The Gift of Grace

Grace.

It’s something I can’t really bring myself to fully understand. I feel like it’s a word that gets thrown around a lot in describing God and his redemptive mercies. But I don't think I'll ever be able to completely comprehend the endless free gift He’s bestowed upon us.

To me, grace is God’s mercy and compassion toward us; He had every right to write us off, punish, torture, and destroy us for our filthiness and incompetence, but He chose instead to surrender that right and love us anyway, making a way for us to be with Him and communicate with Him even though we are desperately imperfect.

It blows my mind that the perfect, holy, infinite God of the universe cares about me and loves me so much that He sent His only Son to die for my sins and pay the punishment that I deserve. He never stops loving me, extending grace and freedom to me no matter what I do, which makes no logical sense whatsoever.

But that’s God for you. He exceeds the small-minded perspective of us humans. His ways surpass all understanding, He’s far greater than we realize and loves us with a love impossible to comprehend. His is infinitely good. I am not. The fact that He still loves me and claims me as His own, despite my many faults, imperfections, and shortcomings, is incredible.

I’d been pondering the concept of grace this afternoon, trying to understand as much about it as I possibly could. I read through several different passages that address this gift, and the one that stood out to me the most came from Ephesians 2, which explains the humble and loving characteristics of God. Check this out:

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. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:4-10)

There’s so much goodness packed into these verses. But I’ll come back to this.

An hour or two later, my boyfriend stopped in, and as we were talking, we began discussing how I was struggling to understand and accept the idea of God’s grace. It just blows my mind, how God, who is perfect and holy, would choose to extend His grace to me. It just feels so unlogical, and I feel so unworthy of this gift.

Noah brought up the verses from Ephesians I had read earlier, and used an analogy that made perfect sense to me.

He said that choosing not to accept God’s free gift of grace is like choosing not to open up a Christmas present, saying “thanks, that’s really nice of you to give me this and all, but, I just don’t really want to open it.”

That sounds ridiculous, right? We would never do that, blatantly turn down a gift from a loved one.

In the same way, God knows there is nothing we could ever do to earn His favor or His love. That’s what grace is; that’s why it is a gift. He is so excited for His children to "unwrap" this grace that is more incredible than any Christmas present. He simply wants us to accept the gift and be thankful. Not only has He given us this grace, he has raised us up, and seated us with Christ. How exciting is that? And who am I to turn down this offer?

No matter how many times we mess up, how many times I mess up or fall short, His grace is there. Nothing I do could change His love for me. That is unfathomable and so encouraging. But that doesn't mean I should take advantage of His grace and do whatever I want. Rather, God calls us obey and love Him, and to extend that grace and love to others.

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. (Galatians 5:13)

Praise God for this wonderful gift, this great display of His infinite love, and that there’s nothing I could ever do to earn his favor or be removed from His love and grace. And for that I am thankful.

~MM