What a God! What Grace!

The troubling events of the last few days have brought two important ideas to my mind: fairness and grace.  I am amazed at the grace of God!  We Christians regularly intone that gift and claim it as the free gift of God to all men.  Living in a Christian society (at least that is what many Americans believe, despite the increasing number of ), I cannot help but be disappointed at the vitriol I often hear on the street, at church, on the radio, on television and on some print media, toward people of other religions, especially after incidents like the Boston Marathon bombings this week.

First, fairness.  I was also alarmed at the position some politicians took regarding the way the captured suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, should be treated. In spite of the fact that the suspect is a US citizen, several Republican lawmakers are calling for him to be tried as an enemy combatant.  A statement released by the lawmakers said, “It is clear the events we have seen over the past few days in Boston were an attempt to kill American citizens and terrorize a major American city.”  Replace the inference of a Muslim, foreign-born, American citizen with Timothy McVeigh, a white, American born, supposedly Christian, army veteran; would the Senators be making a similar statement or drawing the same conclusions?  Was Timothy McVeigh a "common criminal" which they claim Dzhokhar is not?  Does anyone see a selectivity of outrage here? Without a doubt, I believe the actions of the bombers was a cold, calculated, evil, violent dastardly act of cowardice against innocent civilians. But that does not justify the double standard that Senator Graham and his colleagues now demand.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/lindsey-graham-enemy-combatant-90365.html#ixzz2R3rQNKdj

What about grace?  Many Christians wish the perpetrators would "rot in hell" (or "burn forever" as some believe is the fate of sinners).  But is that what Christ thinks? Did he die for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his murderous brother?  I am going to take the liberty of sharing a post from Jason Hines because he shares my views on this important idea about God's forgiveness for us and his yearning to save the worst of sinners. You can read this and many of his other insights on his blog HineSight. (Full disclosure:  Jason is my son-in-law.)  Mr. Tsarnaev deserves his day in court and punishment to the fullest extent of the law if found guilty.  He must also answer to God for his crimes.  But like each one of us he is a sinner deserving of grace.  I seem to remember that about two thousand years ago a violent perpetrator of crimes was freed while an innocent man was nailed to a cross.  While on the cross, that God-man offered forgiveness to a criminal hanging beside him.  So are we guilty of any sins? Do we deserve God's forgiveness?  As difficult as it is to believe, or to accept, in God's eyes you and I are probably no better than Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.  What grace!