FROM THE DAWGHOUSE…
Incomprehensibly Gracious
As Pastor Pete shared with us this week at Forge, if God were not incomprehensibly gracious, where would that leave us?
Think about it. From the first pages of Genesis to the last in Revelation, the story of Scripture isn’t about good people getting better. It’s about a gracious God rescuing people who don’t deserve it.
Jonah ran. Israel rebelled. Peter denied. Paul persecuted.
Yet God pursued. Always.
Jonah’s story is one of the clearest windows into that truth.
God told Jonah to go to Nineveh, a violent, wicked city, and preach repentance. Jonah refused. He ran as far in the opposite direction as he could, and still, God chased him down. God calmed the storm, appointed the fish, and rescued Jonah not because Jonah was righteous, but because God is gracious. And then, after Jonah finally obeyed and Nineveh repented, God showed the same grace to Jonah’s enemies. That’s when Jonah got angry.
Angry that God was too merciful.
If we’re honest, we get that. We love grace for ourselves but not for “them”, whoever “they” are. The people who hurt us. The ones who offend us. The ones who disagree, disappoint, or disgust us. But grace doesn’t discriminate. God has enough grace for us and them.
The question is: Do we?
When Jesus said, “Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you,” He wasn’t giving a suggestion. He was describing what divine grace looks like lived out in human form. His form. He loved His enemies. He prayed for the men who nailed Him to the cross. He gave His life for the lost, the rebellious, and the self-righteous alike.
And then He calls us to follow Him.
If we’ve really been saved by that kind of grace, when Jesus met us at our dirtiest, forgave us fully, and gave us new life, then our response shouldn’t be, “Thanks, Jesus, I’ll fit You in.” It should be, “Jesus, I’m available every day, so screw up my schedule.”
Because here’s the deal: God doesn’t need us. He wants us. He chooses to use us, not because we’re capable, but because He’s compassionate. His will is not hanging in the balance, waiting on our performance. His purposes will be accomplished, with or without us. But what a privilege to be invited into them.
Jonah’s greatest tragedy wasn’t the storm or the fish. It was missing the joy of sharing in God’s heart for sinners. He obeyed with his feet but resisted with his heart. He preached reluctantly, and when revival broke out, he sulked under a vine. He knew God was “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love”, and that was exactly his problem.
And that’s the point.
God’s grace is incomprehensible because it reaches where we won’t. It forgives what we won’t. It includes who we won’t.
If the God we worship is this gracious, then why aren’t we?
Maybe the world doesn’t need more Christian men with opinions. Maybe it needs more Christian men amazed by grace, who look at others and remember…
“I’m one of them too.”
Joe Bouch
