“It is finished.” Among the last words of Jesus before His death, this statement summarizes the Gospel. Everything that had to be done for our forgiveness was done. Finished. Accomplished. Completed. Paid in full.
Thus, by the death of Jesus. the grace of God is extended to anyone who wants it, regardless of the nature of their sin. Murderers can be forgiven: St. Paul was. Betrayers can be forgiven: St. Peter was. Thieves, liars, cheats, adulterers, the whole list: if it’s a sin, it can be forgiven by God’s grace.
God’s grace is available to the repentant, and it is utterly without charge; indeed scandalously so. For that reason, some are critical of the biblical concept of God's grace. “It’s not fair,” they assert, “for someone to just be forgiven without paying a price.”
However, that is a misunderstanding of grace. The fact is, God’s grace is completely just. It’s not a function of sloppy sentimentality. Grace is not a denial of the reality of sin, or even the cost of sin.
Indeed, grace knows the cost of sin; and grace paid it in Christ. Consider the incredible price He paid to wipe away our sins. Not only did He endure the physical torture of the cross and the emotional pain of His friends’ abandonment, He also felt the infinitely greater spiritual agony of separation from His Father.
This means that grace is free; but, it’s not cheap! Jesus paid the price, the full and gruesome payment, for grace to be free to us.
This kind of grace is so stunningly free that it’s impossible to understand for those who refuse to forgive. When folks refuse to forgive others, they say to the crucified One, “Jesus, it wasn’t enough. Your payment was insufficient. I want more. I want more suffering to be extracted. I want more pain to be inflicted. I want them to pay!”
Frankly, that is an eternally perilous thing to say. The fact is, that’s not Christianity; not even close. It may be religion, but it’s absolutely not Christianity.
Religion rejects grace, insisting that we must contribute something to our salvation. We must try harder. We must do better. We must live morally, and so forth. Religion is really nothing more than a self-help way to try to earn God’s respect. Buddhists have their eightfold path. Hindus have the endless cycle of karma and reincarnation. Islam has its four pillars. Only Christianity dares to affirm that God offers us a relationship with Him on the basis of His own pure grace.
It’s a bold path to take, this way of grace. It means letting go of your offenders and leaving them in the nail-pierced hands, acknowledging, as the hymn says, that Jesus paid it all.
Isn’t that where you want to be? If you struggle to be there, let me remind you that it was Jesus Who said, right after teaching us the Lord’s Prayer, “If you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:15). Remember that truth, the next time you’re tempted to refuse forgiveness to one who has offended you.
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