Monthly Archives: January 2016

The grace crisis: ending abortion, or enabling it?

Tim & Terri Palmquist's blog Posted on by

Jesus helps an adulterous woman to her feet.

The way Jesus treated the woman who was caught in adultery is a powerful example of grace in action. But all too often we hesitate to follow Jesus’ powerful words.

Every Christian knows what “grace” means, but does anybody fully comprehend it? I have studied “grace” in depth in recent weeks 1, but the more I study, the more I realize how little I understand the depths of God’s “manifold” 2 (multi-colored) grace. I have long been grieved by witnessing so much destruction and pain springing from a weak, one-dimensional view of “grace,” but I am beginning to see that the true scriptural concept of “grace” itself contains the seeds which bear the potential to end abortion in the church.

It’s not unusual for pastors to focus on grace if they mention abortion. Typically, pastors are painfully aware of the fact that hearts of women 3 in their own congregation are experiencing raw pain because they have aborted their children. Being sensitive to the concerns of such hurting women, pastors focus on bringing healing and restoration to those in the congregation who have committed abortion, so pastors preach a message of “grace, not guilt.” But what does grace mean outside the context of guilt, or what does forgiveness mean without repentance?
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Notes:

  1. My study has involved not only scripture but secular Greek literature, in an effort to try to understand how the word χάρις (“charis”) would have been understood by those who first read New Testament books. My study is far from complete — in fact, I suspect that it will never end. ↩
  2. 1 Peter 4:10 ↩
  3. To simplify this discussion, I don’t refer here to the role of fathers (or other family members) in abortion, but of course most of my references to abortive mothers also relate to abortive fathers. ↩