Grace and Judgment

I think about grace and judgment quite often, not so much in terms of what we can expect when we stand before God but rather in how we treat one another. In particular, I think about the levels of grace verses judgment those who follow Christ seem to demonstrate in their daily lives. How often does judgment win over grace?

I've come to the conclusion that we are fairly comfortable with judgment. We can dispense it with easy measure and manage to feel good about ourselves in the process. Everyone does it -- believers and non alike. I guess that's what disturbs me, especially when I see it in myself.

Grace makes us uncomfortable. We don't know what to do with it because it's so...unnatural. Judgment seems to fit our nature, whereas grace is supernatural (beyond what is natural or normal for us). It comes from God, and like most things that are from Him, sometimes feels beyond our grasp of understanding. It certainly seems beyond the scope of our human experience.

Grace makes us squirm, because in our twisted thinking, we are convinced that being judged and judging one another is the right thing to do. To move beyond what is for most of us a daily practice of judgment would be a complete life-shift and overhaul of our thinking. Seems like it would require some sort of divine intervention to override our life-long patterns of judgment and separation.

Enter Jesus.

He showed us a better way to live among our neighbors (and to live with ourselves). He divinely interjects grace and mercy and love into a world filled with judgment. He injects me with his grace, too, but I still show symptoms of the "pattern of this world". Good thing his grace knows no bounds.

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is -- his good, pleasing, and perfect will."

(Romans 12:2)