Grace Indeed

What does grace look like?  Imagine a burglar breaking into someone’s house during their supper.  The thief shoots the husband and threatens to kill the wife also if she does not hand over all her valuables.  The burglar takes what he can carry and leaves the woman with her dead husband.  Now, imagine a few years later.  The woman remarries and moves to another town.  While she and her husband sit down to have some dinner, there is a knock at the door.  A homeless man, unshaven and filthy, is standing outside her door begging for food.  At first, she doesn’t recognize him, but then all of the memories of that horrific evening come flooding back into her memory along with all the anger and pain.  But as quickly as the memories return, it soon disappears, and in its place, tears of forgiveness fill her heart.  Rather than striking back at her enemy for what he had done, she invites him into her home, brings him water to wash himself, and sets a plate for him at her table.  Here was a person deserving of all her wrath, but instead receives nothing but her mercy.  This is grace.  And this is precisely what we have received from God, though not without cost to Himself.  We were at one time enemies of God and children of wrath, and yet God showed us mercy.  He has washed us in the waters of baptism and has set a place for us at His table.  This is grace indeed.

The Baptized Body

I have begun reading Peter Leithart’s newest book, “The Baptized Body“.  In this book, Leithart deals specifically with the issue of baptismal efficacy, a topic which he touched upon briefly in “Against Christianity“.  The question at the center of the book is, what does baptism do, if anything?  I hope to dedicate a few blog spots to the issues this new book presents and their relevance for the church.