The Gospel of Grace

We’ve been talking about grace, what it is, what it isn’t. and wondering why (as it turns out) grace is such a controversial subject. As we closed last week, we were talking about how various aspects of faith—including grace—are being shared. What is the gospel that we are called to share? What is the story you are called to tell? Carolyn asked “What is it that we should share with our neighbors, our friends, our children?”

The Bible says:

 This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come. (Mathhew 24:14)

It raises the question: Which gospel should be preached? What is the gospel of the kingdom anyway? If you read the New Testament, you might come away with the idea that there are many gospels. The very first word of the New Testament in some translations is that this is the Gospel according to Matthew. Read on and you’ll find the Gospels of Mark, Luke, and John. Paul tells the Romans about “My gospel” before warning the Corinthians to “hold firm to the gospel that I preach to you.” Read all the way to the end and you’ll find the gospel of your salvation in Ephesians1:13, the gospel of peace in Ephesians 6:15, the glorious gospel of the blessing of God in 1 Timothy 1:11, and the eternal gospel preached by the first angel in Revelation 14:6.

Of course, all of these are labels for one and the same gospel, because there is only one gospel in the Scriptures and that is the gospel known to Paul as the gospel of grace. There is no other gospel than the gospel of God’s grace. It is a gospel built not on doctrine nor on theology but on Jesus Christ himself. It is proclaimed here:

But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of God’s grace. (Acts 20:24)

 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us; and we saw His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. … For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. (John 1:14;16-17)

Whenever you read the word grace in the Bible, you could substitute the name Jesus, who is grace personified. Grace is one of his characteristics, equivalent to God’s eternal light. Then what we are to share, to preach, and to proselytize is simply the gospel of grace. But today’s question is what is the gospel of grace? What is your story of grace? What is it that we are to share, that we are to witness?

The law is easy to share. Why is the gospel of grace so difficult? Paul says:

 For I would have you know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel which was preached by me is not of human invention. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. (Galatians 1:11-12)

It is a gospel not taught or originated with mankind, but from God Himself. The gospel of grace comes by revelation through the Spirit. Paul further defines it:

 I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel, which is not just another account; but there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, even now I say again: if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! (Galatians 1:6-9)

“Accursed” is a very strong word. Paul would consign to damnation people who teach a gospel of grace different from his. Why is so uncompromising? As we saw in Jonah and in the Prodigal’s elder brother, here again we see grace eliciting strong emotions. Could a great faith community exist only on a gospel of grace, or do we also need some laws to go along with it? What is the gospel of grace? Why do we (like the Galatians) so quickly turn from the gospel of grace and embrace the law in its stead? What would you tell your neighbors, your friends, your family, if you were only talking to them about the gospel of grace?

One of the great preachers of adventism was H.M.S. Richard Sr., who founded one of the earliest religious radio programs in this country, called The Voice of Prophecy. Before he died, when asked if he would do anything differently, this man—who had preached thousands of sermons—said: “I think I should have spoken more about God’s grace. There is nothing more significant for the Christian than to understand God’s grace.” Usually when people have a few last things to say, they speak about what is most important to them. They want to leave a legacy. Paul’s legacy words—words of lasting significance and truth—were spoken in Miletus, where he stopped on his way to Jerusalem. He emphasized that he wanted to impart some final words:

 From Miletus he sent word to Ephesus and called to himself the elders of the church. And when they came to him, he said to them, “You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and trials which came upon me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was beneficial, and teaching you publicly and from house to house, solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, bound by the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that chains and afflictions await me. But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of God’s grace.  “And now behold, I know that all of you, among whom I went about preaching the kingdom, will no longer see my face. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all people. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore, be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears. And now I entrust you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. (Acts 20:17-32)

He had similar words for the Ephesians:

 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, with which He favored us in the Beloved. (Ephesians 1:3-6)

Here we see a different kind of legacy words, similar in thought but with a significant twist. How something like this adoption can be seen as a subject and a link with grace is an idea I had never come across before. He speaks of the adoption by grace as God’s great saving act. “We are predestined,” he says, “for adoption. We are predestined for this grace.”

Adoption is an exercise in grace. Adoption is the way of grace. I’ve had plenty of experience with adoption in my own family and understand it well. Babies are adopted based on the grace of the adopting parents. It is why the adoption metaphor in Ephesians is such a powerful one. The baby has no say, no voice in its adoption, no choice in the matter. Adoption is not a free-will enterprise; it is the way of grace. We are all predestined to be adopted by God. We are part of the family—unless we run away, unless we shun the grace.

What, then, is our story to tell? What is the gospel of grace that all of us own? Which of it is our witness, which is our mission? It begins as every adopted child story begins: With the selection to be part of the family. The story is about God’s grace in selecting you and selecting me. Like the baby, it is not because we deserve it, or that we are worthy. We simply are where we are and that’s good enough for God.

Paul talked about the gospel to the Corinthians as well:

Now I make known to you, brothers and sisters, the gospel which I preached to you, which you also received, in which you also stand, by which you also are saved, if you hold firmly to the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I handed down to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. [Notice here he uses again the notion of legitimacy of birth. Paul is saying: I was born, but I wasn’t legitimately born, like Cephas and James and the other apostles. “I was adopted,” is what he’s saying.—DW] For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed. (1 Corinthians 15:1-11)

We are what we are, things are as they are, it is what it is. God accepts us by His grace. This is the starting point of our story. This is what we have to tell. This is the gospel of grace.

We so much wish to tell of our accomplishments, of our piety, of our prayers, of our fasting, of our alms, of our doctrines, beliefs, and opinions. The answer to the question: What is it that we have to tell? is simply this:

…by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain. (1 Corinthians 15:10)

This is a profound and very humbling notion of grace. Then what about the second advent? What about the Sabbath? What about the state of the dead, the prophetic paradigms, and all the other doctrines we believe in, the 28 fundamental beliefs? How can all this be put into the gospel of grace?

We have difficult work ahead of us. We cannot—we must not—let the story be about us. We cannot tell the gospel of Donald or of Carolyn, of Reinhardt or of David. We cannot tell the gospel of CJ or Jason. The gospel of grace means that all of us, all of our beliefs, all of our doctrines, and all of our way of thinking must ask the simple question: “What does this say about God?” not “What does this say about me?”

For example, we’ve spoken in the past about the meaning of the Sabbath, how it’s a perpetual symbol of grace, coming every week regardless of our effort, and how the call to set aside work on the Sabbath day is really a call to grace, the setting aside of our own work on our own behalf. Those of us who fast do so not to show our piety, our devotion, or even our self-control. We fast to show that what we do for ourselves—the feeding of ourselves, the sustaining of ourselves—is nothing compared to God’s sustaining power. Even when we withhold what we do for ourselves on our own behalf by fasting, God’s sustaining power keeps us going. This is the gospel of grace.

And when we speak of “the Way” and our effort to follow it we remember that Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life.” It is God’s way, not our way. The gospel of grace is that Jesus is the way and that means we can’t get lost. We may stumble, but Jesus picks us up; we may wander, but the Holy Spirit brings us back. Anything that cannot be seen as the gospel of grace must be released. We cannot hold on to anything that doesn’t speak of the gospel of grace.

How comfortable are you with grace? Are you willing to let the law go? Is it grace or law? Is it grace and law? Is it partly grace and partly the law? Is it all of grace and some law? What are you willing to accept as the law? And what are you willing to accept as it relates to grace? Are you willing to accept the law as a guide, as a mirror, but not as a guiding light? Or does the law guide you and light your path? Can you tell your story without destroying either the law or grace? How is it that you are called to share a gospel of grace? And again: What is the gospel of grace?

Donald: Billy Graham, the late American evangelist, was a Baptist. I think it’s quite interesting that your identification is actually to the gospel. And your membership, or your association, or doctrine, is with your faith group. If we were to step away from the church to proclaim the gospel without mentioning the church too much… if we were simply to tell people to go to church, I think there would be some objection to that.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with being a member of a church. But what is the role of your church community? Should your expression of sharing the gospel be separate from your church? I think we’ve really knitted them together very tightly. I have expressed over the years what I think my role should be as a Church worker. What’s the role of a church community and what’s the role of being an evangelist for the gospel? Should they be separated? Or should they be one?

David: I was truly taken by Don’s analogy of grace with the adoption by human parents of a baby. What if you adopt a baby and, as it grows, strangers outside your family start to teach the child how it is supposed to relate to you? How would you like that? Would that be right?

C-J: Core question. One is ethereal and the other one is very concrete in order to bind together the diversity found in a cultural society. I think it goes back to when we didn’t have written text, communities were very small, and the expectation was that you walk your talk; that your place in society, large or small, should speak to your values, your rule, your internal compass of right and wrong, your generosity of spirit, your kindness, and all those things we think of as being higher order—sacrifice of self for others, and all of that. But who has the right to say “I am right, and you don’t know” or “It would be better if you did it this way”?

Robin: I think that the law explains to us why we need grace. Even with our best efforts, our humanity disallows us from being able to keep a perfect law, but then I think also that God’s grace allows us to internalize that law, writing it on our hearts, so that instead of a set of rules—representing a very human way of thinking—it becomes a characteristic of God, which He then writes on our hearts.

So I kind of see things are intertwined, but we need it as human beings. With face-to-face communication with God broken in Eden, we needed a distinct explanation of why we need grace and why Christ would come and suffer and die to pay for the sins that humanity would commit.

C-J: I think the issue with sin is that it is its own reward. Even if it is not called sin in other cultures, it’s recognized as harm to another or to the collective. I go back to neuroscience, to see what motivates people. It’s brain chemistry. Is it seeking pleasure, is it oxytocin, is it seeking love, is it seeking community that motivates us so we can survive as a species? The rest of it comes out of compromise, negotiations of who holds power, how that power is wielded, how it is expressed through traditions, faith, a spiritual realm (I think we know intuitively there’s something greater than us). But I think we don’t give enough attention, because we want to be the most dominant species.

It really has a lot to do with how we function as an organism to survive. Brain chemistry is very powerful—how we seek food, how we protect our environment, our families, what is essential to that survival. When we fail at that, when we color outside the lines, there’s chaos. The whole thing is to avoid that chaos, which goes back to why we turn to religion and ritual when we look out in the world and say: “We did something we shouldn’t have and now we have an earthquake or a flood.”

Today we would call that superstition, because we’re smarter now. But I think it’s really still about relationships for survival. And because we have this body of information in text and oral tradition, we understand the concept of faith and how it plays out in other cultures, and we have a different way of looking at it and a different respect and need for it in order to be effective in a global community. There has to be something bigger than our little block, or our little town. These rules need to be consistent in a global way.

Kiran: Whenever we talk about grace we also talk about the importance of the law. I think that causes confusion. It’s not about the importance of law. The question is: Do you want to be independent and work your own way? Or do you want to be dependent on this parent who wants to help you, and let them do the job? That’s the question. It’s not about minimizing the importance of the law or grace.

For example, taking Dr. Weaver’s analogy, imagine an orphanage in some forgotten place. The orphans don’t have enough food, they don’t have a comb to comb their hair, there is no soap, no clothes, nothing. But there is a nice picture on the wall of two well dressed parents with two well dressed, healthy looking children with rosy cheeks, looking well fed and happy and they’re smiling. That’s the law. It tells you that’s how you are supposed to be. But you look in the mirror and see that you’re skinny, you don’t have clothes, your hair is a mess. You can try all you like, but as a little kid with no way to fix yourself, you will never look like the children in the picture.

Now suppose the parents in the picture come to the orphanage to adopt you. Do you want to go with them, or do you want to continue relying on your wits at the orphanage? You’re scared. You don’t want to go with these strangers. Even if you do, it might not work because your fear might increase and their patience might decrease. You might think it would have been better back in the orphanage.

I think that’s what we’re talking about. Being in grace means recognizing first that I cannot fix myself and second that I have to be forever dependent upon these parents, which destroys my own individuality. I’m not important. That’s what Paul is saying. It is what it is. He’s such a great guy yet he’s talking bad about himself, and that’s what grace does to you.

Donald: Back to Carolyn’s question: What fundamentally should we be sharing? What is the Great Commission?

C-J: Grace is not bondage, not choosing a parent and losing identity. It is God wanting us to self actualize. He creates us with intention and purpose. There are guidelines, but what parent who loves her child doesn’t recognize the child’s individuality, gifts, talents, strong will? The child needs to be fashioned like potter’s clay, but when we allow our children to become who they are—even if we don’t understand it, or like it—they are healthier and so are we because we learn to love what we did not understand. I think it’s a dangerous thing to cookie-cut what Christians are,

Kiran: I totally get your point. I didn’t mean to say that when you become a Christian you’re like a cut cookie. In Christ, we get a new identity, we become who he originally intended us to be. I get all that. But I meant that my effort—whatever I do to fix myself—is irrelevant. When God fixes me I will be fixed. I will have a future I can’t even imagine but I know I will enjoy it and flourish and live my life to the fullest, in the way that he’s showing. So I totally agree with you.

David: Suppose that when the Prodigal Son got to the “far country” and was having a blast he stumbled across a religious group who started pointing out the error of his ways, and encouraged him to join the church. And supposing he did, and they taught him that he shouldn’t have left his father the way he did and said he should go back home. And suppose he had done so. Would that have been a better outcome for him than what actually transpired in the parable?

C-J: I guess the question would be: Why did he leave in the first place? Generally, children who feel loved and are taken care of don’t leave, and even children who are not taken care of or loved stay.

David: The message of the Prodigal Son is all about grace. There is no mediation. I like Kiran’s point that people do go off the rails. I asked if you would want strangers interfering with the upbringing of your adopted child. Well, maybe you would if the child goes off the rails. But would God have been grateful to a church group in the far country for setting his prodigal son back on the rails?

C-J: For those who believe, grace is an easy measurement—where I began, where I am now, where I hope to end. But grace is forgiveness and embracing. “I know who you are, all of who you are. And I choose to love you.” How do we show it to those who don’t believe other than by the way we live? If they ask: “Why did you do that? That person did this to you!” the answer is: “Grace. I’ve received grace. I shall do no harm and I will choose to love.” It’s a concept foreign to our instinct, which is “If you hurt me, I will hurt you back so then you won’t come at me again.”

Grace is profound. As a believer, I’m incredibly grateful for it because it is a restoration, it is going back into right relationship and the rest is in God’s hands and good teachers, surrounding ourselves with people who are also growing in that faith, that relationship.

Reinhard: To me, law and grace, complement each other. The psalmist wrote:

Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path. (Psalm 119:105)

To me, the light is the grace of God and the Word of God is the command—the law. They cannot be separated from each other. By receiving grace, we will do what the law of God requires us to do. We think of Moses as a most humble person, but Paul is too:

 For though I am free from all people, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may gain more. To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might gain Jews; to those who are under the Law, I became as one under the Law, though not being under the Law myself, so that I might gain those who are under the Law; to those who are without the Law, I became as one without the Law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might gain those who are without the Law. To the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak; I have become all things to all people, so that I may by all means save some. I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it. (1 Corinthians 9:19-23)

So in his life and ministry, Paul adjusted to whatever background, to whatever people he encountered—to Jew and Gentile alike. He concluded:

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. So they do it to obtain a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way as not to run aimlessly; I box in such a way, as to avoid hitting air; but I strictly discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:24-27)

We have to share the prize. Paul had to share the gospel, to preach the truth, to share the blessing of God, to share the grace of God with others. So in our life we too have to combine the grace of God that complements the law (and vice versa) and accept our duty to preach to people who don’t know about this blessing.

Dewan: I want to read one verse:

Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in faithfulness and truth;…” (Exodus 34:6)

So I think grace is almost always associated with mercy, love, compassion and patience.

Don: I agree.

Anonymous: With regard to the mission of spreading the Bible, as found in Matthew, Luke and Mark (but not John), they say:

… repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. (Luke 24:47)

So here we see the gospel of repentance. That’s what we’re supposed to preach or spread. This is the gospel we are supposed to share, as Jesus commanded the disciples according to Luke’s recollection.

Mark recalled it this way:

And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. The one who has believed and has been baptized will be saved; but the one who has not believed will be condemned. (Mark 16:15-16)

Here’s another way to see the gospel, or what are we to share with the people; namely, that everybody has to believe. That’s the gospel, that’s the good news. Because when they believe they’ll be saved.
Matthew remembered it as follows:

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you;…” (Matthew 28:19-20)

So grace is not the whole of the gospel, though it may be the best and the most important part, but there are other things to preach and to share with people: “…all things, whatsoever I have commanded you.” So there is a lot more.

Grace, law, obedience, and forgiveness of sin come in one package. We cannot live with just one of them—they come all together. To me the gospel is not only grace, not only teaching, and not only good news of forgiveness of sin. It’s all about that plus the law, which is surely subsumed under “all things that I commanded you to do.” Jesus established the law. Since we believe Jesus is God, then he is the one who brought the law. So to separate grace from law is not the right way.

To me, the law is every word that came out of the mouth of the Lord. If he says so, I do it. He knows why. He sees the future. He knows how to take care of my growth, my understanding, my reaching the point or the goal or the target. He knows, and he made it clear to me: “These are the steps. Just go with them.” Belief, or faith, is very important. The law is very important. Grace is very important. Obedience is very important. We cannot dismiss one word of the Bible, because everything was said with wisdom, with knowledge—God’s knowledge, with everything we need. It’s one package.

And if God says so, we do it, without argument, without even understanding, because he knows how to lead us to understanding when we start. Ten or 20 years ago, I did not understand as much as I understand now. But I didn’t give up. So keep going. Just believe. Have faith in God, trust in God, obey God, do everything he says. And over time you find yourself seeing more, understanding more, and getting to where God has meant to lead you, with his grace, of course, that’s the overshadowing of everything.

Jay: If we were to insert ourselves into the story of the Prodigal Son, what role would we adopt? Is there an entity that could assist the son in returning to the Father? Is there a way that someone could do that? I think it’s quite possible, but the danger is that if a religious entity comes in contact with the prodigal son, instead of saying just “Go home”, instead they might say: You should go home and here’s exactly what you should do to go home: First do this. And then do that, and make sure you stop doing this and you stop doing that. And make sure you understand this. Then you can go home.”

If the entity just said: “Go home. What do you need to get there? Water? Here’s water. Food? Here’s food. Money? Here’s money. Just go home. We’re here to give you whatever you need to get there. But you just need to go. You need to get there. Our role is just to get you there, not to tell you how to get there, not to tell you what to understand in order to get there, but just to get there,” then I would say that’s a religious entity that is fulfilling the gospel commission.

The gospel commission is to tell people to go home, to get back to the Father. You might not have any resources by which to get there—the metaphorical or spiritual equivalents of water, food, and money. But it is not a matter of bringing you in so we can change you so that you can get home to the Father; It’s more a matter of providing you with whatever resource you need (and we can supply) for you to get back to the Father. This is how a religious entity shows grace.

It’s really hard for human beings to understand something without being able to contrast it against something else. Our mind works in a compare-and-contrast way in order for us to assess concrete relationships between things, to be able to understand things. I think grace and love work in that way. I want to be careful to say I don’t believe that this is a right one and that is a wrong one, but you have to be able to put it in simpler terms, you have to understand what it is to pay for something in order to really understand what a gift is. If you’ve never had to pay for something, you would never know what a gift really is.

Earning something through hard work is a good thing, a good quality we want people to have. But how can I understand a gift if I’ve never had to work for something, earn something, pay for something? Before the fall of Man, we weren’t supposed to make these contrasts. That’s the key. God created us so that we didn’t have to make these contrasts in order to be in harmony, be in love, be in grace. But when we fell, when we achieved the dubious ability to judge things as good and bad, right and wrong, the only way that we could judge was through compare-and-contrast.

I think that’s what the law and grace do to some degree. How would we really understand the free gift of grace if we never experienced the pain, the toil, the earning of something?

Kiran: Suppose there are 10 prodigal sons. Four of them went to the Father, they got good treatment, they got the rings, new clothes, and everything. And they go out and meet a prodigal brother on his way home. He’s not sure whether father will forgive him or not. His brothers would tell him: “We went home and he forgave us. He treated us well. We’re sure he will bless you. Just go!”

I think that’s my role: To tell other people: “I went there, I accepted the grace, and I got forgiveness, and then much more blessing. So why don’t you go?” I think its important to remind people again and again on their journey, because there’s so much chaos in their mind. They think “Maybe God is angry with me and will destroy me when I go there.” So that’s the gospel for me.

Donald: It sounded like Jason was about ready to sing a gospel song called “Go home!” We tend to complicate things. We need to contrast things to understand them. If we always got gifts, it would just be normal. But if you never got a gift and you always earned things you would not know what a gift is. So some things have been expressed that are quite meaningful and worth taking to heart, not just intellectualize.

David: I agree with Jason and Kiran but I think it’s not just a matter of saying go home, it’s a matter of helping the prodigal come to his senses—and that’s the core of the parable: Coming to his senses is what put the prodigal son into a frame of mind (or a frame of spirit) that enabled him to accept the grace of his father. But what if the religious group had helped the prodigal not to come to his senses but rather to be more like his older brother? Would that have put him in a position to accept the real grace that his father eventually was to give him?

Don: One of the things about the prodigal son is he doesn’t go home anticipating that he’ll be restored to sonship. He’s going home to be a servant. He’s going home to be a slave. His worldview has been altered immeasurably.

David: Right. He comes to his senses in the realization that he is a worthless sinner undeserving of anything. Contrast that with his probable response if he’d been told only to be more like his brother, who thought he was worth a lot and deserved to be given a party with a fatted calf. The contrast is striking. I agree that the church could and should help prodigals come to their senses, to get them receptive to God’s grace. But I suspect most religious organizations tend to try to teach people how to be like a good elder brother.

Don: There remains much, much more to discuss on grace. Next week, we’ll talk about equity and equality in grace.

Carolyn: I would like to know the difference (I know the difference in my mind) between legalism and grace. Legalism seems to be such a bad word in our mouth right now. And grace is such a beautiful word. I’d like that to be addressed. Thank you.

Don: We’ll keep that in mind.

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