Amazing Grace?

We probably all know the first line of this hymn:

"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me"

I want to say that I agree with John Newton's assessment. Grace is amazing and its very, very sweet.

And yet I think that familar words and hymns and creeds can become rote and routine. I think we can read or sing or say the words but lose their meaning and power. So, today I'm seriously asking myself: "Is God's grace really amazing?" and "If it is amazing, why?"

Amazing? Really?

One could probably open the Bible to any page and see statements of God's grace, mercy and steadfast love. Lam 2:22-24 come to mind (see blog post for 1/4). However seeing the reality of these things and assigning an adjective like amazing to them are two different things. And people being who they are can easily dismiss something that may in fact be amazing (see Jn 12:27-29)

But, if you slowly and carefully read passages like Isa 1 or Rom 1:18-3:20, you begin to get the sense that there are dimensions to this grace and mercy that we have received that go beyond the simple fact that I'm a helpless sinner (which in fact we all are). So, I thought I'd list some of the realities that make God's grace amazing.

• We are totally helpless in the spiritual sense
• We are broken / fractured at such a foundational level that we cannot truly discern God's work
• We see ourselves as the center of the universe
• We consciously and subconsciously wish God would both leave us alone and provide everything we need (spiritually bi-polar?)
• Others exist to make us happy and we would gladly kill them (physically or at least verbally / emotionally) when they fail in this task
• Our view of heaven is where we finally achieve all that has been missing in our lives

The fact that Jesus steps into this quagmire should simply astound us. The more I know about God (a small thimble compared to all the oceans' water) and the more I know about the human heart (maybe two thimbles), the more I identify with God's judgement in Noah's day and in Lot's day (Gen 6-8; 19). These events both demonstrate the justice (good and right) of God. But, even here, where God is giving human rebels, spiritual traitors the punishment they deserve, we witness grace. Why save Noah? Why save Lot? Why save you? Why save me?

More than amazing?

For me, this is where the love and grace and mercy of God become incredibly amazing. When you consider the fact that He paid our unpayable debt and he gave to us the right standing we did not and could not obtain on our own and you add to that the reality that he did this while we were his enemies, rebels and traitors, then you have astoundingly, amazing grace.

Years ago, I heard a speaker say that the stunning thing about John 3:16 is not so much that God loved the whole world in a numeric sense (i.e. isn't it amazing that God can love so many people). Instead, John 3:16 is stunning because the world, especially in John's writing, is such a bad place (i.e. isn't it amazing God can love anyone as sinful as me, much less millions of us). God's love is expansive, covering the globe, covering the centuries, covering all cultures and languages and genders. But this love and mercy and grace become a multifaceted diamond when you really consider how unlovely and unworthy and treacherous and self absorbed we are.

Consider anything you enjoy or appreciate. Something you "love" in the broad, 21st century way of speaking. Why do you love or appreciate that thing? In the end, isn't there something that you find lovely or enjoyable about it? Whether its a spouse, a close friend, or pizza, the things we love are the things that appeal to us, that make us feel good, that are lovely to us.

Now consider the depth of Rom 5:8, "God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us". Brother, sister, friend, God loves the unlovely. God loves what would make him vomit, would make him turn away in disgust, would make him weep. We don't really know that kind of love, but we can see it in the cross.

In the end, the grace of Christ is incredibly amazing. It is amazing in what it accomplishes. It is amazing in what is secures. It is amazing in what it overcomes. It is amazing in what it endures.

And, it is amazing in that it is given at all.

To God Alone be the Glory.