MORAL FAILURES

Monday, August 21, 2006

If you come to my blog even occasionally, you know that Philip Yancy is one of my favorite writers. I like these thoughts from his book, Rumors of Another World:

While I was researching a book on Jesus, I could not help noticing the tenderness with which Jesus treated people with wounds caused by moral failure. A Samaritan woman with five failed marriages, a dishonest tax collector, an adulteress, a prostitute, a disciple who denied him—all these received from Jesus not the judgment they expected, but forgiveness and reinstatement.

Grace is irrational, unfair, unjust, and only makes sense if I believe in another world governed by a merciful God who always offers another chance. “Amazing Grace,” a rare hymn that in recent times climbed the charts of popular music, holds out the promise that God judges people not for what they have been but what they could be, not by their past but by their future.

Selah