The Grace of God

The words of the hymn “He will hold me fast” hold so much truth. Indeed, they bear witness to the truth of God’s character, that is, His faithfulness and trustworthiness as we see in our lives. How many of us can testify to the Lord’s amazing hand upon our lives? How many of us can testify that without Him we are nothing? Often times we can fall into the trap of the enemy and believe that the work of our hands has given us what we have today (Deuteronomy 8:17) when it is all but the grace of God. The grace of God, which is often defined as the unmerited favour of God can be somewhat of a cliché in reformed and evangelical circles, however, just as it is easy to take it for granted, I believe it is also easy to dismiss it and fail to understand it for what it is. In today’s post, I would like us to go back to some basics and fundamentals about the Christian faith, discussing the grace of God and its application in our lives.

When we talk about the grace of God, we often mix it with the mercy of God. The grace of God has been defined by some theologians as “God’s riches at Christ’s expense” whereas the mercy of God has been defined as “not getting what we deserved”. What I like about the definition of the grace of God here is the fact that it is costly to somebody. We receive God’s riches, but it cost Christ everything. If it wasn’t for Jesus Christ, we would not be beneficiaries of the grace of God. I am not sure if this definition was an attempt to explain our unworthiness to receive God’s grace and the fact that it is not free so we will not abuse it or some other reason but I believe that definition is still not satisfactory as it is still mind-blowing that the creator of the universe would be so loving and good to bestow such blessings on sinners like you and me. Think about it, for many of us, the grace of God has reached us. It found us. We would not know the Lord Jesus as our saviour and Lord today if it wasn’t for the grace of God. We would not have turned away from our sinful ways, we would not have known we were sinners. The grace of God opened our eyes to the reality of who we are and of who God is. The grace of God drew us near to Jesus. If we are candid, we know that it was not our own intelligence that brought us near the cross, nor was it our matchless wisdom and understanding; we know it was not our wealth and resources that made us get this far in life; we know that we are alive today by the sheer will of the Father. Indeed, His grace is sufficient for us (2 Corinthians 12:9). The more I think of it, the more I believe it to be a mystery. No amount of definition will give us clarity of what it truly is which is probably because we are not meant to grasp it but simply receive it.

Receiving the grace of God is often a challenge for many because our human nature, sinful as it may does not enjoy receiving things freely. When we receive gifts, we automatically wonder why we are receiving the gift, when we cannot find an apparent reason, we seek for ways to reimburse the gift or pay it back, and in extreme cases, we seek to return the gift. I guess it makes sense in our world because “nothing is free” as we commonly say. The reality is, everything has a price and so when someone hands us something that is not costly (or is paid for), we rightly want to know what the hidden cost is to ensure we are not owing anything to anyone later on. However, when it comes to receiving the grace of God, this gift of God, there is nothing we can add to this gift, there is also nothing we can pay back to reimburse this gift, try as we might. It is just what it is, when God decides to bestow His favour on us, it is not based on what we accomplish, it is not based on who we are as individuals, whether we are influential or lowly, rich or poor, sick or healthy, etc. none of these criteria matter when the grace of God is at play, what matter is God. He is the one who decides to bless us, He is the one who decides who will be the beneficiary of His great love, He is the one who makes things happen. On what grounds does He bestow His grace on us? He alone knows, it is not for us to know. If we knew, we still would not be able to pay Him back so just receive His grace and enjoy it. We serve a gracious and merciful God. What a combination! The God of the Bible is not ashamed of this grace, He is not ashamed of His love for sinful creatures like us, He is not ashamed of His relentless pursue of sinners which to an extent makes Him look foolish or gives the impression that He is needy. No, He is not ashamed of being labelled anything for our sake. Why is that and how is that even possible? Only God knows. If this great God is not ashamed of you, why should you be ashamed of yourself? Why should you be ashamed of Him? He has a lot more at stake because He set His eyes on you, because He sent His one and only Son to die on the cross for you, He sacrificed what He had as most precious for your sake so again, why should you be ashamed of him? We bring nothing to the table in this scenario, we just bring our sinful selves and receive His grace and mercy. Won’t you just receive Him this day? Quit striving to get to a “respectable level” before accepting Christ in your life, quit trying to do things in your own way, quit trying to merit what is meritless and simply accept the gift of God in Christ Jesus. As followers of Jesus Christ, our lives depend on Him, we depend on Him, and we are happy to depend on Him. Jesus told us that we should “abide in him and he in us”. The reason is so that we would thrive, we would bear much fruit because apart from him we can do nothing (John 15:5). It is not that we can do some things apart from Jesus, we can do nothing. It is a sobering statement for us and one that can get many angry because Jesus is basically saying that without him we are nothing, so all our accomplishments are nil without him. In other words, we need him to be contrary to popular belief.

So then, let us not be too puffed up to receive the grace of God in our lives in whatever form it comes. The best way is to receive Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and saviour as it is the highest display of the grace of God bestowed upon sinners like you and I. The Bible tells us that God’s mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:23) and that today is always the day of salvation if you hear his voice because there will be a day when the grace of God to sinners will not be available anymore; a day will come when judgement will be upon the earth and that will be a day of retribution, a day to be feared if you do not know the Lord Jesus. So today, will you quit striving after the wind and surrender your life to Jesus? He is still available, don’t wait when it is too late. For those of us who know him, let us not become complacent and let us rejoice in the unmerited favour that God bestows on us every day in Christ. Amen.