the church of the
ascension
in the city of
new york
Friday, March 20, 2009
Friday, March 20
Psalm 91 / Romans 6:1-11 / John 8:33-47
A typical reaction when I tell people that I believe God will save everyone, no exceptions, is a question: Well, then, why bother being good, if you can do whatever you want and still get to go to heaven?
Paul must have been accustomed to this same kind of question in all his exhortation about the bountifulness of God's grace in Christ: "Should we continue to sin in order that grace may abound?" (Romans 6:1) You can just imagine Paul biting his lip and wanting to tell the questioner that he is a complete idiot. This just confirms a lurking suspicion of mine that we continue as Christians to take sin more seriously than we take grace. How do I know this to be true? Because we all would much rather believe that no one gets a free ride instead of everyone, and that a person who starts work later in the day shouldn't be paid the same as the person who got to work early in the morning (Matthew 20:1-15). Just another reason I am glad God doesn't have my sense of justice!
— Stephen P. Hagerty
A typical reaction when I tell people that I believe God will save everyone, no exceptions, is a question: Well, then, why bother being good, if you can do whatever you want and still get to go to heaven?
Paul must have been accustomed to this same kind of question in all his exhortation about the bountifulness of God's grace in Christ: "Should we continue to sin in order that grace may abound?" (Romans 6:1) You can just imagine Paul biting his lip and wanting to tell the questioner that he is a complete idiot. This just confirms a lurking suspicion of mine that we continue as Christians to take sin more seriously than we take grace. How do I know this to be true? Because we all would much rather believe that no one gets a free ride instead of everyone, and that a person who starts work later in the day shouldn't be paid the same as the person who got to work early in the morning (Matthew 20:1-15). Just another reason I am glad God doesn't have my sense of justice!
— Stephen P. Hagerty
