A few words in response to what I see as an increasing divide in the Christian community as evidenced by the varied responses to the situation in Newtown. In my opinion, the voices from the right and the left, if I can simplify it to that degree, are both missing the mark fairly significantly when it comes to the message of Jesus Christ, which is the message of grace. It’s the culmination of a problem that’s been developing for some time as the church collective has tried to make itself culturally relevant, and as a result has adopted certain stances that don’t square with what the Bible teaches.
On the right, we end up with a civil religion that claims the United States as a land with which God is particularly pleased (or at least, with which he used to be pleased!), based almost solely on our ability to meet a particular set of standards that he has set. On the left, God is presented more as an unconditional lover without standards. Since any particular moral standard will only serve to alienate, we are much more likely to emphasize God’s love and tolerance of us, even to the extent of doing away with–or at least downplaying–any particular biblical teaching that seems cruel or outdated.
The inadequacies of our respective theological position are generally teased out in the face of crisis. I won’t pretend that my view, then, is the superior view. I offer it simply as a reminder of what I believe Christ taught, and what we should keep in view even as the prevalent theological views tend to swing from right to left, missing the central ground of grace. And that, as it turns out, is the problem.
The imaginary Christian America of the conservative right and the reality of the secular America that we live in today both suffer from the same problem. Morality without grace and immorality without grace both lead to the same destination: oppression, brokenness, and fear. Only grace leads to freedom.
This is the what makes the message of Jesus so compelling. Jesus didn’t capitulate to the moral, religious crowd who believed that their own merit made them superior. He also didn’t agree with the immoral, irreligious crowd who opted to obfuscate the law in favor of creating their own standard, and, in so doing, validated themselves and their actions.
This compelling message is seen in one of the most famous passages recorded in the Bible, when we see the religious leaders bringing a known prostitute to Jesus to see how he would respond. The religious law said that she should be killed by stoning for what she had done. Would Jesus uphold this law, thus proving that he approved of their religious efforts, validating them? Or would he confirm what they already believed about him, that he was some sort of rebel teacher that was threatening upheaval of the whole religious system, and thus, their power?
In the end, Christ did neither (although his response did threaten the religious establishment). To the religious crowd he offered a solution: if indeed this woman has violated the standard of God, then let anyone who has kept it in full throw the first stone. His message is clear. If any one of you can claim to be perfect, and in full accordance with how God has called you to live, then you are free to take aim. All the stones were dropped, and the crowd dissipated. (Notably, the older ones leave first. The longer you have been trying to earn your own salvation through religious activity, the more quick you are to realize how often you fail!)
Jesus then turns his attention to the prostitute. “Where are your accusers?” Since they had all left, so Jesus says the woman is free to go, and he would not condemn her either. Instead, he said, she should “go, and sin no more”. By letting her go without condemnation, he did not ignore the law of God, but rather validated the fundamental principle of it. Namely, that it functioned as it was supposed to, by revealing that this prostitute, and all who come into contact with God’s standard, fall desperately short and are in major need of grace and mercy.
The grace in the story comes in the form of Jesus himself, who being the only perfect one in the story, had earned the right to cast the first stone, but rather chose forgiveness over condemnation, and mercy over judgment. This is the message of grace: that Jesus bears the condemnation of God so we can receive the mercy of God. Thus, in opposition to the both the religious and irreligious, the way of grace is made known.
The religious path to salvation is to uphold the standard of God, and seek to achieve it based on our own merit. We stand in condemnation and judgment of all around us who have not earned as much perfection as we ourselves have. In this way, our pursuit is validated; we are validated.
The irreligious path is just the opposite, albeit with the same result: self-validation. If God’s revelation tells us that we don’t measure up, we should rid ourselves of that revelation and put in it’s place a standard by which we do measure up. There has never been a man who would create as his own reality a world where he is not fully capable and qualified to achieve the highest perfection. And in that self-created reality, our pursuit realizes it’s goal: we are validated.
Jesus path rejects both as valid means to achieve what it is that we are looking for (validation), and what we truly need (salvation). The path of grace upholds the standards of God as perfect, but rejects our efforts at attaining it, since they cannot produce the desired outcome. On the other hand, it affirms our sense of self-worth while rejecting the means by which we seek to attain it. In it’s place, it inserts the love of Jesus as the creative force that offers us salvation, restores our worth, and validates our existence.
We stray from this third way–the way of grace–when we seek to earn the love of God through our own merit, believing ourselves to be worthy of even the slightest amount of God’s pleasure based on our own efforts. We also stray when we seek to create our own reality, where God’s standard is seen as irrelevant at worst, or unimportant at best. In both cases we will be left with pervasive failure, brokenness, and ultimately oppression (in the case of the religious path) or depression (in the case of the irreligious path–for what is depression except for self-oppression?)
The way of Jesus, and the way of grace, removes the burden of achieving the perfection of God from us because we are given the perfection of Jesus for free. As a result, our worth and our value, stemming from the love of God, is renewed, increased, and validated. It is something we cannot earn, and do not deserve. And yet, we live in it’s reality because of our trust in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
That’s the gospel.