Legalism is easier than grace. Or at least it has a heavier gravitational pull. Most religions and ideologies seem to bend that way.
Law is legislatable and grace is not. That’s why attempting to politically impose Christian morals on a society is a dalliance with the devil: it necessitates a shift away from the heart of the Gospel.
We prefer to create systems of thought and behavior to which we can adhere, or against which we can rebel. These are the polar extremes portrayed in the parable of the Prodigal Son: the older brother versus the prodigal. Whether in compliance or defiance, law sells itself as simpler to manage than grace.
The way of grace traverses a different grid altogether than the compliance-defiance continuum.
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This made me think of Bob Dylan's song Political world - Henk
We live in a political world
Love don't have any place
We're living in times
Where men commit crimes
And crime don't have any face.
We live in a political world
Icicles hanging down
Wedding bells ring
And angels sing
Clouds cover up the ground.
We live in a political world
Wisdom is thrown in jail
It rots in a cell
Is misguided as hell
Leaving no one to pick up a trail.
We live in a political world
Where mercy walks the plank
Life is in mirrors
Death disappears
Up the steps into the nearest bank.
We live in a political world
Where courage is a thing of the past
Houses are haunted
Children unwanted
The next day could be your last.
We live in a political world
The one we can see and feel
But there's no one to check
It's all a stacked deck
We all know for sure that it's real.
We live in a political world
In the cities of lonesome fear
Little by little
You turn in the middle
But you're never sure why you're here.
We live in a political world
Under the microscope
You can travel anywhere
And hang yourself there
You always got more than enough rope.
We live in a political world
Turning and trashing about
As soon as you're awake
You're trained to take
What looks like the easy way out.
We live in a political world
Where peace is not welcome at all
It's turned away from the door
To wonder some more
Or put up against the wall.
We live in a political world
Everything is hers and his
Climb into the frame
And shout God's name
But you're never sure what it is.
Good call, Henk! I like that song.
KRG: Legalism is man interpreting for God. God gave us the message loud and clear when He ripped the temple veil from the top to the bottom that all can freely go through to the Holy of Holies and we don't need laws or another "man" to tell us how to approach God. "Amazing Grace...How sweet the sound".
This is a slight tangent, but isn't it remarkable how cross-cultural that song is? The words are so raw, and yet the poetry and melody seem to connect with people well beyond the borders of Christendom...
KRG: I did tangent with the song quote, I couldn't resist. I was remembering the many "discussions" I had with my college friends regarding legalism vs grace. It took alot of grace to hang in there at times.
If you are talking about leaving perceived sins of others to God’s grace, then I agree. But if you are talking about addressing sins of others through personal grace, then I strongly disagree. I’ve always been drawn to stories of personal grace, especially small graces that define a way of life. The best definition for personal grace I’ve seen is:
Giving an unconditional gift to someone who deserves our personal wrath.
Most moral issues that are at the forefront of politics or law share two things in common. First, there are two sides that feel they are morally right often with biblical scripture, biblical scholars, and philosophical support. Second, the harm (if any) of most of these actions is primarily if not almost entirely to God.
We cannot give grace for someone else, let alone God (and God can take care of himself).
I believe that all of us do immoral acts believing them morally right. No matter how strongly our belief that someone actions are sins, we need to recognize the echo of their struggle and journey in our own. Instead of showing grace, we need to express empathy, compassion and love.
== RKB ==
Greetings RKB, and thank you for chiming in. I've been trying to decipher your comment for almost a week now; I'm still confused.
If grace is not empathy, compassion and love, then what is it? Far from being incongruent with your preferred definition of grace ("giving an unconditional gift to someone who deserves our personal wrath"), these qualities seem to unpack and clarify its meaning.
Empathy, compassion and love are fine elements in an act of grace, but they are not the key element. The essential core of an act of grace is forgiveness. Without forgiveness an act of giving is not grace…and we cannot forgive for someone else.
Say you awaken in the middle of the night and look out your window to see two neighbor boys painting graffiti on your garage door. If instead of calling the police or talking to their parents you forgive the boys and later donate money to their basketball team, you have performed an act of grace. But if instead of your garage door, you catch the boys painting on a garage down the street, your gift to their basketball team is no longer an act of grace, it is “just” charity. In my understanding of grace, I must be personally harmed and forgive that harm in order for an unconditional gift to be grace.
Most moral issues at the forefront of legalism do little harm to other individuals not involved in the behavior. If there is harm, it is to God’s law, and it is up to God to grant either judgment or grace. We cannot provide forgiveness in God’s place any more than we can provide forgiveness for an act that harmed our neighbor.
I agree with your sentiments on legalism, and perhaps we just have different understandings of grace. There are many issues on the forefront of the legislation of morality today including homosexuality, assisted suicide, premarital sex, the death penalty, birth control, sex and violence on TV, and sex education. No matter what stand we take with each of these issues, there are a significant number of people who hold the opposite view and believe our position is immoral. How we deal with these issues as well as how we deal with the people who passionately hold the opposite view to our own are important questions. Since our definitions of grace differ fundamentally, perhaps you can explain using different language what you are proposing here.
You might be confusing mercy with grace; mercy has more to do with forgiveness. Grace (IMHO) is the progenitor of mercy; it is unmerited favor -- a pure love that isn’t even on the grid of wrongs, trespasses, debts, penance, repentance, magnanimity...
The story of the prodigal presents a portrait of a father who loves both of his sons. One is a rebel and the other is a legalist. Both dishonor him. The prodigal returns in newfound humility, ready to repent but the father’s heart doesn’t wait for repentance -- or even an explanation! Grace has nothing to do with performance (good or bad); it has everything to do with personhood.
RKB:wrote:
I’m not confusing mercy with grace, but it is entirely possible that I am wrong about grace, or that there isn’t more than one type of grace. I base my understanding/definition on readings about God’s grace. There are various interpretations of God’s grace, but the ones that have forgiveness at their core resonate with me.
Your description of pure love matches many descriptions of God’s love for us, but it is not just the love that is God’s grace (IMHO). We break God’s laws, and he loves us anyway. Because of sin, we do not merit his love, but he loves us just the same. Sin makes the love unmerited, and therefore this love is made into grace. Without sin there would still be the pure love, but there would not be grace. You wrote, “…a pure love that isn’t even on the grid of wrongs…” I agree this is the nature of God’s love, but it is the love despite the wrongs that make God’s love into grace.
Bringing it down to our level, I believe God expects all of us to have compassion, love and understanding for others. No one should have to earn our love…they merit our love and compassion just by being a child of god. Our love for someone else only becomes unmerited when that person transgresses against us. If we love them despite the hurt they have caused, we are practicing grace.
As for forgiveness, I’m not talking about eliminating some sort of penalty…I’m talking about a choice of heart. Imagine a mother losing an only child to a drunk driver with two previous DUI arrests. That mother almost certainly feels anger towards the driver, and possibility hate. How does this parent move to a point where she can give grace to the driver? First she has to forgive the driver and let go of the anger. The driver doesn’t need to be present for to be forgiven…doesn’t need to plead a case or say he’s sorry. It is simply a choice the mother can make any time. Paraphrasing something I read somewhere, “God's grace is unfair because he forgives us before we are able to say we are sorry.”
If we avoid the larger messages, the story of the prodigal son you mention serves as a good backdrop for the distinction I’m striving to make. The love and gifts the father shows to his younger son is clearly grace. In my opinion, any dishonor done by the older son is minor and fleeting and therefore the love of the father for his older son is largely not grace…the love for the older son is largely merited. In fact, implied in the end of the story is the father encouraging the older son to act with grace towards his younger brother.
I see grace as a model of how we can emulate God when someone transgresses against us. The transgressions don’t have to be big, nor the gift big for the act to be grace. Imagine I’m driving on the freeway in a little Toyota Corolla when a large Lexus 330 SUV cuts sharply toward my lane. By stomping on my breaks I just manage slow enough to avoid a collision, and the car behind me has to stand on his breaks to avoid rear-ending me. The Lexus ignores us both and speeds on changing lanes again, and then disappears around a curve. My heart is pounding, adrenaline is coursing through me, and I’m very angry. I and other drivers and passengers could have been injured or killed. A few minutes later I round a curve and see the Lexus trapped behind a stalled car while a stream of fast moving vehicles prevent him from driving on. Leaving him trapped could be considered a fitting punishment for his behavior. But if instead I forgive him letting go of my anger and then slow significantly to allow him to merge into traffic, I’ve committed an act of grace…a small act of grace perhaps, but it is still an act of grace. It has the elements of transgression, forgiveness, gift that I believe make up acts of grace.
We are getting a long way from your original post. I would like to explore how your ideas of legalism and grace play in real world situations if you are still interested in this thread.
== RKB ==
Thank you, RKB, for continuing the conversation with so much thought and care. I plan to be off line for a couple of weeks, so it’s unlikely that I’ll be able to make a proper reply before August. I am interested in pursuing this thread, though, and look forward to reengaging.
For now, I offer this... Henri J.M. Nouwen’s book, The Return of the Prodigal Son A Story of Homecoming is filled with gold that’s germane to our discussion. His insights into the law/grace dilemna are as beautiful as they are powerful. And he dedicates an entire chapter to the elder son, which I think you would find fascinating.
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