What Grace Does That Religion Can’t

Grace confuses and offends religious people because people who have worked hard and kept the rules don’t like it when others who have broken the rules and haven’t worked as hard get the same acceptance and reward they do.

There’s no better example of this in the Bible than the “sinful woman” in Luke 7:36–50 who anoints Jesus’ feet and bathes them with her tears. Can you imagine how the Pharisee, at whose house Jesus was dining, felt when Jesus accepted her so readily—a woman the Pharisee thought had sinned far more and in much worse ways than he?

That’s the scandal of grace, and it’s the heart of the gospel. Grace produces three things in us that religion by itself, with all its laws and commands and disciplines, can never yield. Read More