Monday, March 25, 2013

One Way Love

I watched this video a few weeks back with amazement at the grace shown towards someone completely undeserving – Mel Gibson (just check out the “controversial remarks” section under his Wikipedia page for examples as to why).

In this clip, Robert Downey Jr. uses his current status and glory as the actor playing Iron Man to make the way for a friend to experience grace again, and it is simply beautiful.

Tullian Tchividjian is writing a book titled “One Way Love,” and in a recent excerpt he comments about this beautiful act.

Mel clearly had no idea about what Downey Jr. was planning to do. And Downey Jr’s tone and demeanor make it very clear that he was not putting himself out there under duress—he did it because he wanted to. His ability and desire to show mercy seems almost directly proportional to his personal experience of it, his firsthand knowledge that he is just as much in need of mercy as “the chief of sinners”. His plea, in other words, was rooted in humility about his own sin and gratitude for the love he has been shown, which asserts itself in kind. Belovedness births love. Grace accomplished what no amount of court-ordered, legal remedies ever could: it created a heart that desires to show mercy to the “least of these.”

Read the rest of the excerpt here. I look forward to the book, as I seek to rest in God’s one way love in Jesus.

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