Tonight I'd just like to share a little somethin' I read this evening from Chapter 7- "An Unnatural Act"
Yancey writes:
..."I came across these words from Helmut Thielicke, a German who lived through the horrors of Nazism:
This business of forgiving is by no means a simple thing...We say, "Very well, if the other fellow is sorry and begs my pardon, I will forgive him, then I'l give in." We make of forgiveness a law of reciprocity. And this never works. For then both of us say to ourselves, "The other fellow has to make the first move." And then I watch like a hawk to see whether the other person will flash a signal to me with his eyes or whether I can detect some small hint between the lines of his letter which shows he is sorry. I am always on the point of forgiving...but I never forgive. I am far too just.
The only remedy, Thielicke concluded, was his realization that God had forgiven his sins and given him another chance- the lesson of the parable of the unforgiving servant. Breaking the cycle of "ungrace" means taking the initiative. Instead of waiting for his neighbor to make the first move, Thielicke must do so, defying the natural law of retribution and fairness. He did this only when he realized that God's initiative lay at the heart of the gospel he had been preaching but not practicing.
At the center of Jesus' parables of grace stands a God who takes the initiative toward us: a lovesick father who runs to meet the prodigal, a king who cancels a debt too large for any servant to reimburse, an employer who pays eleventh-hour workers the same as the first-hour crew, a banquet-giver who goes out to the hightways and byways in search of undeserving guests."
(What's So Amazing About Grace, p. 91)
We are shown the greatest example of grace by our Heavenly Father. Pondering that...
Maybe more commentary later.
I hope this speaks to you, dear reader! ;)
rest&love
Grace Joy
No comments:
Post a Comment