Justified by grace but working like mad

It is at the cross....or it is nothing at all.  It is at the cross of Jesus that God's victory is announced.  It is the cross of Jesus that is the fulfillment of God's love for us in Jesus.  It is at the cross that all is accomplished.....or nothing is accomplished at all.

Either Jesus' life, death and resurrection opened a new fullness of life for all who are looking for this reconciliation with the Divine Creator, or it didn't.  There is no halfway or almost or Jesus plus something additional.

We believe that we are justified by grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and that Jesus alone brings victory and life.  Jesus is sufficient.

However, we act as if this was only true to a point.  We act as if Jesus' work was but the starting place for the transformation of this world into a kingdom of life and our own personal salvation.  We act as if living up to a particular moral code, being a 'good' person, is what makes us Christian and allows us to be claimed by Jesus.

We act as if there is a way of living that will elevate us to a higher plane and grant us special access to Jesus - the crucified one-  and therefore access to all the promises.  We act as if there is a required level of moral righteousness and, then, we are the ones who define what moral behaviors are acceptable.  We do this all in Jesus' name.

At one time it was smaller issues:  dancing, drinking, women with their hair uncovered, indecent clothing (which is almost always about women), eating pork, etc.  But there were much bigger issues as well:  no women in church leadership, people of different races are to be kept separate, human sexuality is only to be expressed one way, slavery must be done humanely, vote only for the ..... political party.  Right behavior indicated right belief which then rightly made us Christians.

In the end, the free, overwhelming, outrageous grace of Jesus is diluted, portioned, defined, and riddled with pre-requisites.....which keep it from being grace at all.

It's the cross and only the cross.  It's Jesus and only Jesus.  It's love and only love.  It's grace and always and only grace.

For us, it is standing in the light of God's love and receiving a gift beyond imagining, a gift we could never deserve that makes us so uncomfortable that we do all we can to package it in smaller chunks to be purchased by our striving.

It's not fair.  I do not understand.  I often shake my head in both wonder and dismay.  The cross of grace continues to be incomprehensible after all these years.  So I listen to the Word.  I come frequently to the sacrament.  I talk to God throughout my day.  And in the end I walk in imperfect imitation of our Lord's life. Yet, the gift of God's love is poured on me.

You too, if you can believe it.