Ragamuffin Gospel Reflections: Chapter 1 — Something is Radically Wrong

Quotes:

“Put bluntly: the American Church today accepts grace in theory but denies it in practice. We say we believe that the fundamental structure of reality is grace, not works — but our lives refute our faith. By and large, the gospel of grace is neither proclaimed, understood, nor lived. Too many Christians are living in the house of fear and not in the house of love.” (Manning, 14)

“Though the Scriptures insist on God’s initiative in the work of salvation — that by grace we are saved, that the Tremendous Lover has taken to the chase — our spirituality often starts with self, not God. Personal responsibility has replaced personal response.” (Manning, 15)

“Though lip service is paid to the gospel of grace, many Christians live as if it is only personal discipline and self-denial that will mold the perfect me. The emphasis is on what I do rather than on what God is doing.” (Manning, 15)

“We discover our inability to add even a single inch to our spiritual stature. There begins a long winter of discontent that eventually flowers into gloom, pessimism, and a subtle despair: subtle because it goes unrecognized, unnoticed, and therefore unchallenged. It takes the form of boredom, drudgery. We are overcome by the ordinariness of life, by daily duties done over and over again. We secretly admit that the call of Jesus is too demanding, that surrender to the Spirit is beyond our reach. We start acting like everyone else. Life takes on a joyless, empty quality. We begin to resemble the leading character in Eugene O’Neill’s play The Great God Brown: ’Why am I afraid to dance, I who love music and rhythm and grace and song and laughter? Why am I afraid to live, I who love life and the beauty of flesh and the living colors of the earth and sky and sea? Why am I afraid to love, I who love love?’ Something is radically wrong.” (Manning, 16)

“Our huffing and puffing to impress God, our scrambling for brownie points, our thrashing about trying to fix ourselves while hiding our pettiness and wallowing in guilt are nauseating to God and are a flat denial of the gospel of grace.” (Manning, 16)

“Like many Christians today, Luther wrestled through the night with the core question: how could the gospel of Christ be truly called “Good News” if God is a righteous judge rewarding the good and punishing the evil? Did Jesus really have to come to reveal that terrifying message? How could the revelation of God in Christ Jesus be accurately called “news” since the Old Testament carried the same theme, or “good” with the threat of punishment hanging like a dark cloud over the valley of history?” (Manning, 17)

“’Justification by grace through faith’ is the theologian’s learned phrase for what Chesterton once called ‘the furious love of God.’ He is not moody or capricious; he knows no seasons of change. He has a single relentless stance toward us: he loves us. He is the only God man has ever heard of who loves sinners.” (Manning, 18)

“Nevertheless, the central affirmation of the Reformation stands: through no merit of ours, but by his mercy, we have been restored to a right relationship with God through the life, death, and resurrection of his beloved Son. This is the Good News, the gospel of grace.” (Manning, 18)

“… after all those centuries of trying to lift yourself into heaven by worrying about the perfection of your bootstraps — suddenly turned out to be a flat announcement that the saved were home before they started…grace has to be drunk straight: no water, no ice, and certainly no ginger ale; neither goodness nor badness, nor the flowers that bloom in the spring of super spiritually could be allowed to enter into the case.” (Manning, 19)

“It remains a startling story to those who never understand that the men and women who are truly filled with light are those who have gazed deeply into the darkness of their imperfect existence.” (Manning, 21)

“The Good News means we can stop lying to ourselves. The sweet sound of amazing grace saves us from the necessity of self-deception. It keeps us from denying that though Christ was victorious, the battle with lust, greed, and pride still rages within us. As a sinner who has been redeemed, I can acknowledge that I am often unloving, irritable, angry, and resentful with those closest to me. When I go to church I can leave my white hat at home and admit I have failed. God not only loves me as I am, but also knows me as I am. Because of this I don’t need to apply spiritual cosmetics to make myself presentable to him. I can accept ownership of my poverty and powerlessness and neediness.” (Manning, 21)

“Grace substitutes a full, childlike and delighted acceptance of our need, a joy in total dependence. The good man is sorry for the sins which have increased his need. He is not entirely sorry for the fresh need they have produced.” — Lewis, The Four Loves (Manning, 21)

“When I get honest, I admit I am a bundle of paradoxes. I believe and I doubt, I hope and get discouraged, I love and I hate, I feel bad about feeling good, I feel guilty and not reeling guilty. I am trusting and suspicious. I am honest and I still play games. Aristotle said I am a rational animal; I say I am an angel with an incredible capacity for beer.” (Manning, 22)

“To live by grace means to acknowledge my whole life story, the light side and the dark.” (Manning, 22)

“For grace proclaims the awesome truth that all is gift. All that is good is ours not by right but by the sheer bounty of a gracious God.” (Manning, 23)

“Children contrast with the rich man simply because there is no question of their having yet been able to merit anything. Jesus’ point is: there is nothing that any of us can do to inherit the Kingdom. We must simply receive it like little children.” (Manning, 24)

“If a random sample of one thousand American Christians were taken today, the majority would define faith as belief in the existence of God. In earlier times it did not take faith to believe that God existed — almost everybody took that for granted. Rather, faith had to do with one’s relationship to God — whether one trusted in God. The difference between faith as ‘belief in something that may or may not exist’ and faith as ‘trusting in God’ is enormous. The first is a matter of the head, the second a matter of the heart. The first can leave us unchanged, the second intrinsically brings change.” (Manning, 24)

“You may be insecure, inadequate, mistaken, or potbellied. Death, panic, depression, and disillusionment may be near you. But you are not just that. You are accepted. Never confuse your perception of yourself with the mystery that you really are accepted.” (Manning, 25)

Reflection:

Manning’s impression on the modern-day church is one that proclaims the gospel of grace but doesn’t intrinsically believe in it. They accept in theory but deny it in practice. In fact, our very status as Christians becomes practice — How well can we attend church regularly? How well can I read my Bible? How well can I become a master on theological matters? The Christian walk has become a subject to be mastered.

Of course, the Christian whose heart has been penetrated by the grace and mercy of the Lord knows the truth of Ephesians 2:8–9. They know that they cannot purchase their own salvation, only Christ alone can do that. BUT they can begin to repay the favor by acting more nobly. Why? Because we as people have a problem with receiving something we didn’t earn. It goes against our very fiber. So, if we can even just do a little bit to make ourself more deserving, or remind God that He didn’t make a mistake on us, we will tend to do so.

But as these little contributions to our salvation begin to add up, and as we further understand the implications of grace as a gift, we begin to fully discover how messed up beyond repair we are. There is a whole spiral that we begin to travel down, that ultimately ends in apathy. This comes from the lie we are prone to believe that the call of Jesus is too demanding. At this point, the Christian begins to pay their debt with the amount of guilt and shame they can feel over their sin. We tell ourselves, “Maybe if I feel enough remorse, then Jesus will REALLY know that I’m a good person, really!”. But the truth is this: trying to fix ourselves and wallowing in our guilt are “nauseating to God and are a flat denial of the gospel of grace.”

But here is the amazing truth of our Savior: He loves us furiously. He only knows one relentless stance for us: undeniable, never-ending love. Our God is the only God who has ever loved sinners. When Jesus hung on the cross, He was fully aware of the children He was dying for. As He was cursed, showered in spit, and had blood run like a river down His spine, He proudly wore the crown of thorns on His head, being crowned king of the broken. Jesus died for the very worst version of ourselves, and THAT is who He looks upon and smiles and gives a warm embrace.

That is what grace is. When this truth penetrates our hearts, the Christian understands that they have strived to get somewhere that they started out at. And it is a tough pill to swallow. Manning puts it like this: “grace has to be drunk straight: no water, no ice, and certainly no ginger ale; neither goodness nor badness, nor the flowers that bloom in the spring of super spiritually could be allowed to enter into the case.” To accept and live in this grace, we must first be fully aware of the depths of our depravity. When we truly hold the magnifying glass up to ourselves, the words of the great Timothy Keller rip through our being: “We’re far worse than we ever imagined, and far more loved than we ever could dream.” We now get to stop lying to ourselves that we are better than we actually are! The King of kings and Lord of lords knows us inside and out, so we can ditch our spiritual cosmetics and the fully embrace our neediness.

In closing, this chapter reminds me that I am a “both, and.” I both believe, and doubt daily. I am both fighting sin, and falling victim to it daily. I am both a lover and a hater. Aristotle once said he was a rational animal. Brennan Manning says he is “an angel with an incredible capacity for beer.” This is the whole story of who we are: paradoxes. And the truth of the gospel of grace is that God sees the contradictions that make us up as precious; so much so He sent His one and only Son to die on the cross for us. There is nothing we can add to this truth. Jesus spoke of the requirement to be as a child in order to inherit the kingdom of Heaven in Matthew 18 because little children realize (probably subconsciously) that they have had no ability to merit anything yet. Neither have I, neither have you. So have faith; Not to be mistaken with belief because that is the easy part. Have faith that trusts that all the bad things about you are true, and that God still made the perfect and right decision to save you. Despite all of your ugliness, you are accepted. What a beautiful mystery that is!