Introduction – When Grace Feels Wrong
Imagine this. A well-known local businessman is caught embezzling millions.
He is tried, convicted, and the sentence is ready to be pronounced.
The courtroom is full of victims—employees who lost jobs, retirees whose pensions are gone.
Everyone leans forward for the judge’s decision.
Then the judge says, “The penalty has been satisfied. You are free to go.”
No prison time. No fine. The man walks out the door.
You can almost feel the shock.
> “That’s not justice! Where is accountability? What about the people he hurt?”
Hold that feeling, because grace often sounds like that to our ears.
Real grace—Bible grace—always carries a whiff of scandal.
It seems reckless, unfair, even dangerous.
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Why Grace Feels So Offensive
We live in a world that runs on the scorecard system:
work hard, earn points, get what you deserve.
Grace shreds that system.
It says God loves the undeserving,
that He gives His best to people who can’t pay Him back,
and that He does it before they clean up their act.
That is the tension Jesus presses right to the surface in Luke 15.
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Scene One – A Father Who Runs
Let’s step into the parable.
A younger son demands his inheritance while Dad is still alive—a cultural insult so deep it was like wishing his father dead.
He takes the cash, burns through it on wild living, and ends up broke, hungry, and ashamed.
Then, a turning point: “I will arise and go to my father.”
Here is where we expect justice:
a long probation, restitution, maybe a hired-hand job if he proves himself.
But Jesus shocks His listeners:
> “While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.”
Middle-Eastern patriarchs don’t run.
Running meant hitching up your robe, showing bare legs—a shameful act for a dignified elder.
But this father runs.
He embraces. He kisses.
He interrupts the son’s rehearsed apology.
He calls for the best robe, a ring, sandals, and a feast.
Grace outruns guilt.
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The Older Brother Syndrome
But Jesus isn’t finished.
The camera pans to the elder brother—hard-working, rule-keeping, seething outside the party.
> “All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.”
Here’s the sting:
We can live in the father’s house and still think like a hired hand.
We can measure worth in paychecks and fairness,
and miss the music of mercy.
The elder brother is the scorecard voice in every one of us, muttering,
“This is not how it should work. Somebody has to pay.”
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Grace Does Not Cancel Justice—it Satisfies It
And somebody did pay.
This is where Romans 3:23–26 comes thundering in:
> “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus… so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”
The cross is where mercy and justice meet without compromise.
God never says, “Sin doesn’t matter.”
He says, “I will bear the cost Myself.”
The debt is real.
The payment is complete.
The invitation is free.
Grace isn’t cheap; it is blood-bought.
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Let’s sit with this for a moment.
Where in your life do you still keep a scorecard—
for yourself? for someone else?
What would it mean to throw that card away and trust that Jesus really paid it all?
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Grace That Rewrites Relationships
If grace is real, it cannot stop at our vertical relationship with God.
It must spill out horizontally into our relationships with others.
Ephesians 4:31-32 urges us:
> “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.
Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”
Grace received becomes grace extended.
The forgiven forgive.
The pardoned release.
The loved love.
That sounds beautiful—until you’re hurt.
Then forgiveness can feel like letting people get away with it.
But biblical forgiveness isn’t erasing justice; it’s releasing vengeance to God and making space for restoration.
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Personal Grace and Restorative Justice
Grace puts everything in the right order.
Forgiveness: I release the personal debt.
Restoration: we rebuild trust as repentance proves real.
Justice: the community protects the vulnerable and seeks repair.
Think of the thief on the cross in Luke 23.
He could do nothing to fix the past.
Yet Jesus said, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”
Grace didn’t pretend there was no cost—it paid the cost in full.
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How Grace Changes Everything
Grace sinks in and:
1. Humbles us—no one struts at the foot of the cross.
2. Heals us—shame loses its grip; we are named beloved.
3. Harnesses us—forgiven people live with open hands and open doors.
Real grace energizes mission and reconciliation.
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A Modern Picture of Scandalous Grace
A strikingly fresh example unfolded only days ago.
At the memorial service for her husband, Christian commentator Charlie Kirk, Erika Kirk stood before a watching nation and said:
> “That man… that young man — I forgive him.
I forgive him because it was what Christ did, and it is what Charlie would do.
The answer to hate is not hate. Love for our enemies and love for those who persecute us.”
She went further, publicly stating that she does not want the death penalty pursued, explaining that she would not have “that man’s blood on her ledger.”
What could make a grieving wife speak like that?
Only the same grace that flowed from the cross when Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
That isn’t natural.
That is heaven’s culture breaking in.
That is scandalous grace.
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Walking the Guidepost of Grace
Receive: Drop the scorecard and trust Christ’s payment.
Extend: Forgive as you have been forgiven.
Walk: Build communities that hold truth and mercy together.
Where do you need this grace?
Are you the prodigal needing welcome?
The elder brother keeping score?
Someone chained by unforgiveness?
The Father still runs.
The cross still stands.
The Spirit still whispers: “You are Mine.”
Come home. Join the party. Open your arms to others.
