Know God, Christ, Spirit

If We Slander God’s True Graciousness – We Should Apologize

Of course I have believed in “Grace”Apology to God

as a cardinal teaching of Christian faith, and as something that I, and we all, certainly need to understand more thoroughly, more extensively.

But We Often Do Misunderstand God’s Grace, God’s Graciousness of Spirit.

We see and say that God acts in grace – in key moments or in key matters – i.e. in kindness and blessing that are morally undeserved by the objects, the recipients.  That is very true.

But sadly, of course, for many religious persons and groups (many of US), God is not gracious, but

  • an angry God,
  • a wildly dissatisfied God,
  • a constantly or frequently irritated and offended God,
  • a God who carefully (and flawlessly if he wishes) keeps track of all our wrongs, all of us,
    • against him
    • and against any part of His creation.
Would God be LESS decent, courteous, kind, communicative, and strategic in redemptive efforts than those truly gracious humans we know?
But holding to a God like that is a problem, logically and Biblically.

1 John is pretty strong and thorough in teaching us that “God IS love.”  He means it.  What a statement!  “IS.” He said it on purpose.

And Paul says explicitly that love does not tally up offenses, keeps no record of wrongs.

So, I suppose about God we have a pretty stark choice:

  1. Either God does not love everyone, but only a tiny minority for whom he then does not tally goofs (“sins”)
  2. OR God loves everyone and is simply not into keeping track of all our offenses.

What If God Is In Fact a TRULY GRACIOUS Being?

That would not mean He is ignorant of a) our strong or horrible offenses, nor of b) our “lesser” “goofs”.  It would mean He is just absolutely not focused on these.  He does not send us, or come to us with, a Gospel of sin-obsession.  He actually comes in grace!

It would mean He knows he COULD be obsessed with sin – there’s plenty of it around!

But He is absolutely uninterested in that colossal waste …

waste of time and of moral energy – being obsessed with human sins.

For many religious persons and groups God is not gracious, but an angry God, a wildly dissatisfied God, a frequently irritated and offended God, a God who carefully (and flawlessly if he wishes) keeps track of all our wrongs,

How Do Truly Gracious Humans Think and Behave?

Would God, who represents

  • all intelligence,
  • all knowledge,
  • all wisdom,
  • all love,
  • all hope for humans,
  • all good will,
  • and all integrity

Apologize to Godwould God be LESS decent and courteous and kind and communicative and strategic in redemptive efforts than those truly gracious humans we know?

Conclusion

If I (we) ever think of God as touchy, as arrogant, as standing on His pride, as submitting to lies from or about me, as eager to record goofs, as glad to find evil …

Then I am wrong (we are wrong) and an apology is owed.

If we think of God as touchy, as arrogant, as standing on His pride, as submitting to lies from or about us, as eager to record goofs, as glad to find evil ... Then we are wrong and an apology is owed.Click To Tweet

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