A Picture of Grace

Grace. It’s not a new word to my vocabulary. I know its definition…unmerited favor. I’ve heard the cutesy acronym “God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.”  I’ve sung Amazing Grace.  Still, there can be a disconnect between knowledge of God’s grace and acceptance of it.

There are two common pitfalls of thinking when it comes to grace.  Some of us think we must be worthy to receive it. Since we never can be in our own right, we leave this beautiful gift sitting on the shelf just waiting to be opened and enjoyed, all the while frustrated that we just can’t get our act together. Others of us have absolutely no problem tearing open the gift of grace and using it as a license to do whatever we want because after all, God will forgive, right?  Both thought patterns are toxic to our soul and rob us of the true beauty and power of grace.

Personally, I lean towards position number one and several years ago I specifically prayed for God to help me better understand and accept his grace.  Not long afterwards, I went to dinner with my parents.  As we finished up, I mentioned to our server that I’d pay for my meal, so he could split the check.  To my surprise, when he returned, he informed me that my dinner had already been paid for. Sure enough, there was a note on the check confirming that I owed nothing.  The debt that was rightly mine had been freely paid by someone else.  To this day, I have no idea who was responsible for this.  I’m assuming the people next to us overheard our conversation with the server and kindly covered my cost.  Little did they know that God was answering my prayer through their action as it provided a tangible illustration of what it looks like to accept and enjoy something I didn’t deserve.

I can’t speak for what motivated those individuals to do what they did. However, Ephesians 2:4-9 tells us what motives God’s grace:

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

On our own, we will never be worthy of this gift.  Not even on our best days and certainly not on our worst. The great news is that we don’t have to be. We can freely accept all the riches of his grace, from the rising of the sun each morning to his saving grace that ransoms us from the penalty of sin, free of any guilt or shame over not deserving it. It’s about trusting in what Christ secured for us on the cross rather than trying to earn his favor. The only work required is that we believe it.

“What must we do, to be doing the works of God? Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent” ~ John 6:28-29

We don’t have to be perfect to be perfectly loved.  Because Christ is worthy, in him we are worthy (Romans 5-6).  Take his gift of grace off the shelf and enjoy it!