I Like You

08.14.13

Jeremiah 16.13 13 Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’ (ESV)

One of my favorite Bible words is grace. Grace simply means: unmerited favor. The implication of that is there is nothing I can do to earn grace; it is simply (and wonderfully and majestically) the free gift of God: He likes us!

Over the years I’ve heard people try to redefine grace. How silly! You can’t redefine unmerited favor. You might not use the word favor, but you can’t redefine it – it is what it is. Now, I know, anyone can do anything they want to do: they can call up, down; the can call wrong, right. They can make evil good and good evil. But that is deceptive and destructive. Somewhere, somehow, there has to be a standard by which all things are measured and God says that is His Word. Like it or not, it’s true.

Over the years I’ve also seen the abuse of grace, reducing it to the level of a hall-pass to allow us to live any way we want without worrying about the consequences of our actions. Wrong. That is a misuse and abuse of grace: God’s favor.

What makes me laugh is when people say things like: he fell from grace. Or they say grace over their meal. Or they call some religious mucky-muck, “Your Grace”. How stupid. But what makes me tremble a bit is when I read words like this: ‘Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’

No grace. It wasn’t a matter of falling from grace; it was grace removed – or: “I don’t like you anymore!” Wow. Those are terrifying words to hear from the Lord of Grace and Goodness and mercy and kindness, and, and, and… There is no fall; but there is removal.

I don’t know how this fits into New Testament theology. I don’t know how to square this with what I’ve been taught about God’s love and mercy. But I do know this: if one (me or you or someone else) persists in peeing on God’s leg and telling Him it’s rain, he’s only tragically fooling himself. I believe there is supposed to be a holy (and Holy Spirit empowered) response to the words from God: I like you.

God has chosen to show this pathetic little man His favor. I didn’t earn it; I don’t deserve it: He just gives it. And because He does, I need to respect it. And Him. But it is more than respect it’s love: He loves me despite how dramatically I deserve His judgment and if He can set aside all the things I’ve done and do, then it is worth my time investing in a relationship with Someone who could remove grace at any time but chooses not to so that I may succeed in the life He’s given me – a life beyond my highest imaginations of goodness, peace, and purpose.

Father, with You it isn’t tentative – it’s fixed: Your grace is Your gift and I’m not to dwell on whether or not I deserve it, I’m just to live gratefully in it, and faithfully tell others about it. May I do just that… amen.