Responding to Grace With our active “How”
Theology II Essay: How are we saved by grace? | March 2021
If we know to be true that Christ bestows on us the Spirit and God justifies and sanctifies us with creator and humanity, then the “how” of being saved by grace could very well end with this statement (Migliore, 246-247). As a journalist in my past profession, the word “how” would signify an exchange; a response to why a thing is the way it is. And so there lies why we as Christians cannot end with the truth of God’s free gift – we must respond with our active “how” (247). This version of “saved by grace” that cliff hangs without our “how” is cheap and continues to allow humanity to function “as is” without true justification of behaviors that harm (Bonhoeffer, 460-461). The wounded walk the earth still crying for God while the justified continue to act in un-sanctified manners with a hollow understanding of grace. To know our “how,” we must bear witness and act toward the suffering misuse of grace. Utilizing Far Eastern understanding of pain - Han - as a vehicle to see and act for the suffering, allows humanity access to the freedom God’s grace offers from systems and complacency within our faith (Park, 10). Han encourages ongoing repentance and continued calling to live into Christ’s likeness for true transformative grace to take hold (89-90; Cannon, 148).
God’s liberating grace is a signifier that we are “somebodies” (Migliore, 249). Cheap grace leaves room for norms and systems to stay in place. Such systems as White Supremacy which thrives in the cracks of cheap grace. Bonhoeffer sarcastically writes, “the Christian should live the same way the world does” on the humanly freedom cheap grace awards (460). It’s “how” is for the sake of self. The grace of God is for the sake of all. Cheap grace lives in the white privilege of capitol raiders who get only a slap on the wrist, while our black siblings die in the streets – victims of whiteness’s sin.
In order to interrogate our “how,” we must interrogate our cheap grace. And by our, I mean humanity. And for myself, I mean whiteness. Whiteness exudes privilege. In our apologies, we are forgiven by black and brown colleagues. But, in our apologies is there a true awareness of the pain our whiteness causes? If we are living in a lens of cheap grace, then the answer is no. Our apologies are hollow attempts to keep things stable and moving onward. Han requires the privileged to reconcile their complacency for true justification and through Han the oppressed experience salvation anew (Park, 13). Bringing awareness to the oppressor’s participation in Han makes space for metanoia to take hold by the Spirit bestowed through God’s free grace (89). Forgiveness from the oppressed then also becomes a mutual exchange of grace. Thus, making way for repentance to be an ongoing action toward transformative grace.
Transformative grace is the true manifestation of God’s liberating grace. Transformative grace calls us to disband systems of power and view our neighbors with Christlike love (Cannon 148). Transformative grace calls us inward and outward through justification and sanctification by God’s resounding yes to our being (Migliore, 250).
Our “how” we are saved by grace is in this truth: We are a yes to God. We are asked to be in community with one another to live in constant state of repentance and reconciliation that is not hollow or ignorant of the Han this world experiences (Park, 90). It is by this version of costly grace that we hide our treasures within the field, share our wealth, and God’s liberating grace with all through love for neighbor and world (461). Yes, we are saved by grace through Christ’s life, death, and resurrection and the Spirit’s offering to our being through God’s love for us. And our “how” rests in our crosses that we pick up and never place down for the love of God, for neighbor and the healing of this wounded world (Migliore, 256).