Like ships storm-driven into port,
like starving souls that seek the bread
they once despised, like wanderers
begging refuge from the whelming night,
like prodigals that seek the father’s
home when all is spent; yet welcomed
at the open door, arms outstretched
and kisses for our shame; so is
our coming unto Thee, O God.
– W. E. Orchard (1877-1955)
The Temple: A Book of Prayers
Sometimes the thoughtful listener is disturbed when he hears grace preached . . . lest this might lead to what is sometimes called “cheap grace.” But you can park that one. Grace can look after itself. Grace does not let the sinner down, true; but on the other hand, it does not let the sinner off. There is another side to the coin of grace.
Although “amazing” is so often the adjective linked today with grace . . . you must admit you are wrong and take the sinner’s place to qualify. And there is nothing so humbling as that. Sometimes it is a veritable death a man dies when he confesses himself wrong where before he said he was right. Nothing cheap about that! And grace makes this demand because of its very character, that it is good news for bad people. Quite obviously, you have to confess you are bad to be a candidate. Only self-confessed wrong ones are true candidates… But “he that humbles himself himself shall be exalted” (Lk. 14:11)—every time! That is how it always works out under grace…
“Where there is no revival, everybody is right; but when revival comes—that is when Jesus comes—everyone is wrong.” Then the self-confessed wrong ones are declared right with God through the blood of His Son and they know it! Be assured then, repentance and revival only come with the rediscovery of grace.
–Roy Hession
Good News for Bad People
But God, being rich in mercy . . .
Ephesians 2:4
The Bible says God is not tightfisted with mercy but openhanded, not frugal but lavish, not poor but rich.
• That God is rich in mercy means that your regions of deepest shame and regret are not hotels through which divine mercy passes but homes in which divine mercy abides.
• It means the things about you that make you cringe most, make him hug hardest.
• It means his mercy is not calculating and cautious, like ours. It is unrestrained, flood-like, sweeping, magnanimous.
• It means our haunting shame is not a problem for him, but the very thing he loves most to work with.
• It means our sins do not cause his love to take a hit. Our sins cause his love to surge forward all the more.
• It means on that day when we stand before him, quietly, unhurriedly, we will weep with relief, shocked at how impoverished a view of his mercy-rich heart we had.
– Dane Ortlund,
Gentle and Lowly
THE PRODIGAL SON STORY
Try, if you please, to invent a different ending for this story. Make the old man rebuff the boy at first; have him stand on his dignity and require of the rascal proofs of his change of heart; let him read a sermon on wild oats before the forgiving kiss is bestowed; have him take the penitent at his word—as he richly deserves to be taken—and try him out with the slaves for a year or two, till the family pride or outraged justice, is satisfied. Imagine, in short, any possible ending but this, and you have destroyed the noblest picture of redeeming grace ever created, and lowered God to the level of man’s virtue. Heathen religions in plenty, and some versions of Christian religion, furnish us with the alternatives suggested above; Christ alone shows us the suffering Father who saves by forgiving.
–Albert E. Bailey,
The Gospel in Art
The children of Adam . . . nailed God in Flesh to a tree.
The sky grew black. The earth shook in horror.
And He spoke. God spoke.
At our very worst, He spoke the very best.
His Word on the tree: “Father, forgive.”
And there we stop… and begin.
–Peter Hiett
Mercy will live longer than your sin,
longer than temptation,
longer than your sorrows,
longer than your persecutors.
–John Bunyan
Every time you experience the pain of rejection,
absence, or death, you are faced with a choice.
You can become bitter and decide not to love again,
or you can stand straight in your pain and let the soil
on which you stand become richer and more able
to give life to new seeds.
— Henri Nouwen
Our hope does not lie
in achievement or success,
but in forgiveness.
Endless waves of forgiveness.
And afterward, waves
of joyful laughter.
– Peter Kreeft
It is forgiveness that sets a man working for God. He does not work in order to be forgiven, but because he has been forgiven… An unforgiven man cannot work. He has not the will, nor the power, nor the liberty. He is in chains. Israel in Egypt could not serve Jehovah. “Let my people go, that they may serve Me” was God’s message to Pharaoh; first liberty, then service.” It is forgiveness that sets a man working for God. He does not work in order to be forgiven, but because he has been forgiven… An unforgiven man cannot work. He has not the will, nor the power, nor the liberty. He is in chains. Israel in Egypt could not serve Jehovah. “Let my people go, that they may serve Me” was God’s message to Pharaoh; first liberty, then service.”
A forgiven man is the true worker; the true lawkeeper. He can, he will, he must work for God. He has come into contact with that part of God’s character which warms his heart. Forgiving love constrains him. He cannot but work for Him who has removed his sins as far as the east is from the west.
―Horatius Bonar,
Holiness and Peace
Artwork by Vincent Van Gogh
We need not despair
even in our worst…
our failures are forgiven…
[the] only fatal thing
is to sit down content
with anything less
than perfection.
–C. S. Lewis
Gomer was always good company — a little heavy with the lipstick maybe, a little less than choosy about men and booze, a little loud, but great at a party and always good for a laugh. Then the prophet Hosea came along wearing a sandwich board that read “The End Is at Hand” on one side and “Watch Out” on the other.
The first time he asked her to marry him, she thought he was kidding. The second time she knew he was serious, but thought he was crazy. The third time she said yes. He wasn’t exactly a swinger, but he had a kind face, and he was generous, and he wasn’t all that crazier than everybody else. Besides, any fool could see he loved her. Give or take a little, she even loved him back for a while, and they had three children, whom Hosea named with queer names like Not-pitied-for-God-will-no-longer-pity-Israel-now-that-it’s-gone-to-the-dogs so that every time the roll was called at school, Hosea would be scoring a prophetic bull’s-eye in absentia. But everybody could see the marriage wasn’t going to last, and it didn’t.
While Hosea was off hitting the sawdust trail, Gomer took to hitting as many night spots as she could squeeze into a night, and any resemblance between her next batch of children and Hosea was purely coincidental. It almost killed him, of course. Every time he raised a hand to her, he burst into tears. Every time she raised one to him, he was the one who ended up apologizing.
He tried locking her out of the house a few times when she wasn’t in by five in the morning, but he always opened the door when she finally showed up and helped get her to bed if she couldn’t see straight enough to get there herself. Then one day she didn’t show up at all.
He swore that this time he was through with her for keeps, but of course he wasn’t. When he finally found her, she was lying passed out in a highly specialized establishment located above an adult bookstore, and he had to pay the management plenty to let her out of her contract. She’d lost her front teeth and picked up some scars you had to see to believe, but Hosea had her back again and that seemed to be all that mattered.
He changed his sandwich board to read “God Is Love” on one side and “There’s No End to It” on the other, and when he stood on the street corner belting out…
How can I give you up, O Ephraim! How can I hand you over, O Israel! For I am God and no mortal, The Holy One in your midst. (Hosea 11:8-9)
Nobody can say how many converts he made, but one thing that’s for sure is that, including Gomer’s, there was seldom a dry eye in the house. (Hosea 1-3; 11)
–Frederick Buechner
Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime;
Therefore, we are saved by HOPE.
Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense
in any immediate context of history;
Therefore, we are saved by FAITH.
Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone.
Therefore, we are saved by LOVE.
No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint
of our friend or foe as from our own;
Therefore, we are saved by the final form of love
which is forgiveness.
–Reinhold Niebuhr
Since believers have been forgiven,
they will forgive.
Since they have received good for evil,
they will repay evil with good.
Since, when they were enemies of God,
God loved them,
they will love their enemies.
–Jürgen Moltmann
This is the gospel of grace. A God, who out of love for us, sent the only Son He ever had wrapped in our skin. He learned how to walk, stumbled and fell, cried for His milk, sweated blood in the night, was lashed with a whip and showered with spit, was fixed to a cross and died whispering forgiveness on us all.
–Brennan Manning
The Ragamuffin Gospel
Let no one mourn
that he has fallen
again and again;
for forgiveness has risen
from the grave.
–John Chrysostom
(c. 347 – 407)
Forgiveness is the answer
to the child’s dream
of a miracle by which
what is broken is made whole again,
what is soiled is made clean again.
—Dag Hammarskjold
(1905-1961)
To receive forgiveness
means to obtain a new future,
[that] my baggage
is taken off my back,
that another has picked it up
and bears it for me.
–Helmut Thielicke
Of course, in our incomplete world God’s gentle offer and demand press upon us as fearful things, almost threatening. But God’s offer and demand are neither fearful nor threatening. God in his gentle love longs to set us free from the prison we have stumbled into—the loveless prison where we refuse both the offer and the demand of forgiveness. We are like a frightened bird before him, shrinking away lest this demand crush us completely. But when we eventually yield—when he corners us and finally takes us in his hand—we find to our astonishment that he is infinitely gentle and that his only aim is to release us from our prison, to set us free to be the people he made us to be.
But when we fly out into the sunshine, how can we not then offer the same gentle gift of freedom, of forgiveness, to those around us? That is the truth of the resurrection, turned into prayer, turned into forgiveness and remission of debts, turned into love. It is constantly surprising, constantly full of hope, constantly coming to us from God’s future to shape us into the people through whom God can carry out his work in the world.
–N. T. Wright
Surprised by Hope
The devil knows
your name but calls you
by your sin.
God knows your sin
but calls you
by your name.
–Ricardo Sanchez
Why do we swim away from Him in our times of need? I believe it is because of the fact that we may not think He will forgive us. Maybe you believe that you have done too much. Maybe ran your bill up more than you can pay. But I’m here to tell you that no matter how far you have gone out to sea the Lord will not leave you. No matter how much you hurt the Him, He still loves you.
If you are thinking right now that you can’t go to the Lord with something, think again. He went to the cross for us so He could be there when we need Him the most. Go to Him with what you need. Jesus is the lifeguard that will brave the currents and will go after you no matter how deep or how cold the water is.
–Tony Rhoda
It is not a matter
of arrogance . . . but faith
when we celebrate:
we are accepted!
–St. Ambrose
(337 – 397)
Bookkeeping is the only punishable offence in the kingdom of heaven. For in that happy state, the books are ignored forever, and there is only the Book of life. And in that book, nothing stands against you.
There are no debit entries
that can keep you out of the clutches
of the Love that will not let you go.
There is no minimum balance below which the grace that finagles all accounts will cancel your credit. And there is, of course, no need for you to show large amounts of black ink, because the only Auditor before whom you must finally stand is the Lamb — and he has gone deaf, dumb, and blind on the cross. The last may be first and the first last, but that’s only for the fun of making the point: everybody is on the payout queue and everybody gets full pay. Nobody is kicked out who wasn’t already in, the only bruised backsides belong to those who insist on butting themselves into outer darkness.
For if our world
could have been saved
by bookkeeping,
it would have been saved
by Moses, not Jesus.
The law was just fine. And God gave it a good thousand years or so to see if anyone could pass a test like that. But nobody did — when it became perfectly clear that there was “no one who was righteous, no even one” (Rom. 3:10; Ps. 14:1-3), that “both Jews and Gentiles alike were under the power of sin (Rom. 3:9) — God gave up on salvation by the books. He cancelled everybody’s records in the death of Jesus and rewarded us all, equally and fully, with a new creation in the resurrection of the dead.
And therefore the only adverse judgment that falls on the world falls on those who take their stand on a life God cannot use rather than on the death he can. Only the winners lose, because only the losers can win: the reconciliation simply cannot work out any other way . . . the kingdom of heaven is for everybody; hell is reserved only for the idiots who insist on keeping nonexistent records in their heads.
Robert Farrar Capon
Kingdom, Grace, Judgment
(emphasis added)
All the clutter that, like decrepit bachelors, we have allowed to pile up in the house of our living, all the hates, the lies, the lusts, and the lunacies – the whole lifetime’s accumulation of irretrievable mistakes – has been forgiven, absolved, put away, carted off.
If then we accept that absolution, that housecleaning that is a house-removal – and if we take up residence in the clean emptiness of Jesus’ death – we will have his life and have it abundantly. But if we try to hang onto the old house of our living we will have only hell . . . To go back to that life is to go back to nothing.
The only real dwelling we have now is the Father’s house of many mansions: hell is simply the stupid pretense that nowhere really would be a nicer place to spend eternity.
–Robert Farrar Capon
Kingdom, Grace, Judgment
Terror accomplishes no real obedience. Suspense brings forth no fruit unto holiness. No gloomy uncertainty as to God’s favour can subdue one lust, or correct our crookedness of will. But the free pardon of the cross uproots sin, and withers all its branches. Only the certainty of love, forgiving love, can do this.
–Horatius Bonar
God’s Way of Holiness
To be a Christian means
to forgive the inexcusable
because God has forgiven
the inexcusable in you.
–C. S. Lewis
Forgiveness of sins,
ought to make you rejoice;
this is the very heart of Christianity,
and yet it is a mighty dangerous
thing to preach.
–Martin Luther
Table Talk
Martin Luther’s close friend was Philipp Melanchthon, author of the Augsburg Confession. Melanchthon was a cool man where Luther was fervid, a scholar as opposed to a doer, and he continued to live like a monk even after he had joined the German Reformation . . . One day Luther lost patience with Melanchthon’s virtuous reserve. “For heaven’s sake,” he roared, “why don’t you go out and sin a little? God deserves to have something to forgive you for!”
–Phyliss McGinley
[God’s forgiveness] is neither a response to a suitable worthy confession, nor the acceptance of a reasonable apology. Absolvere in Latin means not only to loosen, to free, to acquit; it also means to dispose of, to complete, to finish. When God pardons, therefore, he does not say he understands our weaknesses or makes allowances for our errors; rather he disposes of, he finishes with, the whole of our dead life and raises us up with a new one. He does not so much deal with our derelictions as he does drop them down the black hole of Jesus’ death. He forgets our sins in the darkness of Jesus’ expiration. He finds us, in short, in the desert of death, not in the garden of improvement; and in the power of Jesus resurrection, he puts us on his shoulders rejoicing and brings us home.
–Robert Farrar Capon
Kingdom, Grace, Judgment
The sad thing about time
is that it flows in one direction
and there are no do-overs.
That’s why God invented
FORGIVENESS.
–Gregory Boyd
Perichoresis 