Scandalous Grace
By Tracy Smith
“And since it is through God’s kindness, then it is not by their good
works. For in that case, God’s grace would not be what it really is - - free
and undeserved.”
Romans 11:6 (NLT)
I am a fiction reader and have
favorite authors whose new releases I eagerly look forward to. One of those
authors is Dee Henderson. She had a new book released shortly before our family
had a trip planned to visit my husband’s family in Minnesota. Six hours of
reading - - a dream come true for this reader! Little did I know that this
fiction book would have a gem of a quote that would spark my thinking for
months to come. In the book, Unspoken,
I found this quote, “Grace is so scandalous we can never get beyond its reach
to forgive.” [1] Wow! I had to stop reading, write
the quote down to think on later.
Scandalous and grace - - not two
words you think of as “going together.” But the more I thought about it, the
more I realized that God’s Word is full of examples of scandalous grace.
David (2 Samuel 11): David sent a man to his death in
war so that he could have the man’s wife. Yet because of David’s true
repentance and lifelong trust in God, he is later called a man after God’s own
heart (1 Samuel 13:14).
The Samaritan woman
at the well (John 4): She was a woman and a Samaritan, so normally a
Jewish man would not have spoken to her. On top of that, she was an outcast
(she was at the well during an “off” time) because of some sad choices she had
made in life. Choices others may have seen as unforgivable. Yet,
Jesus did a scandalous thing for His day: spoke with her and then offered
her Living Water.
Saul/Paul (Acts 9:1-31): As Saul, he thought he was doing
God’s work by persecuting and contributing to the death of Christians. Yet,
after his conversion, God used Paul mightily in the new church.
In our world, the actions of those
above would be deemed “hard to forgive” or even “unforgivable.” But God puts no one and no action outside of God’s redemptive, forgiveness grace.
Scandalous and amazing!
GOING
DEEPER:
1.
Do you ever feel like you’ve done something hard to forgive or even unforgivable?
If so, would you commit to finding more stories of God’s scandalous grace in
the Bible as encouragement?
2. Do you know those who feel like they’ve done
something unforgivable? What can you do to encourage or remind them of God’s
forgiving grace?
FURTHER
READING:
Along with
being a wife and mother to two teenage sons, Tracy is a ministry assistant at
Oakwood and works with a great group of Junior High girls.
[1] Henderson, Dee. Unspoken. Page 170. Bloomington, MN:
Bethany House Publishers, 2013.
