Scandalous Good News for Really Bad People

Wait a minute...Is this about AIG bonuses? The federal bailout? Amnesty for illegal aliens? The pardoning of political criminals? The release of terrorists? That dude who cut you in line while giving you the finger and ended up with way better seats than you? It could be. But I'm talking about something even more offensive: Christianity. The only message in the world that, if true, is ACTUALLY GOOD NEWS for actually bad people. All those other scandalous things are just illustrations of what the Christian gospel actually IS. The grace of God is like taxpayers paying huge bonuses to the very executives who squandered the taxpayers' life-savings with their greed, except, take it like thirty levels beyond that. It's more like parents paying huge bonuses to the very mob who mocked, humiliated, tortured and murdered their only child.

But it's actually much more radical than that isn't it? Because we (yes, I am now referring to us as the criminals) are getting much more than bonuses, much more than wealth, much more than earthly riches - we Christian sinners somehow believe we're heirs to the infinite riches of the Kingdom of God. And it's not a reluctant bailout from angry, obligated taxpayers, but instead, it's a joyful gift given freely out of the infinite one-way love of our Father - the very Father from whom we have spent our lives running to far off lands where we squander his wealth and we cover our ears repeating mantras about how he doesn't actually exist and even if he did we're better off doing things for ourselves. All of that figuratively speaking of course. What we have literally done is far worse. And we he has literally done for us is indescribably better.

Here's a wonderful quote from a recent article in Christianity Today called, The Scandal of the AIG Bonuses. As usual, I got this from my favorite blog, Mockingbird (thanks Jon W):

When Paul talked about the gospel, many were shocked and appalled. It sounded as if God wanted to reward sinners, to give a bonus to scoundrels! They scoffed, "Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?" (Rom. 6:1). And when they figured out what exactly he was preaching, they got so angry that they told him to fall on his sword, and then formed a mob to run him out of town.