To put it in a pointed way, the actual addressee of the free grace of God is not the church, but rather “all people.” The church can only be the witness to this. If it also wants to be the addressee of God’s free grace, then it can only do so in solidarity with “all people.” It is just as much in need of forgiveness as are all the rest, and it knows at the same time that as God loves it in spite of that, God also loves all the others who do not know it yet.
