J.S. Park

When we believe people cannot change, we suckerpunch the sovereign grace of God. We make inexplicable exceptions for the loser, the failure, the fallen. We distort actual human beings into one-dimensional caricatures, as if the Gospel is too good for them. There is a political divide, an abyss, a chasm that threatens to separate the religious do-gooder from the untouchable, unforgivable, unimportant rebel.

Jesus came to flip that table.

Of course we face consequences. God disciplines. But most of these preachers and authors assume if we know enough about “how bad it gets,” then we can avoid it. Except people are not blank slates that walk into a room with empty cups. The people I speak to have been through horrific break-ups, abusive pasts, and enough drugs to kill a circus of elephants. Is there no hope for them? Is there no moving forward from what they’ve done to what they can do? Where’s the grace?

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