A few years ago Godfrey Birtill wrote a song called "Outrageous Grace" that has long been one of my favorites. When you really experience the grace of God, there doesn't seem to be a better word than "outrageous."
But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.
--Romans 5:20
There's a lot of pain, but a lot more healingThe image of Outrageous Grace has captivated me ever since I first heard the song, in my friend Duane White's SUV in front of the old Sealy Assembly (now Christian City Fellowship) church building in Sealy, Texas. When you look at grace in scripture, it's always over-the-top. More than necessary.
There's a lot of trouble, but a lot more peace
There's a lot of hate, but a lot more loving
There's a lot of sin, but a lot more grace
--Godfrey Birtill, "Outrageous Grace"
What could possibly have carried my family through the last eight months of our lives? Or how could someone like my amazing friend Nancy, after nine years of unspeakable abuse, not only forgive--incredible enough as that is--but become everything God planned her to be anyway, now leading hundreds of others to know who they are in Christ? Outrageous!
We undersell grace. We mix it up with mercy. Or we stop it short at just forgiveness or new life. But there is an audacity to grace. Not only was Saul of Tarsus spared the hell he deserved, he was still allowed to lead the amazing life God planned for him as a world-changing apostle. Grace didn't only "abound" to deal with Saul's sin--it superabounded to carry him all the way to the man we know of historically today.
Grace doesn't just help us survive: by grace we thrive. We have strength beyond ourselves--straight from God--for something bigger than ourselves.
If you have limited grace to the first verse of a centuries-old song about how you're glad to be saved, perhaps it's time to embrace the "beyond-ness" of grace. We don't just survive, we thrive. We're not just free from sin and its consequences, we're alive to God, to all of His goodness and power working through us. Your life is about so much more than just you.
God's grace. It's outrageous.
Oh, outrageous grace!
Oh, outrageous grace!
Love unfurled by heaven's hand...
--Godfrey Birtill, "Outrageous Grace"
