Grace Hurts

Metallica understands the effects of religion better than Christians.

I was reading someones blog today. He had put up a video of Metallica's song "The Unforgiven".

The lyrics are very powerful...They also help me to understand Jesus' message of grace more.

This is exactly what we, the church do these days. And we call it "grace". It normally starts out like "You can't do anything to earn forgiveness", but once you're saved, there is this whole list of things you must now do to keep forgiveness. We say there is not one thing you can do to make you more acceptable in the eyes of God than to have Christ as your righteousness, but then we say you're worthless if you're not meeting certain standards of holiness.

We are guilty of trying to force people to love God. Since when does the creation get fixed without the Creator fixing His creation? How do you get well without a physician?

Why do we welcome the saved and reject the unsaved? How do we think condemning people leads to salvation? Have we totally forgotten that Jesus said He came not to condemn the world, but to save it? If the perfect one, who has right to condemn the world doesn't condemn it, then how can we condemn it?



New blood joins this earth
And quickly he's subdued
Through constant pained disgrace
The young boy learns their rules

With time the child draws in
This whipping boy done wrong
Deprived of all his thoughts
The young man struggles on and on he's known
A vow unto his own
That never from this day
His will they'll take away

What I've felt
What I've known
Never shined through in what I've shown
Never be
Never see
Won't see what might have been

What I've felt
What I've known
Never shined through in what I've shown
Never free
Never me
So I dub thee unforgiven

They dedicate their lives
To running all of his
He tries to please them all
This bitter man he is
Throughout his life the same
He's battled constantly
This fight he cannot win
A tired man they see no longer cares
The old man then prepares
To die regretfully
That old man here is me...

What I've felt
What I've known
Never shined through in what I've shown
Never be
Never see
Wont see what might have been

What I've felt
What I've known
Never shined through in what I've shown
Never free
Never me
So I dub thee unforgiven

You labeled me
I'll label you
So I dub thee unforgiven



Grace may sound beautiful, and it is. But it is also very painful. It strips people of their pride. Pride goes very deep, as God reveals to me more and more how sick my heart is. How evil I am at the core. It strips you naked and leaves you outside your comfort zone. Grace is bright light called Jesus who reveals how filthy, selfish and lazy you really are. Grace takes away any boasting what-so-ever. But grace is also the most freeing thing when you let yourself embrace it completely.