God’s motivation for grace

Not only does the prodigal son story (see the section, “Grace is undeserved” in this chapter) offer a vivid picture of grace, but the parable also hints at the reason God offers grace – his amazing love for his people. You can see this by the father’s reaction when he finishes his run and gets to his child. He doesn’t just shake his son’s hand or give him a high-five. Instead, Jesus gives a much more intimate description – the father excitedly hugs and kisses the prodigal repeatedly. Charles Spurgeon, an evangelical preacher who lived in the 19^th century, spoke of the love this parable portrays in his sermon, “Prodigal Love for the Prodigal Son” (www.spurgeon.org/sermons/2236.htm): 

God on the neck of a sinner! What a wonderful picture! Can you conceive it? I do not think you can; but if you cannot imagine it, I hope that you will realize it. When God’s arm is about our neck, and his lips are on our cheek, kissing us much, then we understand more than preachers or books can ever tell us of his...love. 

Principle #1: God loves

God desires all people to be saved and come to full knowledge of the truth.

-1 Timothy 2:4

 

Christians believe that, from the very beginning, God created people because he loves them and wants a relationship with them (John 3:16). And he designed humans in such a way that they would naturally seek him, desire a relationship with him, and have a hunger for what he offers – long life, hope, peace, and joy. Yet, as discussed fully in Chapter 1, God also gave humans a wild card – the free choice of whether to follow him or to go their own separate ways. As a result, while God loves each person and has his arms outstretched, he’s a “gentleman” and never forces anyone to do what he or she doesn’t want to do. 

 

Principle #2: People sin

All people have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.

-Romans 3:23 

If you read the Bible through cover to cover, two truths about God become very clear: God loves people, and he hates sin. The problem is that everyone is born with a sin nature (see Chapter 4) and sins (Romans 3:23). And this sin, whether it’s a little or a lot, separates everyone equally from God. 

God’s not simply being a meanie by making a big deal out of sin. Rather, sin isn’t something he can just sweep under the table or pretend isn’t there. Christians believe that he doesn’t ignore it for three major reasons: 

Sin breaks God’s heart. Imagine the reaction of parents whose only child, on her 16^th birthday, stole their life savings and ran off to Fiji. Yes, they’d be upset that she broke the rules, but that anger pales in comparison to the hurt they’d feel at the betrayal and selfishness of their own flesh and blood. Similarly, when you sin against God, you’re not violating an arbitrary list of do’s and don’ts that God wants you to obey; instead, you’re hurting God. As you explore in Chapter 4, thinking of sin as simply breaking rules is overly simplistic and even downright misleading. No, sin is all about breaking God’s heart. 

A holy God can’t turn a blind eye to sin. Even if God, in spite of his hurt, wants to overlook sin, he can’t. Ignoring sin is the one option that isn’t open to God, because he’s perfectly holy and completely pure. In fact, if he tried to close his eyes to it, he’d no longer be who he is. In the same way, an ice cube can’t simply ignore a pot of boiling water. If the cube doesn’t take reality into account and jumps into the steamy liquid, it ceases to be an ice cube. So, although the common belief is “Nothing is impossible with God,” that statement is only partially true. Yes, he’s all-powerful and in control, but God can’t do anything that goes contrary to his nature. 

God established the law of cause and effect in the beginning. When God introduced choice to the world, a natural side effect of that decision was the introduction of consequences: Every decision you and I make has an outcome that we can’t reverse. In other words, every cause has an effect. 

This earth is a beautiful place, but it’s also, quite frankly, dangerous and treacherous. Sometimes actions have painful consequences, no matter how harsh or seemingly unfair the result. For example, getting into a pizza-eating contest with your 300-pound cousin may leave you with a stomachache. But wishful thinking or denial doesn’t change the cold hard fact that your poor decision has indigestion-inducing consequences. Reality wins in the end, whether you like it or not. In the same way, after you sin, you can’t simply wash away its effects. 

The cost of freedom also plays a major factor in why Christians believe God allows bad things to happen in this world. See Chapter 16 for more on that topic. 

Are you yearning for a few examples? Consider a couple of parallels to fully grasp why God can’t ignore sin: 

Imagine that someone dear to you jumps into a pit of slimy, poisonous goo. When that person gets out of the pit, a gooey substance coats the individual and reeks of the sulphur-smelling poison. When you get near the person, the poison gas spewing from the slime burns your lungs and makes it impossible for you to breathe. You may still love that person, but you can’t carry on a normal relationship with him or her as long as the slime remains. 

Suppose a wife has an affair and shamelessly brings her lover home to her husband. With another man hanging all over his wife, the husband can’t simply carry on as usual with her, ignoring the reality that’s in front of him. He may still deeply love her and hope their relationship can be rekindled, but he can’t act on those desires while the other man has his arms around the wife. The other man not only blocks the husband from interacting with his spouse, but he also prevents the wife from being intimate with her husband. 

Sin is much like that gooey slime or that underhanded lover. It causes a gigantic rift and has divided people from God ever since Adam and Eve. God made it clear that the penalty for sin is death and eternal separation from God (Romans 6:23). As a result, people find themselves in deep doo-doo: They’re in a bad situation and can’t get out of it by being good. They’re between a rock and a hard place; they’re up a creek without a paddle; they’ve fallen and they can’t get up. Well, you get the idea.

 
People throughout the ages have tried some ingenious tricks to bridge that vast canyon of sin, but no one has been successful (although rumour has it that stuntman Evel Knievel  came awfully close in the 1970s). As history has proven, humans simply don’t have the goods to pull it off by themselves. See Chapters 4 and 15 on why that’s the case.