Grace must be emptied of power.
Grace must be emptied of power. To be emptied of power, grace must first be entirely unconditional. Conditions to grace are means by which we “make sense” of something that offends our sensibilities of justice and fair play. Grace that requires action on the part of the individual is no grace at all, as it becomes tethered to an act of power on the part of the recipient. Unconditional grace must also be unrelated to ideas of judgement of good and evil.
The perceived knowledge of good and evil is a means by which mankind gains power over unknowing. It is the means by which we make meaning by assigning values to all things. One thing is better than another, more beautiful, more desirable. Unconditional grace allows us to practice consent to reality without wanting to tamper with it by making it better, purer, holier, or safer. It is grace that allows us to see beauty in ugliness and God in all things and enables us to stop rejecting one thing over another. It is grace that enables us to cease crying out, as Peter did when he rejected the idea of Christ crucified, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you!” (Matthew 16:22, NRSV). It is this very impulse to reject and the lack of consent to reality that Jesus rebukes as Satanic in this story.