The gospel
of justification by faith is such a shocker, such an explosion, because
it is an absolutely unconditional promise. It is not an “if-then” kind
of statement, but “because-therefore” pronouncement: because Jesus died
and rose, your sins are forgiven and you are righteous in the sight of
God! It bursts in upon our little world all shut up and barricaded
behind our accustomed conditional thinking as some strange comet from
goodness-knows-where, something we can’t really seem to wrap our minds
around, the logic of which appears closed to us. How can it be entirely
unconditional? Isn’t it terribly dangerous? How can anyone say flat out,
“You are righteous for Jesus’ sake? Is there not some price to be paid,
some-thing (however minuscule) to be done? After all, there can’t be
such thing as a free lunch, can there?”You see, we really are sealed up in the prison of our conditional thinking. It is terribly difficult for us to get out, and even if someone batters down the door and shatters the bars, chances are we will stay in the prison anyway! We seem always to want to hold out for something somehow, that little bit of something, and we do it with a passion and an anxiety that betrays its true source–the Old Adam that just does not want to lose control.
Mockingbird
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