Pastor Tullian Tchividjian concludes Chapter 1 of One Way Love with the assertion that we often resist grace, even though it is beautiful and lifesaving. By nature, he notes, we’re suspicious of promises that seem too good to be true.
Tullian states that we resist grace because:
1. even if we’re able to accept God’s one-way love when it comes our way, we have trouble when grace is extended to those who have wronged us.
2. grace runs counter to our earthly sense of justice by being both implausible and unfair.
3. grace relieves us of our precious sense of control, making us uncomfortable that the tables have been turned.
4. by distrusting the idea of complete rest in God’s promised generosity, we try to domesticate the message of grace.
Robert Capon articulates the prayer of the grace-averse heart:
“Restore to us, Preacher, the comfort of merit and demerit. Prove for us that there is at least something we can do, that we are still, at whatever dim recess of our nature, the masters of our relationships. . . . Give us something, anything; but spare us the indignity of this indiscriminate acceptance.”
Pastor Tchividjian concludes that grace is worth coming back to again and again, because it is “the most dangerous, expectation-wrecking, smile-creating, counterintuitive reality there is.”
Today’s question: What has made it most difficult for you to extend grace to those involved in your vocation loss? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Crime and punishment”
