The uncertainty of fluctuating things like love and grace horrifies us. Saying that God loves us grants us no reassurance. We would prefer it if he gave us fifty things to do, so that when we had done them we could be at peace. We do not want an ongoing relationship with God. We prefer a rule. It does not satisfy us that God shows grace to us or frees us. We prefer to bind him by our virtues and to be sure that he has no freedom to do with us as he chooses… We have set up sovereignties (ecclesiastical or political) that represent God on earth and with which we can have a clear relationship. We have overvalued law, making it an expression of God’s will. We have replaced the sovereignty of love with that of politics, and liberty with duties.
Jacques Ellul, The Subversion of Christianity (p. 152)
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