The subversive power of grace
The latest Grove Biblical text is by John Barclay, Lightfoot Professor of Divinity at the University of Durham, and is a profound exploration of the meaning of grace, post-obit his major work from last yearPaul and the Gift.
John starts with a very helpful analysis of what might be called the taxonomy of grace: when we talk of 'amazing grace', what is it that is so amazing? Disagreements and misunderstandings here often arise from characterising grace in different means.
Everyone knows John Newton's hymn, Astonishing Grace. It features a motif central to Christian thought from the very beginning, that God'southward mercy reaches into homo lives to transform them. 'I once was lost but at present am found, was bullheaded but now I see.' Of the New Testament writers, it is Paul who parades this motif virtually often and virtually prominently. All of his letters acquit the greeting, 'Grace to you and peace from God our Male parent and the Lord Jesus Christ' (Rom 1.seven; i Cor i.iii, etc.), and almost all finish with a grace-blessing (1 Cor 16.23; Gal 6.xviii etc). In between Paul oftentimes highlights the superabundance of God's grace (Rom 5.12–21) and celebrates 'the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ' (ii Cor viii.9)…
Only what do we hateful by 'grace' and, more than peculiarly, what did Paul mean? Writing in Greek, Paul frequently used the term charis, the normal Greek word for a gift, favour or benefit. Charis is not a technical term, nor a special theological word, but was in regular, everyday apply to describe all kinds of favours, gifts and good turns. In fact, Paul mixes information technology with other regular words for gift, equally when he speaks of God'due south 'indescribable gift' (ii Cor 9.15). Gifts normally induced the recipient to express gratitude or to give gifts in return, and charistin likewise hateful 'thanks.' Thus charis operated in a kind of circle, gifts circling back to the giver in one form or some other. Not accidentally, the gift-relation was represented in antiquity by the image of the 3 Graces, 3 young women dancing in a ring. Charis was translated into Latin as gratia, from which nosotros become our English language words 'grace,' 'gratuity,' and 'gratitude.' Thus when Paul speaks of the outcome of Christ as charis he describes it with the regular linguistic communication of 'favour' or 'gift,' just every bit he speaks of God giving his Son (Rom 8.32) or of Christ giving himself (Gal 1.4; two.xx). He uses the same term for the generous gift he expects of the Corinthians (two Cor 8.7).
It turns out that one may radicalize (or in literary terms, 'perfect') grace in several unlike ways. When nosotros call grace 'complimentary,' does this hateful that grace is given without any reference to prior merit, or does it mean that information technology is given with no strings attached—or both of these things? A lot of Christian disputes down the ages, and nonetheless today, revolve around different meanings of 'grace,' and it is important to distinguish between them, and to be clear which facet of grace we are talking almost. I think at that place are (at least) 6:
- Almost every Christian theologian insists on the abundance of grace (that God gives hyper-generously), though not all have agreed that God's grace in Christ was intended for all people.
- That God gives grace and nothing but grace (what nosotros might call the singularity of grace) is a pop way to radicalize grace. Always since the 2d-century theologian, Marcion, this has seemed to some to exclude the possibility that God could execute judgment or wrath.
- One may also emphasize the priority of grace, that God gives always in advance, before humans give to God. That is a notion centrolineal by some with strong doctrines of predestination.
- Different again is what we might call the incongruity of grace, the notion that God gives to the undeserving, without regard to the worth of the recipient. As nosotros shall run into, that is a controversial notion both in the ancient world and today.
- Still another radicalization of grace concerns its efficacy, its ability non only to enable but to transform, and on some views even to supercede, its human recipients every bit agents.
- Finally, 1 might claim that the perfect souvenir is characterized by non-circularity—it is given without requiring, or even expecting, a return. The idealization of a unilateral, non-round gift is, I recollect, a product of the modernistic W (with roots in Lutheran theology and Kantian philosophy), but information technology exercises a powerful hold on Christian theology and on some interpretations of Paul.
So in that location are at least vi different ways in which one tin can radicalize the notion of grace, because a gift of grace could exist considered perfect in each of these forms. The important indicate is that these are not however, and that they practise not constitute a bundle deal. One tin can radicalize the priority of grace, simply not its singularity (Augustine); one can radicalize the efficacy of grace, but not its non-circularity (Calvin). Separating them out in this way allows us to run into that many of the disputes about grace through Christian history—and there accept been many!—are not about dissimilar degrees of accent on grace simply well-nigh unlike forms of radicalization. Augustine did non believe in grace more than his theological enemy, Pelagius; he just believed in information technology differently. Even today, Christians may try to outdo one another in the ways they radicalize grace (we have theological movements labelled 'hyper-grace'), merely it is not necessarily the instance that the more forms of radicalization, and the more farthermost those radicalizations, the better the theology of grace. We may find some in Paul, but not all. In fact, in the history of Christian theology very few have wanted to tick all six points on our checklist.
John goes on to explore Paul's linguistic communication, and its significance in its social context, particularly in relation to the understanding of the significant and significance of the giving of gifts.
It was very common in Paul'due south world to speak of the worth of the recipient. Gifts should be given lavishly only discriminately, to plumbing equipment or worthy recipients. 'Worth' could be defined in dissimilar means, co-ordinate to a number of criteria—ethnicity, social condition, age, gender, moral virtue, beauty or success. Just as, today, prizes might exist awarded on different grounds (for musical, literary, sporting or academic achievement) but keep their value only if they are given discriminately, to people worthy of them, so the good gift in antiquity was normally given ac- cording to some criterion of worth. And this was true also of the gifts of God (or the gods). God would inappreciably waste gifts on the unfitting, or confuse the moral or social order by giving to unworthy recipients. It was obvious to ancient philosophers that God's best gifts would be given to those who are gratis (not slaves), to the educated, the male, the virtuous and the grateful. If yous receive a divine gift, it is 'because you are worth it.'
For this reason, the most subversive souvenir is the gift given without regard to worth (what I described above equally the 4th possible radicalization of grace, 'incongruity'). If you expect God to give the best gifts to the freeborn developed and educated male, only if you notice that, in fact, these gifts are given both to the free and to slaves, both to adults and to children, both to the educated and to the uneducated, both to males and to females, your whole notion of worth, and thus your social values, is thrown into disarray. It might be idea uncommonly generous of God that his gifts go, every bit information technology were, all the style downwards these diverse scales of worth, merely this would also make you wonder if God has any standards at all, or if God's calibration of values is different from your own. And if y'all find, in practise, that God has singled out people at the 'lesser' of your system of worth, it undercuts all that you take taken for granted as symbols of value. If the Pope takes fourth dimension from meeting 'important' people to visit prisoners in a Philadelphia jail (as in September 2015), that challenges your assumptions equally to who counts as 'important.' If an Oscar is given to an older actress, common notions of the superiority of youth are undercut. And if a literary prize is given to someone who has written only in Urdu, that overturns widespread assumptions about the cultural superiority of the West.
John draws on this agreement to map some of the contempo and historical debates most showtime-century Judaism and our agreement of Paul'southward theology of grace. He and so follows the blueprint of his longer volume and explores the issue in detail in Paul'southward writings, starting time in Galatians and then in Romans.
The normal grammer of gifts works by the logic of 'because' or 'therefore.' Because Samuel is my nephew, I requite him a gift on his altogether. Jennifer got the best marks in her exams; therefore she was awarded the pinnacle prize. Considering I rate human welfare loftier on my scale of values, I donate to a developing-globe clemency (and not to a sanctuary for abandoned dogs). That is what most people in the aboriginal world expected (and nonetheless expect) of the gifts of God. Considering people are adept, pious and generous, God will reward them with blessings or gifts, in this life or the adjacent. Everyone gets their merely deserts. This is not a mentality of works righteousness. It is simply how gifts ordinarily and properly work. In fact, for God to act otherwise would not only seem bizarre, but would threaten the moral and social stability of the cosmos. If God gives to the unrighteous, has not the earth get utterly chaotic?
Paul's Letter to the Romans sets out, on a large scale, the scheme by which God has given his definitive gift (the souvenir of Christ), and its grammar is shockingly different. The grammatical structure here is not 'because' but 'despite,' not 'therefore' but 'even so.' In the opening chapters Paul paints a picture of the human being condition as deeply and universally infected by sin, marked by a wilful refusal to honour God and a relentless habit of egotistical behaviour…Nonetheless, God has acted in Christ, in a definitive gift that gives worth to the worthless, through the expiry of Christ (Rom 3.21–26). The divine gift in Christ has a peculiar and distinctive shape. It shows no friction match with the condition of its recipients. On the contrary, it creates something wor- thy and magnificent out of this worthless material. As Luther would say, 'The love of God does not find but create that which is pleasing to him.'
Afterwards exploring this more fully, John and then goes on to look at some of the consequences for the local church. John'due south main book volition shape the discussion of this issue for many years, and this Grove booklet is an splendid summary of and trailer for the longer book—it will be essential reading in this area, but too has profound implications for our approach to ministry building and to mission. You can society it post-gratuitous (in the UK) at the Grove website.
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