What does it really mean and what difference does it make?
Grace is one of the most common words in the New Testement especially in the letter of Paul. He usually opened his letters and end his letters talking about grace. What does it really mean and why was Paul so obsessed with telling the early church and therefore the entire body of Christ about it?
Grace means a gift, something that you are given and bestowed with. It is not earned and it is given from one party to another.
Someone explained it to like this: mercy is not getting what you deserve, grace is getting what you don't deserve.
Another easy way to remember what grace means is God's Riches At Christ's Expense. Geddit?
Ok, so that's really cheesy, but lets talk a bit more about what it is that we are 'given'.
So let's go back to the beginning, the very beginning, when God made our first parents, Adam and Eve. He made humanity, in His image (bearing many of his traits and characteristics and having a special relationship and priviledges with God, Yahweh, the Eternal Creator and Sustainer of the Universe). It was good, perfect, complete, peaceful, whole. Humanity was in harmony with God and with the rest of creation.
Then Adam and Eve fail to obey their Heavenly Creator. They decide they want to be little gods themselves (ironically, they already were made in His image and they were good, so therefore what they wanted to be was like God in a way that was not good). They take and eat of the tree and from then on, heaven and earth are fractured. Sin enters the world and it has never left it since.
The rest of the bible is the unfolding pattern of humans choosing their own way, sinful rebellious independance from the God who gives us the oxygen we breathe. Again and again humans mess up, God rescues them and gives them consequences of their sinful actions, but never the total consequences. This is part of God's grace: despite the horror and revulsion God sees when we sin against Him and His creation, He still gives us air to breath, life in our blood and bones and opportunities to respond to His grace.
Ultimately grace is shown on the Cross: Jesus, the god-man, second person of the Trinity, born of woman, Son of David, comes and lives on earth. Then He dies on the cross as the King of the Jews, for crimes He didn't commit. He takes upon Himself the sins of the world (Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of world) and dies a sinners death. Then three days later, the Christ rises, returning to Life. He defeats death and sin because He is the creator and author of Life. He has the authority to lay down His life and to take it up again.
Then he decides to share it with His followers. Everything He earnt and acheived and is entitled to as God and King, He shares with His brothers and sisters! He shares His inheritance with us.
One day, God promises that all sin and death will be dealt with and all Creation will be restored and renewed (not thrown away and started again from scratch).
Our sin is either dealt with on the cross, by Christ, or it is left with us to deal with ourselves before Yahweh, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And there will be no aquittal. God, who knows all things, who is perfect, just and loving, who knows every extentuating circumstance (or not) will demand exact justice from us for our sin and rebellion against Him and for the offence to His Son, in thinking His sacrafice inadequate.
Paul describes Christ's followers as being blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. We have everything that the Lord Jesus Christ has because we are in Him, hidden in Him. He has lavished His riches on us and they are the wealth of His grace. (Ephesians 1)
There is absolutely no way you could earn, bribe or wrangle your way into God's family. The Almightly God of all Creation, who was and is and is to come, is unimpressed by yours and my attempts to impress Him, because nothing can undo what has be done, except Him who created everything. God is the Only one that can take away sin, failure, disappointment, brokeness and make things whole, good, perfect and right again.
That's why it is a gift, a gracious inheritance. Riches at Christ's expense. We get what we don't deserve.
And, let me just add, this is not a reluctant gift. God loves to give good gifts, He loves to lavish His love on His children. Jesus set His face towards Jerusalem. He went willingly to the cross, even though it was scary and horrific. He knew it was worth it, that you and I were worth it. His riches were for sharing with His brothers and sisters. He loves us that much.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s gracethat he lavished on us. Ephesians 1v 3-8
So lovely one, grace is a gift to be enjoyed and relished. To step into our royal inheritance, bought at such a high price, and thankfully live out our renewed status, in Christ.
I wonder how Paul first responded to this grace, after of years of trying to keep the rules as a Pharisee. We know at first he hated Christians, thinking they were heretics, abusing the name of Yahweh. He wanted to stamp out 'the Way' and exterminate followers of Jesus.
Then he met the risen Lord Jesus and became the biggest fan of grace and biggest attacker and underminer of legalism and hypocrisy. He just couldn't bear for anyone to undermine what Jesus had done in fulfilling the will of the Father at the cross. He was so offended by people effectively going "Thanks Jesus, but I'm quite capable to dealing with this". Nothing could ever be better than Jesus' love to Paul.
So, lovely one, I want you to know that you have every gift, lovingly given to you, by Christ, in Christ. If you're tempted to try to earn your way into God's good books or to live a godly life without the Holy Spirit and all the spiritual gifts and blessings that Jesus has given you, through the cross, please, please stop. You are called to live by faith. Ask Jesus to give you fresh love for Him and a heart of joy when you look at the cross. This is continual challenge for me. I so desperately want to be good enough and together enough, at least for myself. I want to be sufficient or at least a better arranged mess. But God is unimpressed by my self-righteous attempts of holiness-lite. He wants the real thing and so He gave His Son.
Things to ponder:
What are things or areas where I lean towards self-reliance?
Are there areas where I leave Jesus out of the picture? Work problems, school work, house work, marriage, kids?
What can you do practically to remind yourself of all the riches of Christ that are yours?