"During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world debated what, if any, belief was unique to the Christian faith. They began eliminating possibilities. Incarnation? Other religions had different versions of gods appearing in human form. Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from death. The debate went on for some time until C. S. Lewis wandered into the room. "What's the rumpus about?" he asked, and heard in reply that his colleagues were discussing Christianity's unique contribution among world religions. Lewis responded, "Oh, that's easy. It's grace."
After some discussion, the conferees had to agree. The notion of God's love coming to us free of charge, no strings attached, seems to go against every instinct of humanity. The Buddhist eight-fold path, the Hindu doctrine of karma, the Jewish covenant, and Muslim code of law - each of these offers a way to earn approval. Only Christianity dares to make God's love unconditional. "
-interested? www.christiancounterculture.com
-what do you think? let's chat.
by love.
Monday, May 02, 2005
antithesis
Posted by Kristi at 9:12 AM
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2 comments:
I think Lewis is pretty much right on the money. Of course, grace is tightly tied to Christ's work on the cross; if any other religion were to try and incorporate a concept of grace, it'd have a pretty hard time of trying to explain what happened to God's justice. Christ took the penalty mandated by justice for us, enabling God to bestow grace on us.
I think I've said it before, but I like the thought that God would love us even if we somehow did deserve His love. We don't, to be sure, but it's not like His love is a reminder that we're evil. Merit is not even a factor when He decides to love us.
Saying that God's love is unconditional and saying that God required Jesus to die is a complete dislogic. People mandated Jesus' death, not God! (Read more on my blog.)
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