Fred Phelps, Grace, & the Sovereignty of God

(Associated Press file photo)

 

A few nights ago, Wednesday to be specific, a man by the name of Fred Phelps shuffled off his mortal coil.  This death would be nothing more than a blip in an obituary, were it not for the things that this man said, did, and stood for.  Fred Phelps, as most of you already know, was the founder and leader of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, KS.  Of course as most of the continental United States knows, Westboro’s name is quite misleading.  Phelps and his parishioners preached not a message of love or even the Gospel of Jesus, but instead a message of hate, falsehood, propaganda, and frankly evilness.  Known for picketing numbers of events, including (but not limited to) Military Funerals, Sandy Hook Elementary Funerals, etc., and using slander and offensive language condemning anyone who believes something contrary to his beliefs, many people rejoiced in the death of Phelps.

I would not be 100% truthful if I didn’t say that even my part there was a sense of gladness that began to poke it’s head out upon hearing the demise of this man.  However, my gladness was to be short lived because as He tends to do, the Holy Spirit began to convict me.  I began to think about how does grace fit here?  Like many other Christians there sometimes seems to be a scale of grace that we give to people.  A little offense = abundant grace whereas a great offense = little grace.  The higher the offense, the less grace given.  So naturally when someone so deeply wounds and offends with such venom as Phelps has done there is a natural inclination creeping within our very bones to rejoice in the streets at his death.  Where does grace fit?  Grace.  That often liturgical word that seems to lose its true meaning when we are offended.  The truth is like Fred Phelps, I am a sinner, and like Fred Phelps, I need grace.  

God’s word is quite clear when we look in Romans 3:  

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. (21-25).

Fred Phelps was a sinner, a vocal, public, vile, boisterous sinner, but what am I?  I am a sinner whose transgressions are as scarlet and offensive to Jesus as Phelps’.  You, me, Phelps, and everyone else on this planet need a savior who issues grace abundantly.  Luckily, we have this in the person of Jesus.  As is mentioned in above scripture reference ALL have sinned, but Jesus is that propitiation.  So here’s the bottom line, you in your sin, me and my sin, etc., are as unlovable and heinous as Fred Phelps seems to be. The difference for the believer is that Christ has intervened and taken that unlovable heinous person and made a new creation in him/her (2 Corinthians 5:17).  As Christians, God has called us to mirror Him, and part of that mirror includes issuing grace to others, especially when it is a vile and offensive thing/person.  

Ever since Genesis 3 the world has hatred.  Since that point in time, the world has had opponents of grace, opponents of good, and opponents of God Almighty.  The death of Phelps does not illustrate a break in this pattern.  There will always be people who are the antithesis of what God has proclaimed as long as the world continues to exist, but the best news is that we don’t serve a feeble, scared, or exasperated God, but instead we serve a God of ABSOLUTE SOVEREIGNTY.   This has not surprised him or stunned him.  He still reigns on his throne and still triumphs over sin and death, not matter how detestable it may appear to us.  So what do we do?

It is time for we as believers in the body of Christ stop trying to make our own grace standards and start following and using the standard that God has given us through His word.  When we pick and choose who we show grace to we are in fact not showing grace at all.  No matter how offended we may be by Phelps and his followers, God has by example given us a model for love and grace.  Christian brother and sister, here before us we have an incredible opportunity to show the world that we REALLY believe the grace that we so flippantly toss around in church.  The world is watching, what will they see?