Lectio
“We in our self-assertiveness would much prefer to justify ourselves rather than receive God’s free gift… The message of justification is difficult to accept because it seems too good to be true. It says: Stop trying to justify yourself. You do not need to.”
~Thomas Oden, The Justification Reader
Meditatio
God’s love is difficult — perhaps impossible — for our transactional hearts and minds to fathom. So often, we think and feel in terms of give and take, of what we perceive as fair or unfair, good or evil. We cannot comprehend the beginningless, endless, and unconditional love, grace, and mercy that is God pouring Godself out in and as our very lives — even in and through the brokenness of our own hearts and minds. We imagine that there is something we can or must do to earn this love, grace, and mercy, because we cannot conceive of a reality within which anything is freely given — let alone divinity itself.
We believe that we can somehow become justified in the eyes of God, if only we desire and pursue justice, righteousness, and goodness, and if we shun injustice, impiety, and evil. We want to be the reason and the cause of our own justification. We want to be the one who gets it right — who stands on the side of right — and who, alone, stands blameless before the Lord.
Unfortunately, we eat fruit from the wrong tree.
We have been deceived by pride, vanity, and every other form of self-deception into believing that we can think, talk, or act our way onto the right side of good and evil — that we can be like God and attain eternal life in our own way, on our own terms, and according to our own standards (Genesis 3:5).
God has told us from the beginning that eternal life is a gift freely given — a fruit to be freely eaten — if only we trust Him and do not choose defiance, rebellion, and the rejection of that gift. But we are defiant. We do rebel. And we do reject His gift so freely offered. And so, in the name of divine justice, a price had to be paid for our sins — for our perpetually missing the mark (Romans 3:23–24).
For this reason, Jesus Christ was born and died as the sacrificial lamb who gave His life that we might live. We need only not say no. We need only consent. We need only open our hands, hearts, and minds and allow this gift — which has already been given to us — to become us (John 1:12).
Even this, however, may very well be out of our control, for even the desire to consent, to not say no to God, is a gift of the Spirit (Philippians 2:13). But we like to imagine that even this is a choice we make and an action we take — that we justify ourselves, if only by not saying no — so that we might take some small credit for doing the work of earning the mercy that cannot be earned.
We seem destined to fall — destined to take back control, to demand credit, and to live with this thorn of delusion in our flesh — the very thorn that keeps us stumbling and humble, and returning to God with a contrite heart (Psalm 51:17), so that He might slowly strip away all of the layers of self that mislead, betray, and destroy us.
As many times as we close the door on His gift so freely given, does He knock (Revelation 3:20), inviting us to open up to Him a little more each time — until there is nothing left to close, because all that remains between us and Him is the translucent veil, the cloud of unknowing, that He has not yet lifted, but which He — not we — will lift when He wills it so — not because we deserve it, but because He loves us.
Oratio
Buds form on the trees
as spring’s warmth melts away winter’s frost.
Life peeks forth from the ground —
the flowers’ potential
makes itself apparent.
But the spring takes no credit
for the flowering trees,
nor do the plants take pride
in the blossoms they will bear.
The winter does not grieve its passing
or fight to remain —
defiant, in denial —
against the life gifted to the ground.
Why can we not be like the trees,
the plants,
the seasons?
Why must we demand credit
for all of the beauty that flows forth from us,
while also denying our part
in the cold death we bring?
Perhaps grace’s warmth will melt away our frost,
and love will bloom its flowers from us —
freely,
without our assistance or resistance.
Perhaps it already is.
Contemplatio
Where in your life is grace already blooming, without your assistance or resistance?
Related Scripture
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”
— Ephesians 2:8
For Further Reading
If you enjoyed this post, you may also like Already Loved: How God’s Infinite Love Calls Us to Love in Return, which explores the same liberating truth — that there is nothing we can do to earn or lose God’s love — and asks what we are meant to do with lives already held in that infinite love.
~Robert Van Valkenburgh
Grappling With Divinity.
Wrestling With God.
Returning To Love.
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