Amazing Grace.
Grace... What is grace, exactly?
Well, there are many uses for and forms of grace... but I will talk about one in particular.
Grace is the unmerited favor of God that is LAVISHED upon us because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. It is a blessing, a gift. In other words... God’s grace is what saved us (Ephesians 2:8). Because of grace, we can talk to God and he will hear us, we can repent of our sins to God and be forgiven on the spot!
The dictionary says that grace is like MERCY OR PARDON, it is also a manifestation of favor.
Lets go back... So we know that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. We know that because of him, we can have RELATIONSHIP with God, you know, Alpha and Omega, I am that I am, Daddy, the one and only GOD! What we sometimes don’t understand is that this relationship is only by God’s grace. It is only because God pardoned humans, through Jesus, that we are able to talk to him and have a relationship with him.... That is why Jesus says that he is the way, the truth, and the life... Without him, we have no pardon (or grace) so we cannot have this relationship with God. We cannot get to God because our sins are creating a distance which we could never cross without fixing it with him. Thankfully, Jesus fixed ALL THAT! We were shown grace, or pardon, for our sins through faith that Jesus died for them.
We also know the verse that we had to learn in beginners class.
Ephesians 2:8-9
For by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast.
So what we don’t realize is that we should wallow in this grace that God has given us. We should lean and depend on it. We can hope in his grace (2 Corinthians 12:9) especially when we are weak (Hebrews 13:9).
One thing I began to understand about God that whatever God is, he is infinitely so. Since this is so, his grace is ABSOLUTELY INFINITE! God’s grace will never run out. Ever. Even when we are dead and we are being judged. A common misconception is that God’s grace is going to be gone when judgement day comes... God will become this justice-man who is only concerned with figuring out who is good enough to go to heaven! HUH? Why would God’s qualities change? This doesn’t make sense because the qualities that God possesses, he doesn’t possess them... He IS them. That’s why God IS Love... He is not simply loving. God doesn’t “have” grace... He embodies all that grace is. If you want to get a full idea of what grace is, think of God fitting his immensity into a human body then DYING. (I don’t think any of us have fully comprehended the smallest part of the gospel yet). Think of God... even though we were stained with sin... God choosing to forget about it and pretend as if it never even happened, if we just believe in his Son.
Romans 5:20
... But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound
The way I like to say this verse is “where sin abounds, grace super-abounds”
You can sin 10,000,000,000,000,000 times... and God’s grace would be there to catch you... again and again... and again! Sheesh! So that means... no matter what we do... God's grace is waiting there for us. Not just when we first give our lives to Christ, but Christ died for ALL of our sins... past, present, and future. All of our sins were in the future when Jesus died, right?
There are no bounds to his grace and his mercy. There is nothing that can exempt us from the grace of God after we have accepted Christ. There is no sin too big for God’s grace. We give God a sin the size of the largest ocean... and God gives us grace the size of this universe. We are truly blessed to have a infinite God.
For those of us that are like “God’s grace is only to be used when we fall, we shouldn’t lean on it and use it as a crutch”... Which is true to a certain extent...We should not abuse God’s grace... but at the same time, when we realize that we (Yes, we Christians) could not breathe, live, brush our teeth, ANYTHING without God’s grace... We ALL lean on God’s grace, no matter how “saved” or how “worldly” we are as Christians (The bible says it, so it must be true! 1 Peter 1:13, Romans 5:1,2) We should remember that it is only by grace that we were even saved in the first place... So we should understand that without it, we are truly NOTHING!! Even our most glorious praises are like filthy rags to compared to the matchless and holy God (without his grace). So no one is better than any other person, because we were all saved by God’s grace, not by anything we did (or did not do).
Lets put it in other terms. You have two friends. They both steal money from you. Like large amounts of money... say, millions. Then, they see you in the mall and ambush you and beat you up and leave you hurt and bleeding. After they left you in this condition, they go and slander you to EVERYONE you know and even people you don’t know. One day after these events, you decide you want to forgive them... not because they said sorry, not because they were better friends, not because of anything... You just chose to forgive them. Not that anything they did could take away what they did to you... but you chose to forgive them... and make them your absolute best friends now... even closer than you were before. Crazy right???? Ladies and Gentlemen, this is one of the most simple forms of the gospel. It was only because YOU CHOSE to forgive your friends that you did it. This is grace. Undeserved grace. Just like what we have with God. Its kind of scandalous, right? This is one of the defining parts about Christianity.
It is sometimes hard not to measure a Christian by how they live, but honestly, we should remember that none of us were saved because of how “good” we were. NONE OF US! There is no amount of good we could do to make us worthy of talking to or being anywhere near a perfect and holy God. Also... None of the good things we do are just because we are so good and holy and wonderful now that we are saved... It is only Holy Spirit and more grace that we are even able to do anything good. Sounds silly right? Of course we can do good stuff! Not quite. See what Paul said
1 Corinthians 15:10
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them- yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.
He actually corrects himself here to make sure that we know that he is completely dependent on God’s grace for the work that he has done. This is PAUL OF THE BIBLE!! It is not even him that is “working hard” but the grace of God. It is only by God’s grace that we do anything that is pleasing to him. SHEESH.
I just invite each of you to ask God to take you on a journey to understand what his grace truly is like. It will be a personal experience. For me, it was humbling. It made me realize how much I depend on God. I will continue to depend on his grace to get me through everything! I wanted to break down this really simple concept because I realize that many of us have been confused about what grace is and what it does. No one really bothers to explain it and we just sing the song and try to grasp meaning from it.
I realize that there may be many questions that are asked because of this.... like if God’s grace is infinite... Why do we bother trying to live for God?
Romans 6:1-2
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
Ah... We can’t go back because we are dead to sin and alive in Christ. Praise God! Plus, we are not dogs returning to our vomit (Proverbs 26:11)!!
Feel free to ask me any questions that you might have... or even better, feel free to allow God to answer your every question and concern. I am here as your servant, your resource. I am praying for you all for understanding and open hearts.
Love you guys.
Lise, A4C
P.S. Listen to "Scandal of Grace" by Hillsong United. Its poppin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvWd-Pt0gLQ
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