Faith founded on the knowledge of forgiveness
does a couple of things. First, it
provides us with a new insight into the nature of sin. It reveals to us what we could not see before
— namely, the insult to God. When I
think of the insult to God, I think in terms of an analogy drawn from my own
professional experience. I worked for a
few years as a reference librarian at the Columbus (Ohio) Public library. The librarian in charge of the reference
section and my immediate supervisor was Gretchen DeWitt. I admired and liked her, and she liked me in
return. We enjoyed a fine working
relationship. One Friday afternoon, I
was working on a particularly complicated reference problem. Knowing that the library would be closing in
an hour or so, I was concentrating diligently to finish up. Miss DeWitt came to my desk and asked me to
come with her to the workroom for a conference.
I told her I was busy and asked if it could wait. No, it couldn’t wait. I began to feel anxiety over time. I was frustrated at being interrupted. I began to remember previous occasions on
which Miss DeWitt had interrupted me.
Rage arose within me. Taking
liberties that might strain our otherwise healthy, working relationship I
insisted that I keep to my project. She
insisted with equal vehemence that I drop the work and go to the workroom. Then she turned and walked, expecting me to
follow. I did. All the way I nagged her by complaining. She said nothing and walked on. Seeing that my complaining was ineffective, I
scolded her. Then I raised the pitch of
my scolding. Soon we arrived at the
workroom door. We entered and found the
entire library staff standing around a table holding a cake and lit candles and
singing `Happy Birthday’ — to me. Miss
DeWitt had planned the party in my honor.
How humiliated I felt. Once the
truth of Miss DeWitt’s graciousness became clear to me, I became aware of how I
had insulted her. However, Miss DeWitt
showed not even the slightest sign of retaliation for my rudeness. She was elegantly gracious. Because of her grace, my insult didn’t harm
our relationship. Our relationship to
God through faith is similar. Once we
understand that God forgives out of divine love, a sense of personal affront to
God is added to any previous legalistic understanding of sin we might have
had. Once we understand that God
forgives freely, we become aware of our own ingratitude. This is not intended to be manipulative. Rather, it is intended to be revelatory of
the seriousness with which God takes the task of redeeming sinners. The point is that once we realize how God
justifies us, a new dimension of nature of sin opens up to our perception,
`Only those who are justified by God are awakened from the sleep of the opinion
that their acts can be justified of themselves,’ says Karl Barth.[1]Thursday, July 23, 2015
Sin, Grace, and Forgiveness
Faith founded on the knowledge of forgiveness
does a couple of things. First, it
provides us with a new insight into the nature of sin. It reveals to us what we could not see before
— namely, the insult to God. When I
think of the insult to God, I think in terms of an analogy drawn from my own
professional experience. I worked for a
few years as a reference librarian at the Columbus (Ohio) Public library. The librarian in charge of the reference
section and my immediate supervisor was Gretchen DeWitt. I admired and liked her, and she liked me in
return. We enjoyed a fine working
relationship. One Friday afternoon, I
was working on a particularly complicated reference problem. Knowing that the library would be closing in
an hour or so, I was concentrating diligently to finish up. Miss DeWitt came to my desk and asked me to
come with her to the workroom for a conference.
I told her I was busy and asked if it could wait. No, it couldn’t wait. I began to feel anxiety over time. I was frustrated at being interrupted. I began to remember previous occasions on
which Miss DeWitt had interrupted me.
Rage arose within me. Taking
liberties that might strain our otherwise healthy, working relationship I
insisted that I keep to my project. She
insisted with equal vehemence that I drop the work and go to the workroom. Then she turned and walked, expecting me to
follow. I did. All the way I nagged her by complaining. She said nothing and walked on. Seeing that my complaining was ineffective, I
scolded her. Then I raised the pitch of
my scolding. Soon we arrived at the
workroom door. We entered and found the
entire library staff standing around a table holding a cake and lit candles and
singing `Happy Birthday’ — to me. Miss
DeWitt had planned the party in my honor.
How humiliated I felt. Once the
truth of Miss DeWitt’s graciousness became clear to me, I became aware of how I
had insulted her. However, Miss DeWitt
showed not even the slightest sign of retaliation for my rudeness. She was elegantly gracious. Because of her grace, my insult didn’t harm
our relationship. Our relationship to
God through faith is similar. Once we
understand that God forgives out of divine love, a sense of personal affront to
God is added to any previous legalistic understanding of sin we might have
had. Once we understand that God
forgives freely, we become aware of our own ingratitude. This is not intended to be manipulative. Rather, it is intended to be revelatory of
the seriousness with which God takes the task of redeeming sinners. The point is that once we realize how God
justifies us, a new dimension of nature of sin opens up to our perception,
`Only those who are justified by God are awakened from the sleep of the opinion
that their acts can be justified of themselves,’ says Karl Barth.[1]
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