Executing Grace Quotes

“It’s not that the law has no meaning; it’s just that grace has the last word.”
― Shane Claiborne, Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us

“Arnobius wrote in the fourth century: “Evil ought not be repaid with evil. . . . It is better to suffer wrong than inflict it. . . . We should rather shed our own blood than stain our hands and our conscience with the blood of another” (Sider, 101). In his writings on “public homicide,” Lactantius raged against the ways we have glorified death—that we have a “thirst for blood” and “lose our humanity.” Here are his powerful words insisting that it is wrong to kill, even legally: It makes no difference whether you put a person to death by word or rather by sword, since it is the act of putting to death itself which is prohibited. . . . There ought to be no exception at all but that it is always unlawful to put to death a person who God willed to be a sacred creature. (Sider, 110) He goes on to say that when we kill, even legally execute, “the bloodshed stains the conscience.”
― Shane Claiborne, Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us

“We often miss the irony that the same Paul who writes “submit to the authorities” goes to jail and is condemned for subverting the authorities! He”
― Shane Claiborne, Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us

“My concern is, How do we deal with evil without becoming it? If we aren’t careful, our “justice” can be as bad as the crime itself. Yet,”
― Shane Claiborne, Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us

“When we see the crucifixion as a legal transaction in which Jesus “paid the bill,” we run the risk of cheapening the work of restoration at the heart of the cross. After”
― Shane Claiborne, Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us

“Limiting violence was a good place to start. Abolishing it is a good place to end.”
― Shane Claiborne, Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us

“The death penalty did not flourish in America in spite of Christians but because of us. So”
― Shane Claiborne, Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us

“now we cultivate the fear of God, justice, kindness, faith, and the expectation of the future given us by the Father through the crucified one. . . . [T]he more we are persecuted and martyred, the more do others in ever increasing numbers become believers.3 (Arnold, 81)”
― Shane Claiborne, Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us

“The Latin word for the wafer of the Eucharist (often referred to as “the host”) is hostia, which literally means “the victim.” All”
― Shane Claiborne, Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us

“we now are invited to extend that same grace to others. We are to be like God and forgive. We are to see people who do evil with the possibility that they can be healed. And we are to extend to them the same grace God extends to us. We are all victims of the crushing power of sin, and all in need of liberation.”
― Shane Claiborne, Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us

“God’s love and justice are much more dynamic than many of our theologies allow for.”
― Shane Claiborne, Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us

“Healing from sin is a process we get to participate in. God”
― Shane Claiborne, Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us

“It seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings. We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment.                —1 Cor. 5:9–13”
― Shane Claiborne, Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us

“in one moment, God feels the pain of the victims of unspeakable violence, and God feels the agonizing pain of seeing a beloved child executed at the hands of the state.”
― Shane Claiborne, Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us

“she was tempted to give up on God because she couldn’t reconcile her doctrine with her deity. She”
― Shane Claiborne, Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us

“The lighted cross of The Knights is no different than the average church that has a lighted cross either on top or in front of their church building. The light of the cross symbolizes the Light of Christ dispelling darkness and ignorance. It is the fire of the cross that reminds us of the cleansing “fire” of Christ that cleanses evil from our land. The fiery cross is a symbol that has long been popular with the Christian faith. . . . We don’t burn the cross, we Light the cross. We recognize that Christ is the light of the world. The lighted cross is a symbol of freedom—freedom from sin—freedom from tyranny. When a Klansman or Klanswoman participates in a cross lighting ceremony they are making a public declaration to Jesus Christ of their continued commitment to the Christian faith.”
― Shane Claiborne, Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us

“I find it particularly troubling when the cross is used as a weapon to justify violence, bloodshed, and vengeance—the very stuff I’m convinced Jesus came to heal the world of.”
― Shane Claiborne, Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us

“When you twist the cross, you get a swastika.”
― Shane Claiborne, Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us

“the crucifixion of Jesus—became the conduit of God’s grace and salvation. One”
― Shane Claiborne, Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us

“such a brutal way of killing someone that it gave birth to the word “excruciating.”
― Shane Claiborne, Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us

“There are two ways to submit to authority, then. One is by obeying the good laws; the other is by openly suffering the consequences of disobeying the bad laws—that is,”
― Shane Claiborne, Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us

“between God’s permissive will and God’s perfect will. This”
― Shane Claiborne, Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us

“God hates sin, because God loves people and sin destroys us. So divorce is bad because it breaks people’s hearts and rips families apart—not just because we broke a law. God hurts when we hurt. God cannot stand to watch us hurt ourselves and others. Sin leads to death—it eats away our bodies and our souls like a cancer.”
― Shane Claiborne, Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us

“Sin, too, is real. All we have to do is look at the news or, if our vision is good enough, look in the mirror.”
― Shane Claiborne, Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us

“Much of the Bible was written by murderers who were given a second chance. Moses. David. Paul. The Bible would be much shorter without grace.”
― Shane Claiborne, Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us

“It was the cry of grace, of agonizing, scandalous love. Those same words would be heard over and over from the mouths of martyrs and Christians throughout history. They”
― Shane Claiborne, Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us

“We always have to be careful that in exposing one truth we don’t cover up another. Or”
― Shane Claiborne, Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us

“Victimization is about powerlessness, and justice is about amplifying the voices of those who have been silenced. Healing”
― Shane Claiborne, Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us

“One of the most disturbing things I discovered in writing this book is that victims of crime who, for whatever reason, are not in favor of the death penalty are routinely marginalized, silenced, and even threatened. When”
― Shane Claiborne, Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us

“We must take a plunge into the darkness before we can fully appreciate the light.”
― Shane Claiborne, Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us