Experiencing God’s Grace

Grace:

• elegance or beauty of form, manner, motion, or action; – “She danced with grace across the floor”
• a pleasing or attractive quality or endowment – “He lacked the basic social graces”
• favor or goodwill

God’s grace is His favor and love that we do not deserve.  I am a sinner, but Grace says that I am forgiven.  I mess up every day, but God’s grace moves me closer to sanctification.  (Sanctification is a process in which we become a little more like Jesus every day)  Grace is a person, and that person is Jesus.

Growing up, I had no concept of how God’s grace applied to me. I knew about it, could even give you the definition of it, but how it actually played out in day to day life was beyond my ability to comprehend.  My family went to church every Sunday.  I attended a Christian school my entire school career.  I knew a lot of memory verses.  The Bible was very familiar to me.  

I had to perform in order to make myself right with God.

However, my Christianity was something that I had to do.  It consisted of going to church, even when I didn’t want to.  I knew that I needed to read my Bible every day, but I would much rather have read a good book.  When I felt on top of my game, then I felt that God was happy with me and He loved me.  When I inevitably fell, then God was at least disappointed if not completely angry with me and I had to perform penance in order for Him to love me again.

I remember multiple times when I had neglected my devotions for months at a time.  After awhile, I would feel so guilty that I would sit on my bed and try to power read the Bible in order to make it up to God.  I would pray and ask God to forgive me for not reading my Bible like I should. I questioned my salvation repeatedly and several times I even prayed that God would save me again.  Because how could I be saved and not do the right things?   

Into my adulthood, I still had difficulty between knowing the definition of grace and understanding its meaning in my heart.  I could not get that understanding into my spirit.  Even in those times when I thought I understood, those times when I felt good about myself, I really didn’t know what it meant.  I still operated under the belief that God loved me when I obeyed Him and disappointed when I sinned.  It was my responsibility to stay in His “good graces.”

God gradually opened my eyes to understand what His grace is really all about.  My first step on this journey came in the form of Super Stuffy.  He had given me this beautiful new life and I honestly knew that I did not deserve it.  My overwhelming love for Super Stuffy taught me a little bit about God’s grace.  His little life depended completely on me and he would not survive without my favor.  He had done nothing to deserve it.  I gave it to him on my own accord, because I loved him.  My grace toward Super Stuffy was a gift.

My second step toward understanding God’s grace arrived with Bear Bear.  When “mama guilt” would overwhelm me, she would take her precious baby hands, put them on each side of my face, and tell me,  

“Mama, it’s ok.  I love you.”

I DO NOT DESERVE THIS GRACE.  

There is nothing inside  me that deserves that favor and forgiveness from my children, let alone from God, the Creator of the universe.  But the more that I think about it, the more I realize that that is the point.  I cannot earn God’s grace, it is a gift freely given.  If I could earn it, it would no longer be grace.  

Grace plays out in my life in two different ways.

The first is that initial saving grace that changed my final destination from hell to heaven.  Romans 3:23 says,

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

We all fall short of God’s standards.  At least once we have all determined that we want to do things our own way. No parent needs to teach their child selfishness or unkindness.  It is in our nature, and no matter how hard we try, we cannot escape from our sin nature.  Our sin is a bottomless chasm that separates us from God.  Some people who do a lot of good works could maybe jump five feet in order to cross.  Some people are only able to jump one foot off the cliff.  But it doesn’t matter, no one is able to cross the chasm on their own. We all end up in the bottom of the chasm.  Grace is the only bridge that crosses that chasm. 

By nature we are all sinners!

I think that everyone would agree that those who break the law should be punished.  If someone murders, they should be held responsible for their crime.  People like to look at God as mean and judgmental for sending people to hell or inflicting punishment on their sin. As if He cannot be loving because He is just.  But if God is not just, then He is NOT GOOD!  Every sin has a consequence.  When I sin, I always hurt myself and/or others and there needs to be a retribution that is paid for that hurt.

The wages of sin is death…

God’s love doesn’t want anyone to go to hell.  But His justice demands that there is payment for sin.  His justice met His grace when Jesus came as a man, lived a perfect life, submitted to the punishment of death, and rose again.  God’s justice  was met with Jesus’ sacrifice and His grace was applied with Jesus’ resurrection.  

…but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.   

 -Romans 6:23

So if I cannot get across that chasm on my own, what hope is there for me?  These three things:

     A:  I need to agree with God and admit that I am a sinner.  I need to admit that I cannot reach Him by my own works.  I also need to ask Him to forgive me.

     B. I need to believe that Jesus took my death so that I can live and rose again to give me His life and trust that His sacrifice paid my debt of sin.

     C. I need to call out to Him and confess that Jesus is Lord.

That is all that I need to do.  It is a free gift.  

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast.            Ephesians 2:8-9

 However, if you choose not to accept this free gift, then you will face the Lord on the day of judgment with only your works to recommend you.  He does not judge based on your good works outweighing your bad.  His justice demands perfection.  Since there is no one on earth who is perfect, then any sin that that you have done will condemn you to hell.  God does not want you to go to hell!  But if you reject the way to heaven that He has provided, then you have chosen to go your own way, in rebellion, and that path leads straight to hell. 

Hell, in its essence, is the absence of God.  Since all goodness, love, and hope comes from Him, in hell there will be none of those things.  If you choose to go down your own path in rebellion against Him, He will let you make that choice.  But you are choosing to spend an eternity without God, goodness, hope, love, or anything else that is lovely or beautiful.  Without God’s presence, there is nothing good.

In this post, however, I implore you to choose the free gift of Grace that God has provided.  As the world becomes more and more evil, time is running out.  He does not want anyone to perish, but there will be a time when His patience with sin will have run out and then it will be too late.  If you in this moment don’t know for sure if you would go to heaven when you die, then talk to Him now!  We are not promised tomorrow.  Work your way through the steps above and accept His gift.  He wants you to be a part of His family.

In my next post I will describe how God’s grace plays out in my day to day life.