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This week, we’re still in Resurrection Sunday mood.¹ So let’s consider a big biblical idea. It’s so important that all stories reflect this—the big idea that the Law of God should lead us to the grace of God. But how many stories get these concepts out of balance? When do they swerve too far toward “law,” and into legalism, or too far toward “grace,” and into cheap grace?

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Key Scripture text: Romans 3:21–31

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

Romans 3:21–31 (ESV)

1. Great stories illustrate God’s Law

• God’s Law is His righteous standard for perfect love and obedience.
• His Law is good and justified, being defined by goodness Himself.
• Last week we talked about biblical fiction that illustrates, not instructs.
• Other types of fiction do this with the idea that God gives moral law.
• For instance, maybe you grew up hearing Sunday school moral fables.
• The story’s appeal wasn’t in plot or character, but in the moral virtue.
• Even now, parents want to know what moral idea a story is About.
• Other tales get more complex but still divide simple right from wrong:
  • Fairy tales and modern versions show pretty heroes, ugly villains
  • Hero stories show the goodness in manmade authority structure
  • Many good Star Trek stories (TV only) show leaders at their best
  • Detective stories or police procedurals generally uphold the law
  • Westerns (or space westerns) have good sheriffs and bad outlaws

But bad stories subvert God’s Law into ‘cheap law’

Legalism is the conviction that law-keeping is now, after the fall, the ground of our acceptance with God. I will say that again: legalism is the conviction that law-keeping is the ground of our acceptance with God, the ground of God being for us and not against us.

So if you ask, “How can I get God to be for me and not against me?” the legalist answer is “Keep the law. Perform the law.”

—John Piper, “What Is Legalism?”

• Sunday-school tales ignore plot and reality to teach abstract morals.
• Evangelical social-drama movies imply quick results for right belief.
• Conversion becomes an act of will: pray this prayer, get a happy life.
• These stories ignore real problems with churches, Christians, cultures.
• Cheap-law stories imply we can use morality “pieces” of the Bible.
• They imply these pieces can improve ourselves, families, or cultures.
• Such misuse of God’s Law exalts our own power, as if can be perfect.
• Alas, even conservative-leaning philosophers are enabling this view.
• And as people correct for lawlessness, we’re going to see more of this.
• God’s Law leads us to repentance, or to becoming “twice sons of Hell.”

2. Great stories illustrate God’s grace

• God’s grace is His unmerited favor on people who can’t keep His Law.
• His grace is offered through His own sacrifice on behalf of sinners.
• This month, we heard even more about His death and resurrection.
• Many works of fiction celebrate this by showing heroic self-sacrifice.
• Unlike our Savior, of course, these heroes are flawed yet die for others.
  • Cassian Andor (of Rogue One) is destined to surrender his life.
  • Most superheroes also do this death, like Superman and Iron Man.
• Yet heroes can also show unmerited favor in other non-lethal ways:
  • Heroes show mercy to their enemies, refusing to be vengeful.
  • A few may even say, “I forgive you” to a broken or contrite enemy
  • Frodo does this to Gollum. Harry Potter does this to Draco Malfoy.
  • Luke Skywalker mercies his Dark Side-fallen father, Darth Vader.

But bad stories subvert God’s grace into ‘cheap grace’

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.

—Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

• How would you feel if Vader had not also been killed in the fight?
• We may feel some relief that he lived; after all, he was sorry at the last.
• Yet on further reflection, the story would not age well or feel justified.
• Vader, for all his last-minute repentance, still suffers the consequence.
• Cheap-grace stories deny consequences and ignore moral complexity.
• Meanwhile, not even Gollum was redeemed by Frodo’s merciful act.
• Neither hero can change the nature of the villain whom he mercies.
• Similarly, our mercy toward the unrepentant does not change them.
• Cheap-grace stories exalt our power, as if we can make others perfect.
• It’s like the “but father, I can change him!” cliche about “bad boys.”
• This the wrong kind of fantasy that puts us, not God, on the pedestal.
• God alone must do supernatural work to offer real, just, saving grace.

3. Greater stories show God’s Law and grace

• Some religions and people maximize the importance of moral law.
• Other religions and people maximize the importance of divine grace.
• Often either “side” is trying to correct the excesses of the other side.
• Sensitive creators often try to “fix” their own experience through story.
• In-depth Christian-made stories can reconcile the two as Christ did.
• Our stories can best show both God’s moral Law and merciful grace.
• For example, they can assume (not argue) basic moral fundamentals.
• Yet we must not see heroes finding their dreams by keeping the Law.
• With or without overt grace, we must feel that something is missing.
• On the grace side, we should see heroes showing unmerited favor.
• But in most cases, the mercy will not spiritually regenerate a foe.
• We must feel something missing: a near-supernatural heart change.
  • Edmund Pevensie in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
  • Digory Kirke in The Magician’s Nephew—we’ll explore him soon
  • Darth Vader (sort of) thanks to Luke’s light in Return of the Jedi
  • The whole Malfoy family (sort of) thanks to Harry’s sacrificial death
• Greater stories, just “offscreen” or off-page, put Christ on the pedestal.
• Only this Hero can impose the Law, and fulfill its condition, all at once.

Com station

Top question for listeners

• What are you favorite stories about God’s Law or His grace?

Next on Fantastical Truth

“This is a story about something that happened long ago when your grandfather was a child. It is a very important story because it shows how all the comings and goings between our own world and the land of Narnia first began.” Seventy years after its publication on May 2, 1955, why do we still love Lewis’s sixth Chronicles of Narnia book, The Magician’s Nephew?=