impassible could suffer passion and
eternal fullness could be in want, and in want of those beings on whom it
bestows all from their bare existence upwards, this can mean only, if it means
anything intelligible by us, that the God of mere miracle has made Himself able
so to hunger and created in himself that which we can satisfy. If he requires
us, the requirement is of his own choosing. If the immutable heart can be
grieved by the puppets of its own making, it is Divine Omnipotence, no other,
that has so subjected it, freely and in a humility that passes understanding”
(pg. 50).
This is profound, let it challenge your mind as to your understanding of God's love.
Beautiful Day - Sanctus Real
Cover of the U2 song from In The Name Of Love - Artists United For Africa
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Grace Prevails
When talking about “the law”, we need to make an important
distinction. We can call it big “L” Law and little “l” law. Big “L” law
comes from God and is outlined in the Ten Commandments, reiterated in
the Sermon on the Mount, and summarized by Jesus as the command to “Love
the Lord with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength…and love our
neighbor” (of course, one could say more but that’s the gist of it). But
there’s another law (little “l”) that plays out in all kinds of ways in
daily life. Paul Zahl puts it this way:
The other day I was driving down the road near my house and I passed a sign in front of a store that read, “Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.” Meant to inspire drivers-by to work hard, live well, and avoid mistakes, it served as a booming voice of law to everyone that read it: “Don’t mess up. There are no second chances. You better get it right the first time.” Again, Paul Zahl chimes in insightfully:
An environment of law, as we all know, is an environment of fear. We are afraid of the judgment that the law wields. Or as the poet Czeslaw Milosz describes in his poem “A Many-Tiered Man”: “[Man] frightened of a verdict, now, for instance, or after his death.” We instinctually know that if we don’t measure up, the judge will punish us. When we feel this weight of judgment against us, we all tend to slip into the slavery of self-salvation: trying to appease the judge (friends, parents, spouse, ourselves) with hard work, good behavior, getting better, achievement, losing weight, and so on. We conclude, “If I can just stay out of trouble and get good grades, maybe my mom and dad will finally approve of me; If I can overcome this addiction, then I’ll be able to accept myself; If I can get thin, maybe my husband will finally think I’m beautiful; if I can make a name for myself and be successful, maybe I’ll get the respect I long for.”
The law stifles and causes us to second-guess ourselves. Have you ever found yourself writing and rewriting the same email over and over again? Or procrastinating on making a phone call? The recipient almost inevitably has become a stand-in for the law. We put people in this role with alarming facility.
The idea of “law” simply makes sense, and universally so. The Apostle Paul even claims that it is written on the heart (Romans 2:15). In fact, those that don’t believe in God tend to struggle with self-recrimination and self-hatred just as much as those that do; no one is free of guilt—the law is not subject to our belief in it. Some of us even compound our failures and suffering by heaping judgment upon judgment, intoxicated by the voice of “not-enoughness”, not content until we have usurped the role of the only One who is actually qualified to pass a sentence. In a 2005 interview with journalist Michka Assayas, U2 frontman Bono spoke eloquently about Law and Grace in terms of Karma:
The Gospel of Grace announces that Jesus came to acquit the guilty–he came to judge and be judged in our place. Christ came to satisfy the deep judgment against us once and for all so that we could be free from the judgment of God, others, and ourselves. He came to give rest to our efforts at trying to deal with judgment on our own. The Gospel declares that our guilt has been atoned for, the law has been fulfilled. So we don’t need to live under the burden of trying to appease the judgment we feel; in Christ the ultimate demand has been met, the deepest judgment has been satisfied. The internal voice that says “Do this and live” only get’s outvolumed by the external voice that says “It is finished!”
Yet there is nothing that is harder for us to wrap our minds around than the unconditional, non-contingent grace of God. In fact, it “defies our reason and logic,” upending our sense of fairness and offending our deepest intuitions, especially when it comes to those who have done us harm. Like Job’s friends, we insist that reality operate according to the predictable economy of reward and punishment. Like the elder brother in the Parable of the Prodigal son, we have worked too hard to give up now. The storm may be raging all around us, our foundations may be shaking, but we would rather perish than give up our “rights.”
Yet still the grace of God prevails! His gracious disposition toward us thankfully does not depend even on our ability to comprehend it. When we finally come to the end of ourselves, there it will be. There He will be. Just as He will be the next time we come to the end of ourselves, and the time after that, and the time after that.
Tullian Tchividjian
Law with a small “l” refers to an interior principle of demand or ought that seems universal in human nature. In this sense, law is any voice that makes us feel we must do something or be something to merit the approval of another. For example, what we shall call “the law of capability” is the demand a person may feel that he/she be 100% capable in everything he/she does–or else! In the Bible, the Law comes from God. In daily living, law is an internalized principle of self-accusation. We might say that the innumerable laws we carry inside us are bastard children of the Law.No one understood the dynamic of how the accusation of the law functions in the human psyche better than Martin Luther. He characterized the Law as, “a voice that man can never stop in this life,” one that can be heard anywhere and everywhere, not just on Sunday morning. It takes any number of forms, but its function remains the same: it accuses. Indeed, the “oughts” of life are as numerous as they are oppressive: infomercials promising a better life if you work at getting a better body, a neighbor’s new car, a beautiful person, the success of your co-worker- all these things have the potential to communicate “you’re not enough.”
The other day I was driving down the road near my house and I passed a sign in front of a store that read, “Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.” Meant to inspire drivers-by to work hard, live well, and avoid mistakes, it served as a booming voice of law to everyone that read it: “Don’t mess up. There are no second chances. You better get it right the first time.” Again, Paul Zahl chimes in insightfully:
In practice, the requirement of perfect submission to the commandments of God is exactly the same as the requirement of perfect submission to the innumerable drives for perfection that drive everyday people’s crippled and crippling lives. The commandment of God that we honor our father and mother is no different in impact, for example, than the commandment of fashion that a woman be beautiful or the commandment of culture that a man be boldly decisive and at the same time utterly tender.The world is full to the brim with law. Not just laws of Scripture, laws of science, and tax codes, but lesser, subjective laws. And they cause us enormous grief. Indeed, identity is an area of life frequently mired in legalities: “I must be __________ kind of person, and not ___________ kind of person if I’m ever going to be somebody.”
An environment of law, as we all know, is an environment of fear. We are afraid of the judgment that the law wields. Or as the poet Czeslaw Milosz describes in his poem “A Many-Tiered Man”: “[Man] frightened of a verdict, now, for instance, or after his death.” We instinctually know that if we don’t measure up, the judge will punish us. When we feel this weight of judgment against us, we all tend to slip into the slavery of self-salvation: trying to appease the judge (friends, parents, spouse, ourselves) with hard work, good behavior, getting better, achievement, losing weight, and so on. We conclude, “If I can just stay out of trouble and get good grades, maybe my mom and dad will finally approve of me; If I can overcome this addiction, then I’ll be able to accept myself; If I can get thin, maybe my husband will finally think I’m beautiful; if I can make a name for myself and be successful, maybe I’ll get the respect I long for.”
The law stifles and causes us to second-guess ourselves. Have you ever found yourself writing and rewriting the same email over and over again? Or procrastinating on making a phone call? The recipient almost inevitably has become a stand-in for the law. We put people in this role with alarming facility.
The idea of “law” simply makes sense, and universally so. The Apostle Paul even claims that it is written on the heart (Romans 2:15). In fact, those that don’t believe in God tend to struggle with self-recrimination and self-hatred just as much as those that do; no one is free of guilt—the law is not subject to our belief in it. Some of us even compound our failures and suffering by heaping judgment upon judgment, intoxicated by the voice of “not-enoughness”, not content until we have usurped the role of the only One who is actually qualified to pass a sentence. In a 2005 interview with journalist Michka Assayas, U2 frontman Bono spoke eloquently about Law and Grace in terms of Karma:
Against the tumult of conditionality–punishment and reward, score-keeping, Karma, you-get-what-you-deserve, big “L” Law, little “l” law, whatever name you choose—comes the second of God’s two words, His Grace. Grace is the gift that has no strings attached. It is one-way love. It is what makes the Good News so good, the once for all proclamation the there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). It is the simple equation that Jesus plus Nothing equals Everything.At the center of all religions is the idea of Karma. What you put out comes back to you: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physics, every action is met by an equal and opposite one. It’s clear to me that Karma is at the very heart of the Universe. I’m absolutely sure of it. And yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that “as you reap, so will you sow” stuff. Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I’ve done a lot of stupid stuff… I’d be in big trouble if Karma was going to finally be my judge. It doesn’t excuse my mistakes, but I’m holding out for Grace. I’m holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the Cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don’t have to depend on my own religiosity.
The Gospel of Grace announces that Jesus came to acquit the guilty–he came to judge and be judged in our place. Christ came to satisfy the deep judgment against us once and for all so that we could be free from the judgment of God, others, and ourselves. He came to give rest to our efforts at trying to deal with judgment on our own. The Gospel declares that our guilt has been atoned for, the law has been fulfilled. So we don’t need to live under the burden of trying to appease the judgment we feel; in Christ the ultimate demand has been met, the deepest judgment has been satisfied. The internal voice that says “Do this and live” only get’s outvolumed by the external voice that says “It is finished!”
Yet there is nothing that is harder for us to wrap our minds around than the unconditional, non-contingent grace of God. In fact, it “defies our reason and logic,” upending our sense of fairness and offending our deepest intuitions, especially when it comes to those who have done us harm. Like Job’s friends, we insist that reality operate according to the predictable economy of reward and punishment. Like the elder brother in the Parable of the Prodigal son, we have worked too hard to give up now. The storm may be raging all around us, our foundations may be shaking, but we would rather perish than give up our “rights.”
Yet still the grace of God prevails! His gracious disposition toward us thankfully does not depend even on our ability to comprehend it. When we finally come to the end of ourselves, there it will be. There He will be. Just as He will be the next time we come to the end of ourselves, and the time after that, and the time after that.
Tullian Tchividjian
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