How Much is Enough and How Much is Needed?
“It was altogether in character for the scrupulous apostle Peter to pursue some mathematical formula of grace. “How many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me?” he asked Jesus. “Up to seven times?”
Peter was erring on the side of magnanimity, for the rabbis in his day had suggested three as a maximum number of times one might be expected to forgive.
“Not seven times, but seventy-seven,” replied Jesus in a flash.
Peter’s question prompted another of Jesus’ trenchant stories, about a servant who somehow piles up a debt of several million dollars. The fact that realistically no servant could accumulate a debt so huge underscores Jesus’ point: confiscating the man’s family, children, and all of his property would not make a dent in repaying the debt. It is unforgivable. Nevertheless the king, touched with pity, abruptly cancels the debt and lets the servant off scot-free.
The more I reflect on Jesus’ parables, the more tempted I am to use the word “atrocious” to describe the mathematics of the gospel. I believe Jesus gave us these stories about grace in order to call us to step completely outside our “tit-for-tat” world of ungrace and enter into God’s realm of infinite grace. As Miroslav Volf puts it, “The economy of undeserved grace has primacy over the economy of moral deserts.”
From nursery school onward we are taught how to succeed in the world of ungrace. The early bird gets the worm. No pain, no gain. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Demand your rights. Get what you pay for. I know these rules well because I live by them. I work for what I earn; I like to win; I insist on my rights. I want people to get what they deserve–nothing more, nothing less.
Yet if I care to listen, I hear a loud whisper from the gospel that I did not get what I deserved. I deserved punishment and got forgiveness. I deserved wrath and got love. I deserved debtor’s prison and got instead a clean credit history. I deserved stern lectures and crawl-on-your-knees repentance; I got a banquet spread for me.
Philip Yancey
Grace Notes
I don’t know about you, but I do know about me. My day is just starting, rather late I must say, but it is starting very powerfully indeed. As part of my beginning of each new day of my life, I spend some “quiet time” reading and pondering the Word of God, praying to my Creator and Father in heaven, praising Him and thanking Him for all that He has done and will do for me in the future, and gratefully thanking Him for the many blessed opportunities that He will provide for me to perform, understand, and gain knowledge from this very day. Good two-way conversation (which is what should occur whenever you pray to God) is the key to learning and understanding the best and correct way to do anything. That is precisely why each day of your life should begin and end in prayer.
This day I am in full and complete unpacking mode, and setting back up all of my household goods in a new rental home, as I have just closed the sale of my previous home and moved to a new residence. In unpacking the things I have acquired over the previous 46 years of my family’s existence, and particularly in going through the many pictures accumulated over those 46 years, I am at this moment, most nostalgic.
All the while I was falling in love, getting married, and beginning our new life together, did I ever think or imagine,…never for one minute did I ever think,…I would be so blessed and favored. Life and the living of it will always carry with it the “ups and downs” of good times and bad; great victories and joys and painful sufferings and failures. Such events are part of everyone’s life. But if you will get painfully honest with yourself, look yourself straight-in-the-face (using a mirror of course) and then carefully examine your actual life up to this very point in time, I think you will have to admit that God has always been a favorable and trustworthy friend and benefactor through all of the experiences that have occurred in your life. Remember the true statement, Every adversity that occurs in your life carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit,…if…you will look for it with a positive mental attitude.
God Almighty promises all of us who truly do believe in Him and are willing to trust Him and continue working in our efforts to serve and benefit mankind all to the glory of God, that “all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose.” (See Romans 8 : 28).
Remember, this a trustworthy promise of God. It applies to all true believers in Christ. It is His promise that everything, no matter how bad it may seem in the moment of its occurrence, will all work out for your own good,…if,…you stay calm, keep trusting God to fulfill His promise, and keep working with and being guided by your own positive mental attitude. In the long run of things and life, everything will work together for your own good.
As we speak together here within this article, I must tell you that I am, at this very moment, going through one of the most outwardly appearing great tragedies of my entire life. From an earthly (fleshly) point of view, it appears that I am losing almost everything that I have worked my entire life to achieve and acquire. And now at age 70, I am in a situation from which I must start all over again beginning with nothing more than my priceless faith and belief in God Almighty, my beautiful family and friends, and my own knowledge and anchored beliefs that no matter what happens to me, as long as I keep believing in the God of the Universe, living in obedience to His laws, and conducting myself in the manner and way that He gives me guidance and instructions to live it,…then I know without any doubt, worry, or concern that My God is good for His Word and means what He says. Therefore no matter what things become or look like they are becoming,…everything will work out just fine for me.
Through the Grace of Almighty God, and the goodness and love that He has for me and all other believers,…I know that all things (no matter what those things are) will work together for good for me, and I will be just fine in the days ahead. I know because God says it is true. In His Word He states that faith is the substance of things hoped for,…the belief in things yet unseen. This statement is true and I am standing on it for all of the remaining days of my life.
I once heard an evangelist say, “It is always too soon to quit, and it is never too late to start over.” With that in mind, I am picking myself up, dusting myself off, and starting all over again! No “pitty parties” in my life. Get out of my way,…I need to work myself back up onto the Road to Success.
Do you hear that? It sounds like they are spreading out the victory banquet. Let’s go enjoy it!
God’s Greatest Blessings to All of You……………