Grace is a wonderful subject, having spent a few weeks on it now. Yet grace can seem quite unfair, being so undeserved, unwarranted, and frankly unhelpful in being a freebie giveaway.
So, is God unfair? What happens to our standard measures of fairness when we encounter gracious activity, specifically God's gracious actions?
We have clear notions of fairness in our own minds and in our common practice. However, reviewing a few examples begins to show how superficial our notions of fairness can be.
In the scriptures, resuming the Exodus journey, we see how God deals with the insolent Israelites, seemingly rewarding their bad behavior! Jesus' uncomfortable parable of the workers in the vineyard makes the listener scream in outrage, "Unfair!" As a striking example of how God's grace works, the parable actually makes some sense.
We learn at the end that while God's grace is indeed unfair, what God is all about is greater than mere fairness.
To learn more, check out the video below, and help yourself to the downloads of the Fair-fielder answers and sermon text tucked underneath the video box.
So, is God unfair? What happens to our standard measures of fairness when we encounter gracious activity, specifically God's gracious actions?
We have clear notions of fairness in our own minds and in our common practice. However, reviewing a few examples begins to show how superficial our notions of fairness can be.
In the scriptures, resuming the Exodus journey, we see how God deals with the insolent Israelites, seemingly rewarding their bad behavior! Jesus' uncomfortable parable of the workers in the vineyard makes the listener scream in outrage, "Unfair!" As a striking example of how God's grace works, the parable actually makes some sense.
We learn at the end that while God's grace is indeed unfair, what God is all about is greater than mere fairness.
To learn more, check out the video below, and help yourself to the downloads of the Fair-fielder answers and sermon text tucked underneath the video box.
| 09-21-14-ff-answers.pdf |
| 09-21-14-gods_unfair_grace.pdf |