{"id":512,"date":"2011-01-28T09:06:54","date_gmt":"2011-01-28T09:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2011\/01\/grace-instead-of-guilt.html"},"modified":"2011-01-28T09:06:54","modified_gmt":"2011-01-28T09:06:54","slug":"grace-instead-of-guilt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/01\/grace-instead-of-guilt.html","title":{"rendered":"Grace Instead of Guilt"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"generousjustice.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

What does it mean to care about “the poor”? What does it
\nlook like to put love and care and compassion into action? And what would
\nmotivate anyone to do this?<\/p>\n

Tim Keller’s newest book, Generous Justice: How God’s Grace
\nMakes Us Just<\/a> is the best book I’ve ever read about putting Christian faith
\ninto action. I highly recommend it for anyone–Christian or not–interested in
\nthe questions posed above. <\/p>\n

Keller contends that Biblical justice is not just “the
\npunishment of wrongdoing,” but also “to give people their rights.” Furthermore,
\nBiblical justice is generous<\/i>, justice
\nthat goes “above and beyond.” Keller points to Job as an example of generous
\njustice, for Job does not simply meet the “basic needs for food and shelter”
\nfor the poor, but “turns the poor man’s life into a delight.” <\/p>\n

Page after page of this book challenged me:<\/p>\n

“Not giving generously, then, is not stinginess, but
\nunrighteousness, a violation of God’s law.” <\/p>\n

“Money that is hoarded for oneself rots the soul.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“We should spend far<\/i> more of our money and wealth on the poor than we do on our own entertainment, or on vacations, or on eating out and socializing with important peers.”<\/p>\n

“love your neighbor as yourself<\/i>. We don’t wait until we are in ‘extremity’ before doing something about our condition, [Jonathan Edwards] argued, so why should we wait until our neighbor is literally starving before we help?”<\/p>\n

And that’s just from the first few chapters…<\/p>\n

Keller offers examples from the Bible alongside examples from contemporary life to demonstrate what it looks like to practice generous justice as a response to God’s grace. He recognizes the complexities of poverty and he deals deftly with arguments against providing support for those in poverty and on the outskirts of society. Finally, he challenges Christians to understand that guilt is not a motivation for doing justice: “Justice for the poor is connected not to guilt but to grace and to the gospel.”<\/p>\n

Were all Christians to respond to Keller’s understanding of Biblically based justice, it wouldn’t simply result in more social programs, food and shelter and health care for the needy. It would result in a world defined by shalom<\/i>, a comprehensive peace, a world in which human beings flourish, a world of beauty and delight<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What does it mean to care about “the poor”? What does it look like to put love and care and compassion into action? And what would motivate anyone to do this? Tim Keller’s newest book, Generous Justice: How God’s Grace Makes Us Just is the best book I’ve ever read about putting Christian faith into…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-faith","category-what-im-reading"],"yoast_head":"\nGrace Instead of Guilt - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/01\/grace-instead-of-guilt.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Grace Instead of Guilt - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What does it mean to care about “the poor”? What does it look like to put love and care and compassion into action? And what would motivate anyone to do this? Tim Keller’s newest book, Generous Justice: How God’s Grace Makes Us Just is the best book I’ve ever read about putting Christian faith into…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/01\/grace-instead-of-guilt.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-01-28T09:06:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2011\/01\/generousjustice-thumb-200x200-20987.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"amyjuliabecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Grace Instead of Guilt - Thin Places","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/01\/grace-instead-of-guilt.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Grace Instead of Guilt - Thin Places","og_description":"What does it mean to care about “the poor”? 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Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}