Living out God's grace

 

It is not by accident that the hymn, Amazing Grace is a favorite for so many. It captures so well the essence of what attracted us to Jesus and redeemed us, and it will indeed be something that we will spend eternity trying to comprehend. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8-9)."

I am convinced that we will never fully understand the full scope of God's grace on this side of eternity, but that it must be something we push into daily. The more we understand His grace in our lives, the more content we are in Jesus, the more grace we show others, and the more we look like Jesus. He is the essence of grace, which made Him the magnet for the people He encountered.

Understanding grace is a life changer for us and how we relate to others. Too often, we are recipients of God's grace but are not students of what it means to extend that same grace to others. Legalism, conditional acceptance, interpersonal conflict, and lack of love, even in the church, are evidence of the great need for God's people to grow in grace. Knowing the truth is not enough for Christ's followers. Living out the truth with the grace of Christ is what will attract others to us and then to Jesus. Jesus came full of "grace and truth." Do we?

For instance, when I truly understand and live out grace:

-I no longer try to earn God's favor but understand that there is nothing I can do to make Him love me more, and there is nothing I can do to make Him love me less. Therefore I can be joyful and content in my daily walk with Him.

-I do not need to play the role of the Holy Spirit in the lives of others but rather extend to them the grace God extends to me, pray for them, and be patient with their faults as God is with mine. I am slow to judge, quick to think the best, and remember how patient and gracious God is with me in my personal growth as I extend that same attitude toward others.

-I can forgive myself for my shortcomings, knowing God has already done that. My motivation to grow in my obedience is no longer about earning His favor but rather wanting to please Him out of gratitude for His amazing love.

-I forgive others quickly, knowing that Jesus extends that gift to me daily. I cannot withhold from others what Jesus has so graciously extended to me. I don't give people what they deserve but what they don't deserve, just as Jesus did not give us what we deserve.

-I no longer look at people the way the world does but know that every individual I encounter has eternal value in His eyes and, therefore, must in my eyes. I go out of my way to love those that others don't love and to give value to those that others forget. 

-I don't display conditional love, just as Jesus does not give me conditional love. Unconditional love is the love of grace, an act of our will based on God's unconditional love for me.

-I love to surprise people with grace when they least expect or even deserve it. Just like Jesus with tax collectors, prostitutes, adulterers, lepers, and all considered undeserving and worthy only of judgment. After all, God surprised us with grace when we did not deserve or expect it.

-I am not hard or harsh, even when I need to bring correction to a brother or sister. Rather, my motivation is always love that comes out of God's gracious love in my own life. I display toward others the same graciousness that God gives to me daily.

-I love to encourage those who have messed up that God is not finished with them yet and that He can redeem their sin and give them hope and a purpose. After all, that is what God did for us. He is the hope for the broken, the guilty, and the hopeless. There is no person and no situation that God cannot redeem so we become evangelists of His hope.

There are many other characteristics of living out a life of grace. One of the most valuable things we can do is to regularly think about our relationships, attitudes, words, and actions from a filter of God's grace to us. Reading the gospels regularly helps us to capture the secrets of Jesus' grace to inform us of what it means to live a grace-filled life.

One thing that God is rich in

 

Few chapters of the Bible are more explicit about the amazing blessings we have in Jesus than Ephesians one and two. If you have not read them recently, you should. While there are many crazy amazing statements in these two chapters, one stands out and it has huge implications for you and I. It is Ephesians 2:4 where we read, “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved.”

Now there are many things that God is rich in but this is the only time in Scripture where he tells us what one of those things is. He says that He is rich, enormously rich in mercy. He is a billionaire when it comes to mercy and he loves to give it away. In fact, notice that this mercy is not given to us because we deserve it but is a result of His great love for us. As Micah 7:18 says, God delights in showing mercy. Mercy is His specialty. 

As I write this, the powerball total is 241 million dollars. How many people would love to win that lotto. In this case one or a handful of people might win all or a piece of it. With Jesus, the prize is infinitely greater and anyone who desires that prize can claim it because He delights in showing mercy. It is His specialty and he is rich in it. 

And we need it. Paul writes in the passage above that we were dead in transgressions. Dead! We had a sin problem that we could not fix. We were not sick, we didn’t lack something, and we didn’t have flaws. We were Dead! And Jesus came to bring dead people to life - because of His mercy. We didn’t deserve it, could not earn it and had no way to deal with it. Dead people cannot do surgery on themselves. 

And why would Jesus come to bring dead people like us to life? Because of His great love for us. His infinite, unfathomable, unexplainable love. I have often had people say to me about someone they were totally irritated or angry with, “I’m done with them.” “I’m done!” 

Now consider God. He created us in His image, created a perfect world for us to live in, and not only did we rebel and go our own way but when God became a creature in the incarnation many rejected Him as well and crucified Him. Yet God, unlike us, never said “I’m done.” Rather he actually came to die for our sin, yank our dead bodies to life and pour out His mercy on us. He is never done with us. He loves us with an infinite and unexplainable love and He is rich, exceedingly rich in mercy.

We never cease to need God’s mercy. Everyday we need mercy for sins of comission and sins of omission. But as Duane Ortlund writes, “If God sent his own Son to walk through the valley of condemnation, rejection and hell, you can trust him as you walk through your own valleys on your way to heaven.” Between His love and His mercy we have become recipients of His amazing grace.

And those who have become recipients of and understand His mercy freely give it away to others. We cannot give what we have not experienced in a real way.