“Jesus has got to be a complete embarrassment to you.”

A thought by Brant Hansen (2015-04-14) from his book, Unoffendable: How Just One Change Can Make All of Life Better (p. 159). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title of the book to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

Now that thought is not the complete thought. No, it is a grabber. Of course some will just read it and react to it but not go to the blog like you did and really see what Brant said.

So what is the complete thought? Brand said, “If you call yourself a Christian, and you want things to be fair, and you want God’s rewards given out only to the deserving and the upstanding and the religious, well, honestly, Jesus has got to be a complete embarrassment to you.”

He continues, “In fact, to so many upstanding Christians, He is. He has always been offensive, and remains offensive, to those who seek to achieve ‘righteousness’ through what they do. Always.”

He earlier says, “The kingdom is not ‘balanced,’ it doesn’t operate via our ‘common sense,’ and you can’t possibly, try as you might, ‘take it too far.’ Being a citizen of that kingdom, then, means operating in that whole new economy, and grace— unfair, imbalanced grace— is the currency. By the way, I’ve learned it’s worth reminding that extending grace does not mean, and has never meant, that there is ‘no such thing as sin,’ or that there’s no such thing as right or wrong, or that God smiles on all of our actions. There is sin, there is right and wrong, and God, like any loving father, of course cares about what we do and who we are.”

“But that’s why grace is ‘grace.’ It amazes us because we really don’t deserve it, because we really have failed, because there really is so much reason for God to walk away from us, instead of running toward us. God doesn’t love all the things we do. He loves us in spite of the things we do. So let’s do something crazy and imbalanced here: let’s embrace the unfairness. Why? Because not only is it in our best interest, but also, frankly, Jesus gives us no other option.”

So are you going to do something crazy and embrace the unfairness?

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