Years ago while pursuing my college education I saw a trend among my peers: becoming self-righteous about their superiority over the self-righteous. They had experienced a level of grace which the previous generation had not yet attained. As a result they boasted about it, flaunted it, and in some cases abused the grace they were just then discovering.
Nothing is new under the sun. According to the grandson of Billy Graham, Tullian Tchividjian, the arrogance of grace is a danger for this new generation as well. In his book, Surprised by Grace, he warns of one of the danger of grace:
"Many younger evangelicals today are reacting to their parents' conservative, bottoned-down, rule-keeping flavor of 'older brother religion' with a type of liberal, untucked, rule-breaking flavor of 'younger brother irreligion.' It screams out, 'That's right! I know I don't have it all together, and you think you do; I know I'm not good, and you think you are. And that makes me better than you! See the irony? We become self-righteous against the self-righteous." (p. 146, italics the authors)
He goes on to explain his own struggle with grace.
"Personally, I tend to resonate less with the rule keepers and more with the rule breakers-with those who have such a tough time staying on the narrow road. We're the kind who really love the gospel and God's grace because we feel our need so strongly; we know how desperate we are . But it's easy for us to feel a sense of superiority over all those upright-looking church people, whom we assume just don't really get the gospel."
I can identify with Tullian, how about you? Give some extra grace today. Hopefully someone will give more than a handful to you as well.
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