The Scandal of Grace

'Scandal of Grace' by Hillsong (2013)

The song on Youtube

When I first heard the title of Hillsong’s new release called “Scandal of Grace” I was extremely exited, as I assumed that this meant that the song itself would be shocking and scandalous in describing God’s extreme affection for humanity. Sadly I was very much disappointed, as there is nothing out of the ordinary about these lyrics! The use of the word “murdered” is about as shocking as it gets, and I think that ‘murder’ is a soft term to describe crucifixion!

The word scandal comes from the Greek word skandalon, which means “scandal, offense, cause of indignation”, and this indeed a great word to use to describe the Gospel![1] Jesus says in Mt 11:6 “blessed is anyone who is not scandalized by me”, thus implying that the gospel is offensive.[2] But how often do we hear an offensive gospel being preached? A gospel that might cause you to lose friends its so shocking? A gospel that could cause society to ridicule and hate you to the point of persecution? A gospel that would cause churches to reject your teaching because its too extreme? Maybe the reason why there is no persecution of Christians in the west is not because the west is so accepting, but because the gospel we preach is not as offensive as it used to be!

Grace is truly offensive, and Hillsong are completely correct to describe it as such, but I would suggest that their song is not a true reflection of how scandalous God's grace is.

Grace flies in the face of justice.[3] Grace redeems us while we were and are still sinners (Rom 5:8). Grace is free, and thus cannot be labelled “cheap” (contra Bonheoffer), as there is never a price attached! “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free” (Gal 5:1): Paul goes on to describe in Galatatians 5 that what Christ has set us free from is the Torah. We do not have a law system. We are no longer bound by rules. “Everything is permissible for me” (1 Cor 6:12): Here Paul is quoting the Corinthian church, who have understood grace so well that they continue to sin in their new-found freedom. Paul does not negate this phrase but qualifies it! Because of grace everything is permissible, but “I will not be mastered by anything”, nor is everything “beneficial”.

Thus Paul is able to say that “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1), because life in the Spirit of God has set us free from a set of rules by which we live our lives. The new righteousness is not the Torah, nor the fulfilment of the Torah in a new set of rules (for example the 5 sermons in Matthew 5-7, 10, 13, 18, and 23-25, could be a new Pentateuch), but Jesus himself is the fulfilment of the Torah, not his words (Mt 5:17-18)![4] Righteousness is not to 'do' the sermon on the mount, or a new Torah, but it is Jesus himself. Rather, the person who “hears these words and does them” is wise (Mt 7:24-27). Jesus relates himself to what is worth being persecuted for; “righteousness” and “my sake” are synonymous terms (Mt 5:10-11).

Therefore, let us not bind people with rules, because righteousness is never found in not smoking or not drinking, nor not sleeping around, nor not murdering, nor even following the words of Jesus! Instead righteousness can only be found in his actual person. If we do what Jesus says we are wise, but we are not righteous. Church is for sinners only (1 John 1:8).




[1] William D. Mounce, Mounce Conscice Greek-English Dictionary of the New Testament (Accordance Bible Software: Version 2.0, 2011).
[2] NRSV reads “…who takes no offense at me”.
[3] A judge who accepts the life of one to pay for the penalty of another seems to be a very poor judge indeed, and I therefore do not agree with Penal Substitution. Instead it seems unjust, and by this great injustice we are set free.
[4] Regarding Mt 5:17-18; the Torah will pass away with heaven and earth, but Jesus words will not, thus implying that the Torah is temporal, but not Jesus' words. In this sense Jesus’ words are not simply a new Torah but infinitely and qualitatively different.