The Missing Cross: A Different Grace

Ever find yourself going from link to link and reading  countless articles on some blog to avoid working?  I recently spent about 45 minutes on the Huffington Post doing that, and it was pretty eye-opening. They were all  on their "Religion" section and all related to Christian faith.  But in a really different way than a generic evangelical like me is accustomed to.

I'm not really recommending - or denigrating - any particular articles, ideas or writers. When I step back and take a global view though, two things stood out to me:

1) Lots of Reference to Grace - These were almost exclusively references of "giving grace" to people or pointing to a "lack of grace" from the established church - particularly of the evangelical and fundamentalist kind.
2) No Reference to the Cross - After a few minutes of skimming, I started looking closer and actually counting as I read.  There were simply no references to the cross of Christ.  Regular reference to new life or resurrection.  A few disparaging remarks comparing the unloving behaviors of evangelical churches to the religious leaders who "killed Jesus."  But nothing approaching the cross and salvation for humanity as one reads throughout the New Testament.

There is a view of grace in our world today that is unconnected to the cross.  Certainly among the liberal/progressive writers that characterize the Huffington Post.

"Grace" - I deduced from my reading - is being kind and accepting of people and behaviors that are usually scorned and rejected by the established church.  Not "showing grace" is something of a - no irony here - unforgivable sin and a sure sign that one had missed the whole point of Jesus and true faith.

This kind of grace was to be lavished about on any and all.  It seemed to be the encouragement to pursue whatever it is that you considered to be self-actualizing at the time.  And it seemed - in an unspoken way - to assume there was nothing like sin, except the sin of not "giving grace."

This is a different sort of grace than we find in the Gospel and throughout the Bible.  There we read of a grace that is indeed freely given, and even freely given to people with behaviors considered scandalous to the religious establishment.  But it was a costly grace: it cost Jesus His very life at the cross.  The Gospel says that at that cross Jesus took upon Himself the justice due - punishment - for all sin.  Having done that, Jesus can now offer grace to all at a cost that is already paid in full.

The writers on the Huffington Post spoke of a grace that cost nothing and offered acceptance to all because there was really nothing to hinder that acceptance in the first place.  The Gospel, in contrast, offers the grace of acceptance that comes from a high-cost ransom from sin.  In the face of real guilt, a real justice is maintained because a real price is paid.  That price is paid by Jesus at the cross, and then freely offered to all by His grace.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was referring to a different issue when he coined the term "cheap grace," but I think the term speaks well to this "crossless grace" that now fills the conversations of our world.  "Crossless grace" is cheap because there was no price to be paid anyway.

But this "crossless grace" is not confined only to the Huffington Post.  I see many who live by a grace with no cross in the evangelical church as well.  Where decades ago, conservative churches had long lists of "unacceptable behaviors for true Christians," there is a new "grace" that doesn't get bogged down in condemning movies or card games or mixed bathing.  Well, I for one am more than glad to be past those misguided moralisms of the past.  There is no Gospel in that.  But letting go of "I don't smoke or chew or kiss girls that do!" only to head off to church in cargo pants with a 4-day hipster stubble can become its own cheap grace. 

The grace of the Gospel presumes a deep and significant brokenness in all humanity - the brokenness of sin.  It is a brokenness that needs to be faced, redeemed and transformed in all of us.  The costly grace that flows from the cross addresses that very brokenness.  It is so much more than replacing aging moralisms with attitudes of breezy acceptance, tolerance and the pursuit of self-actualization, it is "the life given as a ransom for many." (Mark 10:45)