The Hard Edge of Grace

Two things came together in mind this morning as I was reading Mark 10. First, I remembered the sermon from Sunday, and I was looking hard for the grace of God. Second, I encountered Jesus' grace toward the Rich Young Ruler in Mark 10:17-22.

We know grace is unmerited favor. It is God desiring and offering the very best for our lives - not because we deserve the very best, but because he loves us and wants it for us. Sometimes, though, we confuse grace with affirmation. We assume that grace is God accepting us just as we are. We further assume that because God accepts us just as we are, grace is some type of affirmation of our basic goodness or worthiness or acceptability. Why should we change if grace accepts us as we are?

But grace has never been affirmation. Grace always comes in spite of who we are and how good or bad our choices have been. Grace comes offering something better and demanding a transformation in us - a transformation empowered not solely by us but by the power of God at work within us.

And because God's grace will not settle for anything less than our very best, we soon find that it is uncompromising in its insistence that we abandon the old standards of life and embrace a new pattern. Such uncompromising insistence on change gives the grace of God a hard edge. It is not just a warm, fuzzy, satisfied feeling about life. Grace is relentless in its pressure for us to conform to the image of Christ.

The Rich Young Ruler of Mark 10 encountered this hard edge. By all accounts, he was a good man. He was rich. He was young. He was religious. He was faithful. He recognized the goodness of Jesus. But Jesus knew that unless he gave it up, there was one thing in his life that would always hold him back from the best version of himself that he could be - from being the version of himself that God intended. The Rich Young Ruler would always struggle with his possessions. They owned him more than he owned them. He could not let them go. He would not let them go. They gave his life definition and purpose.

And it was precisely to this part of his life that grace spoke most loudly. "Go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." (Mark 10:21)

To no one else in the New Testament does Jesus give this exact call. When he invited Peter and Andrew and James and John, his call to them was not so restrictive. To Matthew, he simply said, "Follow Me." Zaccheus voluntarily offered to repay those whom he had defrauded, but Jesus did not ask him to sell everything he had. Instead, Jesus said, "Today salvation has come to this house." (Luke 19:9) Why is it different for this man? I believe it is because Jesus is not satisfied with half-measures. God wants the very best for us. That is the nature of his grace. So he offered the man the very best version of himself that he could be - a version uncontrolled by his possessions; a version capable of generosity and love; a version free from any control except the authority of God. But the man could not accept this grace. He turned his back on it. He did not want God's version of himself. He did not want grace. He wanted affirmation. He wanted God to bless his self-made version of himself. But that is not grace.

How often do we pray for grace, but in our hearts we are desiring affirmation? How often do we pray for God's will to be done, but in our hearts are actually asking that our will be done? Grace is bigger than us. Grace will not settle for half-loves and half-truths. Grace will give to us more than we can imagine, but it will be uncompromising in its insistence that we conform to the will and the way of Jesus Christ.