Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace

Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.

Luke 23:34

IN WORD This statement from Jesus ought to have a dramatic impact on the way we live. Perhaps it loses impact because we assume that Jesus is in a league of His own in the forgiveness game; there’s no way we could match His grace. Or perhaps we see this as an example of how God forgives without realizing the implications it has for us. Meanwhile, we forgive those who are sorry for their sins—which does not describe these crucifiers at all; and we forgive those who haven’t hurt us too badly—which also does not describe these crucifiers. Somehow we’ve confined our mercy to definitions that Jesus never embraced. We’ve limited grace.

Think of the drama of Jesus’ statement. These aggressors were committing the ultimate crime: an unjust execution of their own holy Creator. There has never been a more evil act. And yet, Jesus forgave. Without their asking. Without their even being remotely sorry.

Do you understand what that means for us? It means that those grudges we hold are horribly illegitimate. We will have to answer for them to the Savior of unlimited grace. We will have to explain why we accepted His painful blood-purchase while hardly lifting a finger for those who have hurt us.

Or, if we’re wise, we can try to understand the gospel better. We can realize that God’s grace—which He expects us to emulate—is meant not just for insults and oversights, but for betrayers of spouses, for thieves who bankrupt victims, for traitors and rapists and killers. The infinite God has infinite grace.

IN DEED That’s a hard truth to embrace. We love it when it applies to us, but we just can’t accept it when it applies to those who have offended us deeply, violated our trust, or even killed our loved ones. But if grace doesn’t go far enough to cover sins against finite humans, it can’t cover our sins against an infinite God. Thank God, it does. Thank God that He forgave us when we didn’t know what we were doing. And He enables us to do so for others.

The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness.

—WILLIAM BLAKE