Grace

What is grace, and why is it so important to the Christian life?

Until several years ago I didn’t believe in altruism, giving without desire for personal benefit.  I believed even Jesus’ death on the cross wasn’t altruistic.  He died on the cross because He wanted something.  He wanted us.  The promise that we would dwell with Him eternally was reason enough for Him to suffer torture and death.  Paul puts it this way, “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2).  Did you know this is the only verse in the Bible where “joy” and “cross” appear together?  And, it speaks of Christ’s love for us.

I’ve come to realize grace is something else.  It gains nothing for God but everything for the Christian.  God blesses us for no other reason but that He loves us.  There are no conditions set upon God’s grace.  It is one of the truly free things in the universe, maybe the only truly free thing.

C.S.Lewis told a story of walking into a room at Oxford where several professors were discussing how Christianity differs from other world religions.  Lewis broke in and said “Grace is the difference.”  And Lewis was right.  The other world religions depend on the works of their followers to gain mercy from their gods.  Christianity does not.  The God of Christianity offers forgiveness for simply believing in Him and making Him Lord of our lives.  That’s grace.

God’s grace has no limits or conditions.  How could it.  What could sinful man ever do to please a holy and infinite God or qualify even to stand in His presence?  The answer, of course, is nothing.

But just what is grace?  Grace is God’s unconditional gift.  We are all sinners.  We’ve all fallen and still fall.  For a holy God to bless us daily, to love us deeply, and use us greatly is what grace truly is.  And, it’s even more.

What about the grace we are to show others?  We as Christians are to be gracious to others, aren’t we?

Proverbs 16:24 (ESV) Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.

But there are people out there that just push our buttons.  How can we be gracious to them?  We all have these people, people who seem to just tick us off by their very presence.  How do we show grace to them?  While I don’t do all that well in this area, I do ask myself, “With all that God has forgiven me of, how can I hold anything at all against other people?”

Why is this important?

There are actually a lot of reasons an understanding of grace is important.  No one is more aware of who we are and how much we desperately need a Savior than we do.  As a result, we often beat ourselves up, we are convinced we’re unworthy to do God’s bidding, to represent Him in public, to teach His Word, to share His love.  With grace involved, though, worth is irrelevant.  It simply doesn’t come into the equation.  We are used by God not because of our worth but because of His gracious love for us.

It takes a long time for most of us to truly understand God’s grace in our lives.  I know I’m still working on it.  My present level of understanding takes a load off of my heart and mind when I see something God wants me to do.  When I look at how God has used me in areas I’m totally unqualified for, I can only think of one word: “Grace!”