Ridiculous Grace: The Thing That Makes Christians Peculiar

My generous thanks to Richard Dahlstrom out in Seattle for finding/posting the following quote. He was our pastor when we were living there and he continues to be a great source of intelligent and spirit-filled instruction.

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The following note was found on the body of dead child in the Ravesnbruck concentration camp in Germany:

"O Lord, remember not only men and women of good will, but ill will. But do not only remember the suffering they have inflicted on us, remember the fruits we have brought thanks to this suffering; our comradship, our loyalty, the courage, the generosity, the greatness of heart which has grown out of all this. And when they come to judgment, let the fruits that we have borne be their forgiveness. Amen. Amen. Amen."

When I read this quote the other day, it shattered me to the core.

You see, for the majority of the world working toward goodness, righting wrong, and acting ethically is either a social or religious imperative. Most of us follow a set of moral or philosophical rules that are supposed to make us better people and most of us also do our best to invite the world to follow suit. Sometimes its through proselytizing our beliefs, or education, or even through force- stopping others from "evil" by the sword or the pen or the law and causing them to end their wickedness and move toward something better.

But that’s not really grace.

Grace is that child who witnesses the horrors of war- sees his sisters raped, tortured, and burned alive in a furnace and then earnestly prays to God that the patience, comradship, loyalty, courage, generosity, and greatness of heart that has grown within him are enough to cover the evil of those who enacted such violence against him.

In other words, it sort of like forgiveness by proxy- unattached to any sort of change of heart or behavior on behalf of those who need it. In this case, grace is not so much that the ill-willed oppressors repent, but that they are forgiven despite themselves, or even in spite of themselves.

Grace is the Son of God, dying on two planks of wood and crying out “Forgive them, for they know not what they do!”

And this is the aspect of Christianity that I find most compelling.

Grace, is ridiculous.

It's completely against human nature.

And yet, it’s undeniably one of the more important elements of Christ’s Spirit and the heart that He has for the world. Without it, I'm afraid, we'd all be sunk.