Grace: An Affront to our Sense of Decency

by adam harbinson  

Not long before Selwyn Hughes died in January 2006, I visited him in the beautiful surroundings of his home in Waverley Abbey. Selwyn was a prolific writer; he wrote over fifty Christian books, and his daily devotional ‘Every Day With Jesus’ was at that time read by at least 750,000 people every day.

One of the last books he wrote was entitled, ‘The Scandal of Grace’ and I remember feeling so privileged as I sat listening to this great man talk about his life experiences that inspired the book. But when a second edition of the book was printed due to popular demand, it appeared with a new title; ‘Grace: the Marvellous Gift of God.’ Beautifly title, but I can't help wondering why its name was changed.

Maybe the word ‘scandal’ in the title implied that God was involved in something shady or underhand and some in the Christian community were offended. Understandable perhaps, for the Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘scandal’ as, ‘an action or event regarded as morally or legally wrong and causing public outrage.’ One thing however is for sure, Selwyn knew exactly what he was doing when he chose the title with that awful word ‘scandal’ in it.

We live in a meritocratic world whose values are based on the belief that we should get what we deserve in life; work hard and you’ll be well rewarded, sit around writing all day and you’ll get hammered. That’s how it is, and perhaps rightly so, so when one whom we consider to be lazy, or a scoundrel is seen to prosper we get cross, and we howl, ‘It’s not fair!’

For this reason many people see grace – defined as getting good things you don’t deserve – as an affront to their sense of decency, although it must be said that everything Jesus said and did was shot through with limitless grace. Think about his encounter with the thief on the cross who said; ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.’ And Jesus replied, ‘Today you will be with me in paradise’ – no questions asked and no pre-conditions. Frankly, that blows a serious hole below the waterline of conventional evangelical theology that has conjured up all sort of demands.

Jesus made the point that a man, dying the death of a hopeless criminal, a man who might have done nothing but evil in his pathetic life, who might never even have prayed before, is just as much a part of God’s family as the person whose life was dedicated to righteous living. He’s just as welcome at the King’s banquet as one who gave his life on some far-flung mission field or served faithfully for years as a church elder; and all this man did was cry out a simple prayer; ‘Jesus, remember me… !’

That’s grace, and it’s pretty radical stuff, but isn’t it typical of the radical Christ; ignoring convention, brushing aside the niceties of protocol. Isn’t that what we admire about him, the shocking, non-conforming, unique-in-every-sense-of-the word Saviour who came to save the world and who succeeded; the one who dispenses grace and mercy while we stamp our feet and demand justice.

Now that’s what I call good news, it’s certainly the best news I’ve ever heard. And when you think that the word ‘gospel’ means ‘good news’ you can’t help but wonder what’s good by comparison about much of the stuff you hear from the ‘Turn or Burn!’ brigade that stuffs big black King James Bibles down the throats of their listeners.