Grace

Matt Chandler: We were in this class, it was something like, “The Theology of Marriage, Family & Sexuality.”
And in it there was a discussion with Lee, myself and eight other guys. And there was a thing that came up where those guys began to argue that they were virgins and therefore they weren’t going to marry anyone who wasn’t a virgin, because they had kept themselves pure and there was no way there were going to marry anyone who hadn’t done the same. The future ministers of God’s grace completely ignorant of God’s grace. So I remember sitting there going, “Okay, I’m confused.” Because there was this day that we were like, “You would save a sinner like me?” And now we’ve moved to, “I deserve more than that.”

Then I had to take a drama class; it was very painful for me. I’m creative, but I’m linear. And so “Be a tree” was just kind of weird for me, alright. But I had to take this drama class. My love language is sarcasm. And in that class was this girl named Kimberly who that gift was powerful with her. So I got to know her, and we just mocked the rest of the class the bulk of the time. She was 26, no church background, no relationship with Christ, she just lived in the area. At 26 she had already had a child, wasn’t married. So we would just laugh, and I would talk to her about my faith and really the difference between what the Bible said and what she was experiencing from a small Baptist campus. And a friend of mine named Robbie Seay was doing a concert in San Angelo, so I said, “Hey, hop in with my crew and check this thing out.” And so she hopped in the car and we got there. As soon as I got there, I was like, “Oh no.” It was a “True Love Waits” rally. Now I’m all about true love waiting, but I was just like, “This is probably the wrong venue to invite Kim to.” I’ve tried to work through this, but I still get very angry thinking about it. The guy starts his talk. Of course we didn’t use much of the Bible. Much of Evangelicalism just prooftexts. He takes this rose up and smells it and talks about how everybody loves the fragrance of the rose and how pretty it is. He throws his rose out into the crowd, and they’re passing it around and smelling it. While they’re doing that he’s going on about, “Venereal diseases are bad and they itch and you’ll need penicillin.” It’s fear-mongering really. As if you can scare kids into purity. Talk about the beauty of God’s design, not the dangers of venereal diseases. About 20 minutes into his talk, he’s like, “Where’s my rose?” And so this kid brings it up and the stem’s broken, the leaves are all jacked up, there’s like one petal left on it. He was like, “Who would want this? Who would want this rose? Would anyone want to put this and display this as yours?” And I just remember feeling, “I’ve got to physically harm him. I have got to rush the stage and choke him out, grab his microphone and correct this. This is wrong.” That’s what I felt welling up inside of me. The correct answer is, “Jesus does, you dummy.”



I'm so glad that God's grace completely overshadows us when we've lived such a sinful rebellious life...
When people, especially Christians, think that they deserve more than grace, its just becomes a sad affair.

Everybody who trusts in Christ is covered in grace. Why not show it for other people who have made mistakes?
Our God is a God of second chances who shows grace to the worst of us sinners...

Let us do the same.