Extravagant Grace – Scandal of the Gospel. This idea forms a chapter in The Gospel-Shaped Life by Ian Hamilton. The gospel is so gracious in mercy; some may actually be scandalized by it.
Do you find it hard to pray for some people, say certain politicians and activists who incite violence? I do. I confess to sometimes being drawn to the Imprecatory Psalms. We imagine the people we’re reluctant to pray for are so much worse than we are, and need to be punished.
Of course we can appeal to examples such as Hitler, Stalin or one of the many serial killers in America’s history. But this attitude can also prevail in our personal affairs (I’m speaking from experience). There are those who we think have done us wrong, and those we know have treated us badly. Do we pray for them? Are we scandalized that God loves believers, who have mistreated us, just as much He loves us?
According to Hamilton the extravagance and scandal of the gospel can be seen in the salvation of King Manasseh. He was so evil he sacrificed his own sons to Moloch. Yet God saved him. Likewise, King David seduced another man’s wife and then arranged for him to be killed. David was an adulterer and a murderer. Yet God saved him.
Many of us may take comfort that (perhaps) we haven’t committed such horrendous sins. The Paul Washer Experiment continues to haunt me, however. Washer posited a scenario where you sit down with your friends and every thought that ever crossed your mind is flashed up as a movie. How would you feel about that? The very idea of that gives me chills. I desperately cling to Extravagant Grace.
Hamilton made some wise observations:
There is, of course, a danger in preaching grace and living grace. Too often the extravagance of God’s grace has become an excuse for living a lawless life….
The question we must ask ourselves is, How would my church, how would I, cope with an influx of world-stained sinners? We like things in the church to be just as we think they should be, that is, just what makes us comfortable… How ready and willing are we to start where people are and not where we would like them to be?
For many of us the problem is not in confessing the extravagance of God’s grace, but in practising and embracing that grace in our relationships with ‘sinners’. God’s grace in Christ is deeply unsettling.
Return unto thy rest…
My heart is resting, O my God;
I will give thanks and sing;
My heart is at the secret source
Of every precious thing.
I have a heritage of joy
That yet I must not see;
The hand that bled to make it mine
Is keeping it for me.
My heart is resting on His truth,
Who hath made all things mine,
Who draws my captive will to Him
And makes it one with Thine.
(Anna Letitia Waring – Spurgeon’s Own Hymn Book)
Maranatha
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