Grace, Anger, and Jealousy

We’re talking about grace and works, about unmerited favor, and about obedience. Specifically: What is our role in our salvation? We’ve seen that obedience is important because it’s a Truth that doing things God’s way is a better way to live. It doesn’t eliminate the storms of life but it gives life focus and foundation and it honors God.

Grace, we’re coming to see, is a defining characteristic of God. It is equivalent to his light, his glory. Just as light is his creative power, grace is God’s recreative power. We’ve seen that the opposite of grace is independence and that the only true response to grace is to register dependence upon God and acceptance of his grace.

Last week, we studied the topic of grace, seen in the story of Jonah, a story rich in the metaphors of grace. We see God’s grace all around—everlasting, ubiquitous and relentless grace. What is our responsibility in such an economy, as far as grace is concerned? We see God’s grace to the ship’s captain, to the sailors who worshipped other gods. We see God’s grace to Jonah himself, to the Ninevite king, nobles, and commoners. Even the animals are recipients of God’s grace.

I think we get insight into the extent—the lavish extent—of God’s grace from the story of Jonah, which shows us that it’s impossible to run from God’s grace. In Matthew 12, the scribes and the Pharisees asked Jesus for a sign. They are really asking to prove Jesus is who he says he is, that he is truly the Messiah. He responds that he is God, and that there is no sign other than the sign of Jonah:

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves a sign; and so no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as Jonah was in the stomach of the sea monster for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. (Matthew 12:38-40)

We might substitute “independent” for the word “evil” here. In the Scriptures, grace and independence, light and darkness, and good and evil can be used interchangeably. “An independent generation craves a sign” would be the reading in the passage above. Members of an independent generation seek self-verification. I can independently know something, I can independently know about God, about how he works and know about his reality.

The context of Jesus’s teaching about the sign of Jonah is the unpardonable sin (see earlier in Matthew 12) and the assessment of the Pharisees that Jesus is healing through the power of Beelzebub, the power of independence, of evil, of darkness. This is really the first time I’ve come to see the association between the sign of Jonah and the unpardonable sin.

The story tells of a blind and dumb man possessed by a demon. He is a symbol of deep sinfulness, given the association in the time of Jesus between illness and sinfulness. He is not just blind, not just deaf, not just demon-possessed: He is blind and deaf and demon possessed at the same time. His sinfulness is so deep and so replete that there should be no pardon for him.

To the Pharisees, this man is the unpardonable sinner. There can be no hope, no forgiveness for him. He is utterly lost. They seek a sign that Jesus has the authority to forgive, to demonstrate on their terms that Jesus is God. It’s ironic that the man they think is unpardonable is the object of Jesus’s grace. They don’t realize that in rejecting God’s grace, in invalidating God’s graciousness for themselves, they are the ones committing the unpardonable sin.

Independence denies grace. Demanding a sign—their independent desire to verify God for themselves—is in and of itself a rejection of grace. The sign of Jonah is a sign of grace. It is a sign that God’s grace is everywhere and is relentless. When the men of Nineveh rise up to condemn that generation, what can they do but proclaim a God of graciousness, mercy, and forgiveness? The sign of Jonah is about God and about who he is. That Jonah survives for three days in the belly of the fish is a story about God’s grace and Jonah’s dependence upon it.

Jesus himself spends three days in the tomb so that he can distribute grace to whom he desires, so that all of humankind—and all the animals too—can be the recipient of God’s grace. The sign of Jonah is that it doesn’t matter who you are—king, noble, sailor, commoner, even an animal—you need God’s grace. Independence brings death and destruction; dependence brings forgiveness and mercy.

It is the difference between eating, in the garden of Eden, from the tree of dependence (the tree of life) and eating from the tree of independence and death (the tree of the knowledge of good and evil). This, then, is the question of judgment: Are you dependent upon God and his grace, or are you independent, relying upon your own works?

In the story of Jonah, the last scene ends with Jonah outside the city, angrily watching God dispense grace on it. He takes no delight in God’s grace. In fact, he’d rather be dead, he says—not just once but twice—than to live in a world where cause and effect are suspended and people don’t get what they deserve. God seeks earnestly to extend his grace to Jonah, who has seen grace upon grace; but Jonah will have none of it. He can see that God has extended grace everywhere, even toward himself, yet he cannot live in a world where God extends grace to those that he thinks are unworthy of it.

The place of grace, in the story, is within the city. Jonah is outside it. The grace party is in town, but Jonah is in the wasteland outside the city. It is in such a wasteland that only a single vine grows up to give him shade. What does it mean to be outside of the celebration of grace? Is Jonah lost? If you can’t celebrate grace, what is your future?

The story of the prodigal son may help us understand about grace and being outside of the celebration. “Prodigal” means lavish or generous or extravagant, not bad or evil or disobedient. The father is prodigal too: Not with money, as in the way that the son was, but prodigal with grace. God’s grace, too, is prodigal: Lavish, generous, and extravagant:

“Now his older son was in the field, and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. And he summoned one of the servants and began inquiring what these things could be. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound.’ But he became angry and was not willing to go in; and his father came out and began pleading with him. But he answered and said to his father, ‘Look! For so many years I have been serving you and I have never neglected a command of yours; and yet you never gave me a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends; but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you slaughtered the fattened calf for him.’ And he said to him, ‘Son, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.’” (Luke 15:25-32)

Here we see a nearly identical conclusion, as in Jonah, to the story of grace. The older brother is angry with the father, just as Jonah is angry with God. Why does the disposition of grace result in so much anger? The place of grace, as we see here, is inside the father’s house. The celebration is going on in the home. But the elder son is outside the house. He won’t go in. His father’s offer of joining grace is turned down.

In both stories, the father tries to explain to his subjects the generosity of his grace, but they don’t understand it. To Jonah, he describes the nature of turning back to God. “Turning back to God,” he said, “is inconsistent. It’s confusing, it’s illogical. It’s unpredictable, just like the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. It’s a very confusing thing to turn back to God.” To the elder son, he tries to explain his graciousness. It is, he says, mandatory (verse 32): “But we had to be merry and rejoice. It was not an option. We had to celebrate.” (The New International Version says: “Because this brother of yours was dead and is now live again. He was lost and is found.” The father is saying: “We had to celebrate. Grace is what I am, I cannot be but who I am.”

Celebration is not a choice. It is not an option. It is compulsory. It is letting God be God. And by the way, he doesn’t say: “My son has returned,” he says: “Your brother has returned.” Grace, it seems, has something to do with our brother as well. That is something to be explored. Not letting God be God—or worse yet, assigning to God actions that are evil—can lead to the unpardonable sin. You cannot be angry with God about his extension of grace.

In the end, there’s a celebration of grace on the inside, and Jonah and the elder son are on the outside. Both could be inside. The father entreats or “pleads”—a very strong word in the Greek—to come on in to the party. Why does grace elicit such strong emotions? Why is the elder son so angry that he shuns the party, and why is Jonah so angry that he shuns life itself rather than being a part of God’s grace? It seems crazy to me. The need for spiritual independence is so strong. Why is it so strong that it elicits this degree of emotion? Jesus said:

…it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:23-27)

If the way of Heaven is the way of grace, why is that so? Grace is free. Jesus seems to be saying he can’t even give it away to rich men who can buy anything they want. Notice the contrast between the free grace of entry into heaven and the paying for something by the rich man who has everything. In the end, he says, with God, all things are possible, even to get a camel through the eye of the needle.

What must we understand about grace? Are Jonah and the elder son lost? They are, after all, outside the party of grace. Why are we so determined to hoard grace for ourselves? Why are we so angry with God about letting him be who he is? He can’t help himself. He is what he is.

Is there a modern-day equivalent to Jonah and the elder son? In what ways might I be the elder son? Or better yet, in what ways can I not be the elder son? Why should there be so much anger over one sinner who repents? Can I be the elder son, or Jonah, without even knowing it?

It doesn’t seem logical to me. Do you resent God’s grace to others? It doesn’t seem possible that the amount of emotion and anger—even anger unto death—should be a response to God’s grace. And yet, not only in these stories but in parable after parable (which we’ll discuss more of in the future) Jesus teaches that there are people angry with God over the dispensing of his grace. It’s very puzzling to me. It doesn’t make sense.

Quite frankly, I don’t care who God gives his grace to. Yet I worry that there’s something about this story that I’m missing in terms of understanding why Jonah and the elder son’s reaction to grace is so severe. Why so much anger? As far as I’m concerned, God can do whatever he wants. Why would I stake my life on holding grace from others? What about judgment? Why is it that the sign of Jonah and the unpardonable sin seem to be closely linked? What are your thoughts about the subject of grace?

C-J: Speaking of my own life, God has shown much grace to me. And when people from the position you said, like, “Look at that!”—I mean, I play by the rules, and then this person gets to skip. What they don’t see is the scars. What they don’t see is the limp. What they don’t see is how long the recovery is. And so they’re looking at the outward. I’m reading a book on divinity and diversity. It looks at the word “independent” differently. Like our children, we want them to be independent, our whole goal is to have them mature into right living independently.

But we need to do that within an understanding of the framework of God’s love and grace that you can do what you want but there’s always a price. And hopefully, you will choose well. The whole thing of guidance, guardianship, and good teaching is that they won’t be struggling. But I want that. And so, believe me, when people receive a large amount of grace, there’s a great price to it. Witness the sacrifice on the cross.

Donald: Fundamentally, we just don’t want to lose control. We want to be in control. In many ways, we can adjust, we can tweak control, but we can’t be in control. Because it doesn’t take much for us to lose control. A little rain can strand hundreds of motorists. They are going along just fine, then all of a sudden there’s a deluge and they are not doing so fine.

Jonah wanted to be in control. But he had to surrender, and that was extremely challenging for him. I guess that’s just plain old selfishness. It’s hard to believe that grace could be in any way difficult. But I guess it comes with a quid pro quo of accepting God’s wishes and guidance for my life. That is difficult because we want to do it our own way.

C-J: I think the other element here is to teach us empathy. There but for the grace of God go I. I think they’re braided together. The Samaritan stopped because he understood prejudice, bias, and neglect. The other two travelers already had what they needed. There’s a special kind of grace for people who don’t have to war with that, whose walk with God just seems more natural.

I think that’s where inequity comes in—the inequity of what we’ve been taught without words, the inequity of where we’re born, the inequity of what poverty produces. But it’s an opportunity to learn greater empathy and to be a witness for God by being the Samaritan who stops and says, How can I help you?

Nothing in God is without purpose and intention. We can be an instrument in the hands of God in so many ways. To whom much is given, much is required. Those who have been blessed—growing up in homes with good teaching and not bad inequity—don’t seem to struggle. But God has a great calling on their life to be that witness. And when they do stumble, it’s loud in them, and it’s loud in their community. “I can’t believe you did that. What possessed you to do that?” “I have no clue.”

It goes back to to bridling our thoughts. Not even glancing or considering things that could disrupt our focus. And yet, it’s always there. We live in a world that’s very intrusive. I don’t live in the woods, I don’t live in an isolated world. Very few of us do anymore, whether it’s through digital or proximity. It’s hard to live a straight and narrow life. It really is. Somebody gets in your face, it’s hard not to react. You watch injustice on TV, it’s hard not to be angry.

If there’s something I hope I’m finally accepting and learning it is that God is ahead of the curve. It’s uncomfortable. It doesn’t have to make sense. But God is infinite in his wisdom, and to trust that. That doesn’t come easy for me. I’m a survivor. I’m playing chess with myself all the time. “Did you consider this? Have you done that? What if…?” It’s a terrible way to live, I never feel safe, inside my head or inside where I live. It’s just something that has become norm. It isn’t norm, but it’s my norm.

And it’s true for a lot of people. If you’ve never walked there, if you’ve never felt your life is in danger, if you’ve never felt there’s going to be enough food, if you’ve never felt like “Of course, I’m going to go graduate from high school and go to college.” For others, that’s not even the realm of possibility. They’re told “Before you’re 21 you’ll be dead or in jail.” It’s a completely different messaging and expectation, and God’s grace is critical to being more than a net. It has to be very real to those people. Good biblical teaching that is accurate and doesn’t have an agenda is so hard to find. There are churches everywhere but their messaging isn’t good. They have their own agenda.

Reinhard: Jonah and the prodigal son’s brother are jealous by their human nature, but even worse, they are judgmental. I think that’s the key here. We cannot supersede God’s power of judgment. The elder brother judges his prodigal brother to be a bad person who should be rejected by their father. Jonah judges the Ninevites to be bad people who must be destroyed.

We can see how God does business. Grace is his prerogative to give freely. We don’t understand how God works. Paul told us in Romans 8 that there is no condemnation, but when we talk judgment we talk condemnation. In God’s eyes, there is no condemnation of those who receive Jesus, who believe in him.

This is how grace came back into the picture again. When people accept God, they understand and appreciate, through faith, that grace plays a big role in Christian life, in people who accept God. So we don’t worry about facing condemnation. All of this, to me is interrelated. “Judgment” is a big word but we don’t have to worry about it. On Judgment Day, as Christians we have to face immediate judgment but there’s also eternal judgment, everyday grace, goodness, and peace that God gives us in our daily life. There’s eternal life for those who receive him.

Don: What I find utterly puzzling is that you have a prophet of God who is (presumably) a pretty straight, upright citizen who’s honoring God and has been called by God to proclaim his message, and you have an elder son who’s also lived a straight and noble life and done everything he was supposed to do. Yet in both you see this extraordinary anger at God’s decision to dispense his grace. It makes no sense to me. Does any of us care if God dispenses grace to anybody else? Does it bother you? Does it irritate you? Does it make you so angry that you wish you were dead? Does it make you so angry that you won’t go into the grace party?

What is the meaning of all this? If you value your relationship with God and see yourself as one of God’s people, that exactly describes people who, like Jonah and the brother, are the most angry. There are several other parables where this idea of hoarding grace is condemned by God. If it isn’t a problem, why does Jesus spend so much time teaching about it? What is it about this anger that makes me susceptible to it when I don’t even perceive that that’s my response? It’s a very puzzling question for me.

C-J: The flip side of the coin is why bad people seem to get away with stuff. Where’s the justice in that? I don’t have to look far to find people I think should be punished. They don’t respect the rule of law. They don’t recognize the rule of law. They’re not held accountable to the rule of law. And it’s not that they just got away with it. It’s the harm that each of those categories are disrupted.

What good is a law if it isn’t a fair law? What good is a law if it’s not respected? What good is a law if there’s no consequence? So that’s the flip to grace. The people who don’t like grace say: “It’s not that I want to do what that person did. It’s just that they don’t understand the impact that the bad choices make.” I don’t think it was just that the brother said, “I’ve done everything.” I think his complaint was there is no justice.

He always had the choice to leave but chose not to. He didn’t just do it so he would get to heaven; he did it because it was the right thing to do and he loved his father. Maybe he even liked the work. The problem for him was that there was no justice. I can understand that. But for those who have received grace, or for those who extend grace, there is such a healing component in it, they work completely differently. It isn’t about “You deserve,” it’s about the impact.

The impact of grace is healing and restoration. And that’s what his father understood, the impact of sin is its own reward. And but it’s not just your sin. The fact that you didn’t respect the rules impacted all the people you pass by, the harlots that you slept with, the alcohol you put in your body, the relationships between you and your family members, and your future that you couldn’t even imagine. Otherwise, it might have been a game. They’re very different in their approach, but they both have an impact and grace is a much better place to go. When you give it or receive it, it’s always about restoration. The other? The impact is harm, always; personally and environmentally.

David: Being like that seems to me just part of our fallen nature. When we fell, we became human, we became independent, we needed control. That’s what we do and who we are. We seek vengeance and we allow jealousy. It’s the way human society governs itself. You cannot have an independent society without governance and for governance you’ve got to have rules and punish people who break them, otherwise the rule of law means nothing.

In a perfect world, the policeman who was convicted of killing George Floyd would have been allowed to slap the other cheek, but it isn’t and he wasn’t. He was sent to jail, because it’s not a perfect world. We cannot reach that perfect world until the moment of the real grace that accompanies death. (I still have a problem with our definition of grace. It seems to me we’re lumping God’s mercy, forgiveness, and love or “lovingkindness” together and calling the package “grace.” Maybe that is it, but I’m not so sure of that.

I think about the disaster in Florida yesterday, all those people suddenly snatched when their building collapsed. I have to believe that all of them received God’s grace at that moment. But we tend to think that if God had been truly gracious he would have stopped the building from collapsing in the first place. That’s the other side of wanting people to be punished for doing something wrong: We don’t want them to be hurt when they haven’t done anything to deserve it.

It’s just part of our fallen human nature. Jesus told us clearly what God’s nature is: It is to turn the other cheek, to go to the back of the line, to give all we possess to the poor; but few of us get there. This Godly nature cannot be something that’s organized from the outside. It can only arise from within.

The governance God wants is self-governance of ourselves, and for that we have to turn to him, inside of ourselves. Only then can we become dependent upon God. Not dependent upon a church. I think Connie is right about churches—we must be dependent upon God in our lives.

Kiran: Unlike his elder brother, the prodigal son realized that left to his own devices, he would die; that all he has is because of his father, and there is no merit in himself. So the importance of self, which he exhibited when he wanted to take his wealth and leave, was thoroughly debunked, so he went back to the father who provided everything and then made sure everything was okay for him.

But the older brother never examined himself as his younger brother did. That’s why he thinks that his self matters and that he is a valuable person to his father. The problem with grace is it offends our “self.” It tells you that you no longer matter, only God matters. But if I keep thinking that I do matter, I would not be lost necessarily (because I wouldn’t know right from wrong) but I wouldn’t enjoy the party. I would be offended.

Paul, when he was called Saul, didn’t like this grace being dispensed to all the Christians, who enjoyed a grace-filled life, and he hunted and killed them. When he himself was converted, he examined himself, realized he was wrong, and flipped completely. He then dispensed grace to everybody freely.

I think the original sin is that Adam and Eve wanted to be different; to be like God. The problem with being like God is that you judge. I think when we give up our self, and then give up our judgment, we will enjoy the party of grace. But as long as we harbor self importance and the exercise of judgment, which is the sole prerogative of God, we will be offended.

Anonymous: Maybe God deliberately put the elder brother and the prophet Jonah in these situations where they could understand their own position on misunderstanding grace, It seems that God sent them on a mission for their own benefit as much as for the other party’s. So for Jonah to learn about grace, he had to see God’s grace acting upon somebody else. God’s saving message was specifically for them—for the elder brother and Jonah—not for the Ninevites, even though they’re included as well. It was mainly for these two people to understand grace, because they had been in grace without knowing it.

So when they saw this playing out, maybe their eyes were opened like the eyes of the younger (the prodigal) son, who had time to think and to come to his senses. So it seems to me like God allowed him to be in that circumstance—afar in a foreign country, suffering from hunger and all that—for him to come back to his senses and understand what grace was when he saw his dad welcoming him with love. So God gave the older son and Jonah the same chance to experience grace firsthand.

Kiran: Right now Derek Chauvin, the policeman who killed George Floyd, is the national villain. I think I could not be as horrible as him, but if I truly examine myself, maybe I could be as bad or worse. That realization is offensive to me because I always think I’m better than the other bad guy. The problem with grace is that it covers everybody equally, it is enough for everybody, it is sufficient for everybody. That means I’m no different from the worst of the worst people in this world.

When the older brother saw his younger brother do terrible things then come home and be treated the same as him, that’s offensive, probably because he realized he was no better than him and might even be worse, since the father never threw a party for him.

Don: How would you feel if God’s grace was extended to Derek Chauvin?

Kiran: It should be offensive to me. But he deserves God’s grace, and that’s the point. I have to be okay with it. I have no other option.

C-J: I think it goes back to impact. If it was just you and me, it’s different, because I could extend the grace, but there’s still a consequence, because it affects a global community, and everyone and every way of being in that community, it’s compounded. This is why the rule of law, the spirit of the law, the way it’s written for the time and place, is all so critical.

When we decide to create laws, they must be inclusive, they must understand each level given in a society, why the society looks like it does and what you’d like it to be transformed into, over time, having no information on what that might look like. But it comes down to impact. And I think that was the messaging that we heard in the closure. The judge said, “I did not make the sentence based on public opinion. I did it on the precedent of law. I did not do it to appease anyone. I did it on the precedent of law as it is written. These are the parameters that I as a judge am held accountable for.”

He is going to go on appeal, but I think this judge was so cognizant of his responsibility and his position that he held himself to the highest possible standard. He wrote a 22-page document supporting his decision, based on precedent. Most judges don’t do that. Anybody can go and read the document and I’m sure many people will, even if they’re not lawyers, because of the impact of this new precedent. We have not sentenced a person who represents such a high standard of authority in a given society, then it had to be done this way. You are held to a higher standard, you are not a warrior, you are a guardian. You are to make sure your responsibility is—within a boundary—to secure and to provide medical assistance based on what you’re telling me.

His colleagues dropped the ball. Their job is to protect the officer and the person who had supposedly committed a crime. I think they manhandled him and they certainly didn’t tap their comrade and say, “Hey, you need to back off and we’ll take over from here.” They didn’t protect him. They didn’t protect the victim. So I think all of this is such a huge, consequential decision. And it will be for a long time to come.

Being fair is really important. I agree nobody will say they don’t think God’s grace is for everybody. God’s grace should be pouring out on everybody. But our fallen nature really, really struggles with fairness because, as Kiren mentioned, the original sin is about wanting to be like God and being able to judge something as good or evil.

Jay: Fairness requires judgment. When something is deemed fair or unfair, that is based upon a judgment of the situation, which I think we’ve said over and over again we were never meant to do, and most likely we will mess up if we try to do it. We’re just not equipped, especially in things of the spirit, to be judges of fairness. But we want it so badly. Human beings have striven for fairness from the earliest of ages. How many times have you heard a young child say, “That’s not fair!” It’s something inherent to our fallen nature.

The concept of fairness is really in opposition to grace. If everybody gets it, where’s the fairness in that? It leads to conversations around equality and equity, two drastically different things, and fairness is a huge part of that conversation. But I think that fairness is the opposite of grace. I don’t think you can say grace is for everybody, that it’s a gift, that you don’t have to do anything, that there are no strings attached, and then talk about fairness. I don’t know how you do that.

David: To me, what happened yesterday is that the judge rendered unto Caesar that which was Caesar’s. Derek Chauvin had an opportunity to address the court. Suppose he had said: “I am content, I came to Jesus, I’ve received God’s grace. What happens to me is in your hands, and it doesn’t matter because I am with my father.” Would you be angry at that?

I think we are forgetting that grace is a spiritual issue. It doesn’t enter into worldly affairs. It’s got nothing to do with preventing a building from collapsing or with punishing (or not) a policeman for what he did. That’s not grace—it is only what Caesar demands. We know God does not demand that. We keep going back to spirituality versus worldliness and I think that’s where the key to understanding grace has to be. But it is so easy for us to forget that.

C-J: What bothered me about the policeman was that he never took responsibility. He never said, “I was wrong.” He never saw the framework of his accountability. The prodigal son took responsibility. He said, “I will not live in your house, I have squandered, I haven’t been a good person” and his father said “Don’t be ridiculous.”

I think we grow, and there’s a healing. I’ll speak for myself, but when I get off the rails it’s not enough for me to say, “I’m sorry, father.” I have to come and own it. “Are you saying that because of the consequence, Connie, or are you ready to make a change in the way you think, so that you don’t come there again?” You have to own the responsibility of the bad choice.

Donald: Let’s say it’s Christmas morning. The whole family is sitting in a circle and a parent goes around and gives gifts. That’s grace. But one of the children gets something that’s valued a lot less than the other gifts. Well, that kid’s probably likely to complain and say, “Wait a minute, I didn’t get what my brother’s got. That’s not fair!” Even though it was a gift, since when do you get to say it wasn’t good enough? A gift is a gift.

In church school at Christmas time we’d give gifts to each other. And what did the school come up with?: “It can’t be more than worth $2.” They tried to equalize gift giving. This is an interesting concept.

Imagine a hospital. All those little rooms filled with people who have something wrong, or they wouldn’t be there. How many of them brought it upon themselves? How many did not? It’s kind of like the building that fell: It’s not fair. But the whole hospital is full of people saying: “The patient next to me has been drinking and smoking their whole life, they brought it upon themselves. I did none of these things, yet here I am with cancer. It’s not fair.”

Since when do we get to say what’s fair? It’s not our prerogative, but we want to do it. As long as everything’s going pretty well for me, everything’s fair. But the poor person getting hit with one thing after another does not complain: “This isn’t fair. This isn’t the way life is supposed to be.” What about those people in that building? They’re probably going to find out that somebody was inspecting their building and there were problems for years and years. The people in the rubble aren’t going to say it’s not fair.

Grace is an interesting thing, where we actually make judgment as to whether or not it’s fair. I think that goes back to spiritual versus life in this world, and we want fairness, we want consequences,

Jay: As a parent of four kids, I can say that Christmas was a lot easier when I had one, as opposed to when I had four. This is how deeply fairness is ingrained in us. My wife and I have conversations about being fair at gift-giving time. Do you think God is sitting around up in heaven trying to figure out how to dole out grace in a way that the children will perceive as fair?

David: Had the policeman, Derek Chauvin, received grace from God and told the court: “I repent of my sins, I’m with God, now, and whatever happens to me is fine” and was then sentenced to the rest of his life in prison with no chance of parole, or even to the electric chair, would people have been angry? Isn’t it the best of both worlds that he pays the debt to society—Caesar gets what’s his and God gets what’s his? What’s wrong with that?

Don: Grace, apparently, is a very strong emotive factor. This is something I’ve never associated with grace before. The issues of fairness, judgment, and spiritual nature are all things that we must think about a little bit more.

Reinhard: Making a mistake on this earth doesn’t mean we don’t receive salvation later. Satan tries to insinuate this in our mind. Men can make judgments while we’re on this earth but God’s judgment transcends human understanding. For instance, in the parable, God pays the same wages to people whether they worked only one hour or 10 hours. We don’t understand God sometimes.

People judge other people for mistakes that happen in the past. They won’t let it go. I think that’s the tool Satan uses to confuse us. If God gave grace to the adulterous woman, should we not realize that God’s grace is beyond our comprehension and boundless?

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