In his book “Against the Tide”, which I’ll review at another time, Miroslav Volf wrote, “…the gospel tells you that you are not defined by outside forces. It tells you that you count — even more, that you are loved unconditionally and infinitely, irrespective of anything you have achieved or failed to achieve, even that you are loved a tad bit more than those whose efforts have been crowned with success.” Volf is writing about the doctrine of justification by grace. A grace that transforms individuals, neighborhoods, cities and countries. Where urban planning and social development efforts fail, justification by grace succeeds because it tells those who view themselves as losers that “you are loved.”

“Invictus” is the movie staring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. Before the movie, it was a book titled “Playing the Enemy.” I loved this book and highly recommend it. There is no need to recap the story of Nelson Mandela, nor is there a need to talk about the incredible story of how South Africa was transformed socially when apartheid was overthrown and blacks across the country obtained justice. That’s not what the book is about.

Instead, Invictus looks at how the game of rugby, a symbol of the right wing white power structure during the era of apartheid, was utilized to offer justification by grace to the white Afrikaners of South Africa. Think of rugby as the ultimate white sport – sort of like the stereotype of hockey or NASCAR in the USA, with beer drinking rednecks shouting profanities from the stands. These rugby fans are the very people who had put Mandela in jail and perpetuated injustice in the country.

In the first few years after Mandela was released from prison, the whites lived in fear and guilt for what they had done; they had no idea if they would be imprisoned, their property taken, even killed. By supporting, cheering, embracing and promoting the national rugby team, Mandela embraced the white culture of South Africa precisely at a time when whites thought they may be punished for their years of oppression. It was an incredible act of grace.

And it had a fairy tale ending. The right wing elements of white South African embraced the new President, and the black South Africans embraced the potent symbol of rugby as their own. And as with all fairy tale endings, the South African team won the world championship.

As I listened to this book (an audiobook … extremely well done narration), I couldn’t help but think about Volf’s words. “Justification by grace … takes the price tags off human beings not so as to devalue them but so as to give them their proper dignity, a dignity not based on what they have achieved but rooted in the sheer fact that they are loved unconditionally by God.”

What a different world we would live in if we applied this insight to our lives. Mandela and his friends at the African National Congress figured it out in the early 90’s. We can learn from that.