Bold Love

Here are a few paragraphs I read this morning from Bold Love which continue in the same vein as my previous post:

"If our sin is a mere failure to conform - simply a mistake to do what is right - forgiveness is really the granting of an opportunity to try again. In that light, it is like forgetting to finish one's homework. We deserve a low grade, and grace becomes merely the privilege of doing it over to get a higher mark. Such a view of grace might generate appreciation, but it would never drive us to worship."

"A sight of God's holiness without a hint of His mercy will lead to either hopeless despair or to something even more awful, pharisaical presumption of ability to "do His will." On the other hand, a mouthful of mercy without a somber taste of holiness seems to move us to a brazen familiarity with deity that twists Him into everyone's favorite uncle."

"Mercy is persistently meaningful only to the degree I am silenced by the enormity of my refusal to love God and others with my whole heart, soul, strength and mind. To the degree to which I comprehend what I deserve, I will be wholly overwhelmed by the direction God's wrath proceeds (toward His Son on the cross on my behalf)."

In other words, God's love is all the more amazing when I fully own how much it cost to rescue me, a sinner who falls helplessly short of His holiness. Good reading!