Serious Grace

As part of my daily disciplines, I have been reading through a devotional made up of writings from Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  Bonhoeffer is really one of my heroes and role models — as a theologian, pastor, and disciple of Jesus (click here to listen to a sermon I gave about Bonhoeffer last Advent).  Working through his writings has been a powerful thing for me to do.  A reading from last week really struck me:

“Persons who are puzzled about faith mean to take God seriously when they doubt that God is gracious toward them. But God is not taken seriously when one’s own being lost is taken more seriously than the grace of God, which is able to take away and emerge victorious over that lost condition. It is also not taking God seriously when we elevate our concept of God as divine wrath above God’ essence, namely the reality of God’s grace. God is gracious above and beyond all our sins. Those who want to take God seriously should look upon Christ. In Christ God’s wrath is revealed as nowhere else, yet at the same time God’s grace is revealed as nowhere else. If you think you are under God’s wrath, then cleave to Christ! ‘For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime’ (Ps 30:5)” — (from A Testament to Freedom, pg 181)