I ran across the following quote over the weekend while perusing the blog of a fellow Ragamuffin. It comes from Paul Tillich on Romans 5:20. In speaking of Paul’s description of grace, he says:
“’Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound’, says Paul in the same letter in which he describes the unimaginable power of separation and self-destruction within society and the individual soul. He does not say these words because sentimental interests demand a happy ending for everything tragic. He says them because they describe the most overwhelming and determining experience of his life. In the picture of Jesus as the Christ, which appeared to him at the moment of his greatest separation from other men, from himself and God, he found himself accepted in spite of his being rejected. And when he found that he was accepted, he was able to accept himself and to be reconciled to others. The moment in which grace struck him and overwhelmed him, he was reunited with that to which he belonged, and from which he was estranged in utter strangeness.”
If you have never been overwhelmed by Grace, you may read the above and respond with "yeah…i get it".
If, in fact, there has been a time when you have been utterly and completely seized by a great affection, your reaction is altogether different.
HT: Thanks, Howie, for the stupidity!