Meditations on Grace

"How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!"

Romans 11:33

I recently had a discussion with some good friends of mine about a quote given by a well-respected Christian author. The quote read: "Too many rules is legalistic but too much grace is enabling." I understand the point that the author was trying to make, and I don't disagree with the heart of the argument he was giving regarding discipline, but it still made my skin crawl. I don't fault the author for it as, one friend reminded me, our language does use the word grace in this context rather frequently. But my hope is that the world can recognize that this definition falls terribly short of what is intended when "grace" is referenced in the New Testament.

As I speak to this, please know that I do not see myself as an expert but as a life-long sojourner whose awe broadens with each new city I discover. Everything that I write is a humble attempt to make sense of the nonsensical. I just wanted to throw that qualifier (or dis-qualifier) in there before I continue.

While legalism and grace do, I think, stand in stark contrast to one another, New Testament grace in its truest sense never ENABLES a person to indulge in what law forbids. It does sometimes supersede the law and it always forgives even the most heinous offenses, but grace includes the healing balm that frees the one that it touches. It doesn't simply turn a blind eye to evil or offer some free passes and leniency here and there. It looks evil head on and actually reveals just how ugly and wrong it is. But rather than ignore it or condemn it, grace surprisingly lets it be while revealing an incomparably better way. That may not be what you expected me to say, but it's the truth. Grace allows the wretchedness of evil to play out to its ultimate conclusion. It even absorbs the evil into itself so that it can identify and empathize with the pain of the one that has been wrecked by it. But grace doesn't stop there. It's much more relentless than that. In its allowance of evil, it embraces the one caught in evil's grip and teaches a new way to live. Without force, manipulation or coercion, grace simply opens blind eyes and deaf ears. It restores all that was destroyed. 

Having said that, the methods that grace uses are vast and mysterious. There is no one way that its infinitely creative methods chooses to work (because it will not manipulate or control to achieve its sovereign will, it has to think outside the box). There is no structure or boundary that can keep the arms and legs of grace from dancing where it will. The law, however, is a stone temple. It's a statue that has no heart and no mind of its own. Grace is a person known to the New Testament as Jesus of Nazareth. He is living and breathing and sees the beautiful people behind their behavior. He knows, for example, that the woman caught in adultery doesn't need to be stoned as commanded by the law. She's a fellow human being, after all! What one among us has not hurt another person through our selfishness?

He knows the Samaritan woman at the well, the social outcast that can't keep a husband, doesn't need to be shunned as the mores of the time demanded. He sees all of the ugliness and baggage that has been attached to her existence and he still says that abundant life can flow from her innermost being. Grace doesn't know how to disqualify.

He also sees through the empty exterior of Nicodemas, a Pharisee and ruler of the Jews who comes to speak with Jesus under the cover of night. In the true spirit of grace, Jesus doesn't tippy toe around him with niceties and say, "You're doing a great job following all the rules and keeping God's chosen people in line! Well done there, lad." No, he invites him to open his eyes to the way of the Spirit of God, which is free and moves with the unpredictability of the wind. He tells him that God's way is not to condemn under the unbending demands of Israel's instituted tradition, but to save the offenders of this law through love, mercy and self-giving. Grace isn't a one-size-fits-all teaching method. If there are 7 billion people on the planet, then there are at least  that many expressions of grace in action.

Paul called the law a tutor for children, and it is. But it is a tutor that, by itself, has no heart or brains to realize that its students aren't produced by a robotics manufacturer. That is why the writer of Hebrews called its enforcement "inferior". Jesus didn't come to set up a new system with a proper balance BETWEEN law and grace. He came to offer grace upon grace upon grace and in so doing, he fulfilled the fullest extent of the law with a righteousness that EXCEEDED that of the Pharisees. It was a righteousness called Love. In 1Corinthians Paul also teaches about love inviting us to leave childish ways behind. One of the brilliances of the cross of our crucified Christ is that it exposes the childish nature of adhering strictly to the stone-carved letter. The fact that the law could legitimately condemn a man to death for "blasphemously" referring to God as his Father and leader of this compassionate inclusion of "sinners" brings such immaturity to light.

I heard recently that the Dalai Lama has been quoted as saying, "Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively." That sounds like our Lord.

I'm reading a book by Annie Dillard called "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek". She has just finished talking about a certain kind of wasp that kills honeybees by squeezing its abdomen in order to drink the sweet honey from its mouth. While observing this, the wasp was then captured by a praying mantis who began eating the wasp. While the wasp was being eaten, he continued drinking the honey from his bee. Following this description, Ms. Dillard says:

"Nature is, above all, profligate. Don't believe them when they tell you how economical and thrifty nature is, whose leaves return to the soil. Wouldn't it be cheaper to leave them on the tree in the first place? This deciduous business alone is a radical scheme, the brainchild of a deranged manic-depressive with limitless capital. Extravagance! Nature will try anything once. This is what the sign of the insects says. No form is too gruesome, no behavior too grotesque. If you're dealing with organic compounds, then let them combine. If it works, if it quickens, set it clacking in the grass; there's always room for one more; you ain't so handsome yourself. This is a spendthrift economy; though nothing is lost, all is spent."

Now THAT is a good description of the indescribable grace. Grace doesn't water down the written code. But, by nature, it is much grander than the law. It holds it in it's inescapable grip and transforms its slaves into free sons and daughters. There's no one too gruesome, no behavior too grotesque. The lavish heart of grace just doesn't know how to give up. Oh the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!