by Brandon Cai

As many of you probably know from the sudden inflow of pictures of cheery-faced collegians on Facebook, (or if you aren’t an avid user of online social-networking websites), are suddenly hearing ridiculous stories about snowball fights, pantyhose competitions (Editor’s note: it’s not what you think), and dance-offs…it’s that time of the year again. Assuming you’ve been to Lighthouse Bible Church before or personally know some of the collegians, (otherwise this introduction would have been quite nonsensical), Lighthouse recently hosted its annual February College Life retreat at Pine Valley, California.

If you haven’t already scrolled down the page due to lack of interest (I understand) then I must congratulate you. You already know more about the retreat than I did when I loaded my bags into the car and prepared for the trip down to Pine Valley. I did not expect to be pelted by snowballs in a wonderland of white. Nor did I expect to compete against an opposing team member with only a pantyhose over my head and improvised head-twirling techniques. Most of all, I did not expect to be heading off to retreat to be learning about a topic I already knew about, or at least I thought I knew.

The theme of this year’s College Life retreat focused on the grace of God. Reading this aloud to yourself, you may readily accept this given theme without any hesitation. But here already, we have an expression that is contradictory to the character of the God whom we worship. From what I discovered at retreat from our speaker, Dan Nah, pastor of Cornerstone Bible Church, the grace of God simply cannot be defined as “grace.” Rather, there needs to be a defining adjective which, quantitatively and qualitatively, only can satisfy the true attribute of our God’s grace. This is why our theme for this year’s retreat was phrased, the “Scandalous Grace” of our Lord God.

“Okay,” I said to myself, God’s grace can be defined as “bountiful,” “abounding,” “rich,” and the list goes on and on. But out of all the words that could be used to describe grace, why “scandalous?” The point is, Pastor Dan states, some of us one end of the spectrum may know how gracious our God is in our daily lives, but we do not realize just how far His grace encompasses us, even to the worst of sinners. From our reactions towards His grace, it is evident some of us may feel as if His grace does not fully satisfy our sinful nature; we work and work, often with futile efforts to satisfy the Law. On the other end of the spectrum, the nature of God’s grace is so foreign to some that they react in outrage and anger towards the grace of God, desiring to go as far as to murder the One who stops stones from being thrown and restores even adulterers to positions of righteousness. God’s grace is simply put, outrageous in every respect.

There are so many evidences of God’s grace in the Bible, from the splendor of the Garden of Eden given to man in Genesis, even to the last book, Revelation, written to give hope to those who suffer for Christ’s sake. Pastor Dan focused on several books of the Bible that shine the spotlight on just how outrageous God’s grace is. Genesis, 1 Kings, Hosea, Jonah, Matthew – these books all depict numerous accounts of God’s loving good will towards those found righteous or sinful in His eyes.

But what I found most compelling from Pastor Dan’s sermons on scandalous grace was how God’s grace reveals so much more of our Creator’s own character to us. What I discovered in my reflection were four aspects to God’s character that are depicted in the giving of His grace to us.

1. God is true to His word when He gives it. When God tells Jonah to preach to the city of Ninevah, He does not go back on His word. He forgives all the people of Ninevah and the whole city is saved from disaster in the hands of God. (Jonah 3:10) When God provides Elijah with strength in the wilderness, He does not only give courage in words, but sustains Elijah with food and nourishment. Twice! (1 Kings 19:7) God does not relent in His grace when He decides to give it. He overwhelms us with His grace.
2. God reveals His glory through His overwhelming grace. What God desires to show in His grace to us is the glory of His perfect, righteous, and holy being. (John 1:14,16) In bringing Elijah strength and sustenance, He reveals His glory to one man. In saving the city of Ninevah, God reveals His glory to a city. In crucifying His Son on the cross, God reveals His glory to the whole world.
3. God pursues those He saves. In the whole book of Jonah, God graciously pursues Jonah from the beginning in his refusal to preach to the city of Ninevah, till the end when He rebukes Jonah for his hatred of the sinners of Ninevah. God never ceases to give up on the prophet He commissions even when he blatantly disobeys God.
4. God gives because He loves. 1 John 4:19, states that “God first loved us.” He loved us before the beginning as He foreknew us, He loved us after the Fall of Man, and He continues to love us even when we sin against Him. He so loved the world that He offered as the ultimate act of grace to mankind, the sacrifice of His most precious possession: His Son. (John 3:16) And He gives not according to how righteously we live, but because He loved us first and fully.

Knowing the character of our gracious God not only reveals more of His glory and supreme being, but as Pastor Dan told all of us who went to retreat, the magnitude of our sinfulness as well. The degree to which they offends our Holy God is significantly magnified for us who live in the faith. To know and belong to a Father who loves us so deeply that He desires to give to us more than anyone else could ever give and more than we could ever deserve to receive – this knowledge should heighten our love and deepen our respect to our God who deserves more than we could ever give. It should be the driving force for our hearts in constantly glorifying Him in our daily walk, forever worshipping the God who so graciously extended His hand to sinners who were in complete rebellion against Him. All the glory be to Him forever.