Grace 
The idea of writing about grace is a daunting task for me for a few reasons. For one, I have so much to learn about the idea. It is vast and deep, and I want to do it justice. For another, I have not really had to experience it to the same extent that many people have...at least from a physical/emotional position. I have not been through any "hard times" thus far (which scares me a bit...I know they will come at some point). Maybe that means I have experienced it more and just don't recognize it...I don't know. The last reason I will mention is that grace is a wholly inhuman concept. It is a higher way of acting and thinking, and it is willful. I write because as a Christian, grace is the central tenet of my faith, and you can't really know me without understanding my faith. Some of you who know me, may say to yourselves, "Wait, I know Nathan. He is not much different than I...apart from the fact that he is still a virgin and goes to church all the time." Maybe a coworker would say, "He's not a very nice guy when he gets stressed." For that I apologize, but it also helps with the discussion on grace.

I think most would agree that actions have consequences. Doing something good tends toward reward and doing something wrong tends toward punishment or at least lack of reward. Every child with a loving parent understands this idea. I sure did when I was young. It seems as if I got spanked every day. I thank my parents for this. Their discipline coupled with their love and encouragement helped me become the person I am today. Most people are raised like this (or should be). If parents don't discipline their kids, the justice system will later in life. You do not have to have loving parents to understand that wrong can also be rewarded with jail time. Reward and punishment permeates our society and makes grace difficult to grasp.

Grace is technically getting something good that you don't deserve. It always involves forgiveness and mercy. So I use it to describe an act where a person who is wronged forgives the offender and says, "You will not be punished in any way. (No legal action will be sought. I will not shun you. I do not even want you to feel guilt.)" It is a very unnatural tendency for humans. Some of the families of the OK City bombing victims demonstrated this when they cried out for the televised death of Timothy McVeigh. They claimed it would bring closure. I somehow doubt this, but it is not relevant. If one of the victim's families went to the judge and said, "We know he is guilty, but could you let him go? We would like to forgive him," that would be grace. This seems irrational, especially considering the human propensity to screw up again and not learn unless they are punished. From a justice perspective the Eye-for-an-Eye laws of the Old Testament make too much sense to us. Grace flies in the face of these laws as well as the wisdom of any good parent.

You may wonder what motive someone would have for doing good and avoiding evil if their actions were wholly forgiven every time they made a mistake. If the person came to a true realization of the mercy/forgivness/grace being shown him/her, then they would be very grateful. They would attempt to not make the same mistake twice because they realized the sacrifice the forgiver has made, and they would attempt to not hurt them again. A love might develop for the person who had forgiven them. The greater the wrong that was forgiven, the greater the love that would develop. (Luke 7:41-43) Of course the final decision is made by the offender when he/she decides to either be grateful or just take the grace for granted.

The idea of grace changing a person hinges around the offender acknowledging that they have made a mistake and recognizing that they are being forgiven and avoiding consequences that they rightfully deserve. Though easier maybe than forgiving the person who has, say, just killed your child, this is also unnatural. It is so easy to transfer the blame to circumstances or surrounding people. For grace to be implemented fully, two things must happen. The one who was wronged must forgive completely. The one who wronged must acknowledge what they did and the sacrifice made by the person who forgave them. Without the second part, even though the person is forgiven, no change in the person's life is possible.

As I already mentioned, this is not how our society's judicial system works, and this is not good parenting. It is unnatural to humans, and it is the central idea of the Christian faith: that we as humans have wronged God and deserve punishment but that we have been completely forgiven. God is willing to forgive instead of punish.

This brings me to my next point. Wrongful acts or sin has to have consequences. It is like a universal law. I can not explain it wholly, but I see it to be true in my life experiences as I get older. So if I am not the one who absorbs the consequences, someone else must. And the consequences are never easy to absorb. It is a sheer act of will at times. This is something I've begun to realize through experience over the past few months. To a Christian, the one who absorbs those consequences is Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, who died to be the great absorber of all the wrongs ever committed against him. He died on a cross and rose again. He took our punishment and experienced it for us. From a spiritual standpoint we are renewed by his sacrifice. If we choose to acknowledge our sin and Jesus's sacrifice, we will be changed.

Unfortunately, the body and mind are not as resilient as the soul. This is an imperfect world, and some scars are worn for the rest of our lives. This is how we tend to learn that sin has consequences. And no man can forgive as completely as God, so we will always experience ungrace in this world. But I believe only the soul is eternal and really matters in the end.

Let me tie up a loose end really quickly. How does one rectify the grace taught in the New Testament of the Bible with the Eye-for-an-eye law of the Old Testament? To this day, in rural part of the Middle East, justice is many times served by the families of the people wronged. It is a retaliatory and vengeful act. Before Eye-for-an-eye, there was the prospect of this sort of justice running rampant. Man A kills Man B. Man B's family goes and kills a couple of people in Man A's family. Man A's family returns the favor... You see how it gets out of hand. These laws in the Bible are commonly referred to as "Laws of Limitation". They do not prescribe just the right punishment God thinks a man should experience for a certain wrong. They were put into place to keep the Israelites from killing each other off. They brought justice and order to a kingless nation. They were put into place because grace is so unnatural and foreign to humans.

As a Christian I take comfort in this. Though I was raised in a Christian family, I have had to make my faith my own over the years. I find confidence in a faith that with ideas like grace, so uncommon in our world yet so wonderful. In a world of faiths ruled by actions and karma (which totally make sense because we can understand punishment and reward), Christianity stands out to me. Grace can not be born of man alone. It comes from God. How can such a amazing and unnatural idea like grace be man made?

For a much more thorough and interesting exposition on grace, please read "What's So Amazing About Grace" by Philip Yancey. It's great. In the mean time I recommend checking out the following Bible verses: Romans 3:22-24, Ephesians 2:4-5, 2 Timothy 1:9-10.