There will always be wars and rumors of wars. The poor you always have with you. But something greater is here. God Himself has come in the person of Christ as our servant, and has swept in and solved all of our problems of justice and suffering through the cross.
The gospel declares that while we are yet sinners, at our worst, God demonstrates His own love towards us, His greatest and most sacrificial love. It kills the idolatrous faux-God of the judge-self. This is the way in which we are baptized into Christ’s death (Romans 6:3).
Let’s be clear: there is no harsher law than this kind of “grace”. It says, no matter how horrible and crazy and insane and rotten and sinful someone is to you, you have to “accept” them and love them and forgive them and redefine the law for them on their terms as they see fit.
This book is an allegory for something that has become very important and very central for me. The simple ordinary gospel of Christ and Him crucified for sinners is the great power of God for us.
I hate being called a sheep. If there must be an animal metaphor, I’d rather be a lion or perhaps a bear or an eagle. Sheep are defenseless and dumb and stubborn.
So what is freedom in the sense of being “free indeed?” I think it is the freedom of being justified.
His love for me is not fragile. It is enduring. It grieves from love when I stray. It is quite constant.
Grace overcomes at the exact point where judgment has its power. Under the law, we cannot and must not let go of our capacity to judge. It is the one thing we have which is right! So we see, where judgment thrives, grace wins.
Isn’t it strange that the same creature who bit and killed is raised up as a standard and becomes a symbol of healing? Why is that? Here is what I think: it is the judge who must be the seat of mercy. It is the giver of wrath who must be the healer.
1 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; 2 and both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, […]