Sunday, January 10, 2010

The Costly Nature of Grace

The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith
"Some years ago I met a woman who began coming to Redeemer, the church where I am a minister. She said that she had gone to church growing up and she had always heard that God accepts us only if we are sufficiently good and ethical. She had never heard the message she was now hearing, that we can be accepted by God by sheer grace through the work of Christ regardless of anything we do or have done. She said, 'That's a scary idea! Oh, it's a good scary, but still scary.'
I was intrigued. I asked her what was so scary about unmerited free grace? She replied something like this: 'If I was saved by my good works - then there would be a limit to what God could ask of me or put me through. I would be like a taxpayer with rights. I would have done my duty and now I would deserve a certain quality of life. But if it is really true that I am a sinner saved by sheer grace - at God's infinite cost - then there's nothing He cannot ask of me.'
She could see immediately that the wonderful-beyond-belief teaching of salvation by sheer grace had two edges to it. On the one hand it cut away slavish fear. God loves us freely, despite our flaws and failures. Yet, she also knew that if Jesus really had done this for her - she was not her own. She was bought with a price."
- Tim Keller, The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith, pp. 120-121

(HT:  Trinity Church Blog)

1 comment:

Tree Newt said...

Just started reading this gem of a book over the weekend, and have been nailed anew by the gospel. Conviction of seeing myself as not just the younger brother in my B.C. days, but now as the older, respectable brother. Keller's telling of the story has brought this amazing parable of God's grace to life in a fresh way for me. Kicking my tail.