Judgment And Grace

I found myself meditating on Jonah this morning. I like the story of Jonah. And, I often think of myself as someone who needs to needs to learn from the lessons of his life.

The most famous part of the Jonah story I often think of as a metaphor for my own life.
1. Run from God.
2. Stop running and start sinking.
3. Gracefully eaten by leviathan.
4. Getting spit out and doing what God wanted me to do in the first place.

As I meditated on this today, I began to think about the Grace part: where God has Jonah eaten to save him; and what happened just before that.

Jonah essentially decided that he would face God’s judgment and had people throw him overboard – to certain death. God followed that up with His grace and salvation. This is the pattern that God exposed to me this morning: before we can experience His grace, we need to put ourselves at the mercy of His judgment: no judgment, no grace.

This pattern is played out several times in scripture. The adulterous woman, asked Jesus (after He had sent the crowd of “stoners” away) if He would cast the first stone (He certainly met the criteria for that). She exposed herself to His judgment; he said “go and sin no more.”

I believe, that true repentance is looking to God and saying: “I know that I am unholy and a sinner. I know that You are the holy and true judge. Please, whatever it costs, I accept your judgment.” It is only when we have accepted God’s holy judgment, that God can rightfully send His grace.