Surprised By Grace

Last week I finished Tullian Tchividjian's newest book, Surprised By Grace: God's Relentless Pursuit Of Rebels. I thought it would help me to understand the book better if I attempted to put some of my thoughts into a coherent whole :)

The entire book revolves around the Old Testament prophet Jonah. Though most of us are familiar with Jonah's being swallowed by the fish, I actually thought the less known chapters in his story were the most compelling. I think most of us know about Jonah: He was a prophet that ran from God and was swallowed by a fish, only to be coughed up, change his mind about God's proposed mission, and preach to the Ninevites. One of my favorite things about Tchividjian's book is that he doesn't seem to focus on Jonah becoming fish bait, but actually helps us see as complete a picture of Jonah as possible - thankfully without "reading between the lines" and minimizing the overall point of the prophet's story.

Tchividjian is unapologetically Reformed in his theology and this drives what he sees as the most important aspect of Jonah's experience: God is pursuing us. He thoughtfully balances God's pursuit of us with God's discipline of us. He is also careful to remind us that because God gave Jonah a second chance after his rejection of God's call to preach in Nineveh, this does not guarantee us a second chance when we reject God's call. As I read this, I couldn't help but think of R.C. Sproul's The Holiness of God where the author states that God's grace is the ultimate explanation for our very existence. Each moment after each sin is proof that God extends his grace to us, despite each sin being a violation of God's perfect law.

If this is true, do you think your idea of God's grace is big enough?

Josh