Grace, they say, is God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. I don’t remember when I first heard that nifty mnemonic acrostic, but I know it was at a young age, and I don’t think I’ve outgrown it. It’s just a hook to hang some teaching on, and it’s a fine, sturdy hook.
But I have studied some more theology since then, and have learned that we can argue about anything, including definitions of grace. So here are some alternative acrostics; something for everybody.
For the Truly Reformed:
God Rejects And Conversely Elects
For dispensationalists:
Getting Raptured After Charting Endtimes
For pietists:
Good Religion = Affective Christian Experiences
For Barthians:
God-centered Redemption Allows Christocentric Eschatologizing
For the Christian existentialist:
Genuine, Real, Authentic Christian Existence
For the Pelagians and Semi-Pelagians:
Go Re-enact All Christ’s Example
For fundamentalists:
Gotta Really Agressively Confront Ecumaniacs
For the Roman Catholics:
Gazing Raptly At Consecrated Eucharist
(or)
Getting Right Archbishop Catholicizes Everything
For the Thomists working the Nature-Grace Boundary:
God Reaching Across Creation’s Expanse
For Dante, especially in his Purgatorio:
Getting Rendered Acceptable, Climbing Eagerly
For Anglo-Catholics:
Getting Ritualistic After Cranmer’s Execution
For the Eastern Orthodox:
Greek, Russian, Antiochene Cultural Expectations
For the other Eastern Orthodox excluded from that list:
Giddily Receiving Apophatic Creationless Energies
For Open Theists:
God Reconsiders, And Cooperates Exquisitely
For feminist theologians:
Gender Revolution Anticipates Church Evolution
For the cessationists:
Generally Renouncing All Charismatic Experiences
For evidentialist apologists:
General Revelation And Convincing Explanations
For presuppositional apologists:
Gospel Repentance Accomplished, Circularity Ensues
For sojourners:
Government Redistribution Allows Communal Economics
For pentecostals:
Glossolalia Received After Conversion Experience
For charismatics:
Gombala Ramazoody Alleluia Chombalahombala Essanahanashanahana
For theonomists:
Gospel Requires Absolutely Crushing Enemies
For the emergents:
Generational Resentment Against Conservative Evangelicals
Sorry if I left you out; or if I didn’t leave you out.
