Blood-Bought WorldSample

Despite the fact that people try to hide, Jesus is still the great grace giver. “Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Rom. 5:20). God gave in the beginning in creation, jam-packing a universe full of presents and treasures and pleasures. And after we rejected Him, even in judgment there was mercy. 

His grace followed us into exile, and continued to pile up around us. Perfect, absolute justice would have been to just nuke the whole project. But instead, Jesus continued to speak the whole universe while giving people just enough space to feel the pain and agony and confusion of sin and death. But even then, it was always muted, restrained, meant to call us back to Him. Where sin abounded, grace abounds more. So He kept giving, and eventually He came, born of a woman, crucified for sinners, to finally heal this broken, rotting world. 

So why are we pushing Him away? Why are we avoiding Him? Because it hurts to have Him push where it’s tender, where we’re bruised or scarred, where we’ve sinned. We suspect He wants to perform surgery, and we avoid the appointment. We feign ignorance. We smile and point at how well we’re doing everywhere else. We clear our throats nervously and point to the new line of fig-leaf skinny jeans, or the liturgy, or the praise band, or the evangelistic program. We want to be respectable, we want to do it ourselves, we don’t want to fail, we want people to like us, we’re afraid of being embarrassed, afraid of looking foolish, afraid of the sacrifice, afraid of the pain. But the irony is that we’re hiding from grace. We’re hiding from glory. We’re avoiding the path to the cross, the path of Christian authority and power. 

Besides, you cannot hide from Jesus. He sees through your fig leaves. You cannot hide from His grace, His Word, His blade. You may try to hide, to flinch, to push it away, to let it glance off you casually.  But Jesus is alive. And you will meet Him. You will stand before Him. And His glory will smack you in the face and knock you down. His goodness is heavy. His grace is a sledgehammer. He will not leave you the same. But Jesus is a good man, the only good man, and you might as well come along cheerfully.