How do you respond to this statement: “They got what they deserved.” How does that statement make you feel? It has a sense of completion to it, a feeling that everything has been resolved, that justice has taken place. Now, how do you respond to this statement: “They didn’t get what they deserved.” It feels a little empty, a sense that things are incomplete, that something still needs to happen in order for things to be resolved.

It’s interesting that we all have similar feelings when it comes to those statements and yet when they’re actually seen in real life situations our responses change dramatically. Picture this: a police officer pulls you over for going 9 miles over the speed limit but doesn’t give you a ticket. Fact is, you were speeding. When you are caught speeding, you should get a ticket, yet you didn’t receive one. Do you feel empty, incomplete or unresolved? Do you feel like you need to go back to the patrol car and insist on a ticket because that is the only way for justice to have taken place? Of course not! You are grateful that you didn’t get the ticket you deserved. What has just happened is you were a recipient of grace.

It’s interesting, this thing we call grace. In purely objective terms it seems a little unfair; yet when extended to ourselves we are happy to receive it.

It’s been said that we want justice for our enemies, but grace for ourselves. We desire a world that is completely objective and completely fair yet we acknowledge that system is not the best thing for us. So even if we could design a purely objective way for the world to work, we acknowledge that is not the world we would want to live in.

Grace is all these things. It is disorienting, it is unfair, and yet it is absolutely essential.

• When have you been the recipient of grace?
• Why wouldn’t you want to live in a world that is completely objective and impartial?
• How would you describe grace to someone?