Bill Knott’s GraceNotes: Cross Purposes (October 25, 2019)

Be wary of the vengeance that your bitterness demands. The blade you wield will cut both ways to injure you and those you wound:  you both will bleed.  Retaliation never was so cool and final as it seems in all the movies. There’s always more to pay—more pain, more cuts, more haggard hearts.  No grudge was ever settled save by love.  Christ’s wounded majesty and broken law didn’t move him to abandon us or push us toward our fate.  No, He stepped closer after being injured, and embraced us in our violence.  The spear was taken from our hands; the curses quieted in our mouths.  “With His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). Christ crossed our bitterness with love too great to seek retaliation, and far too kind to give us what our sin deserved.  In this is life, and all our hope.  Grace ends the deadly cycle of our hurt. So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

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