Grace?
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Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank you so very much for the life you have given me. I’m beyond words so grateful for the ability to see the wonder of the stars, hear the music of the birds, smell the aroma of your flowers, taste the goodness of your fruit, and feel the sun's heat on my face. Thank you so much for bringing to my awareness that all these things I sense speak of your love and glory. Thank you so much that all these things point to you. From the bottom of my heart, I love you.
Focus
By grace, you have been saved.
Devotional
I’m not gonna lie, thinking logically, God’s grace doesn’t make sense to me.
I’ve heard of God’s grace described in a few different ways—as his “undeserved favor,” his “free gift,” and his “favor towards the unworthy.” I may not understand it, but thank God to infinity and beyond for his grace!
The reason why God’s grace doesn’t make sense to me is because when I think of a just universe, in my eyes, if you break the law you not only deserve to be punished, but that’s exactly what you have earned. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.
Thinking logically, that makes sense. So when grace enters the universe, it makes me pause and think, where did this come from?
God’s basically saying, “Yes, you’ve broken the law, but I’m going to make a way out for you.”
Can you see how it doesn’t make sense to me? If you break the law, or I break the law, or someone else breaks the law, we should be punished. That, logically, makes sense. You punch me, I should be able to punch you. But that, praise God, is, and is not, the way the universe works.
This is because when we break the law, or “sin” to be more accurate, we are not only offending man, we are also offending God. It’s a two-way offense.
I don’t have any children, but in the world, it makes sense to me that if my son Bill punched my other son Tom, Tom should be able to punch Bill back. (Therefore, put them in the ring! Just kidding.) But, I’m also Bill and Tom’s father. I would empathize with Bill and know that, if he was in the right way, he wouldn’t have punched Tom. Something must be going on with Bill, then, that moved him to punch his brother. I also don’t want to see Tom being hurt, and know he deserves justice. At the same time, I am also Bill and Tom's father, so I would feel a measure of responsibility as well for the situation.
So, as the father, what do I do? How do I empathize with Bill, deliver justice to Tom, and reckon my responsibility as their father as well? Enter the universe we live in.
In the real world, we’re all a bunch of Bill’s. We all sinned. We all punched our brother Tom, and have offended God. We all deserve to be punished for our crimes. But God’s, our Father’s, grace enters the universe and says, “Yes, you deserve to be punished Bill, and I love you. Tom also deserves justice, and I love him. I am also your father, so, out of love, I will take your punishment, and serve justice, all at the same time.”
All this is going on within God’s grace. All this can be seen on the cross. All this was done because God so loved the world. God’s grace is a manifestation of his love. And praise God for his grace!
Yes, thinking logically, God’s grace doesn’t make sense to me—but neither does love! It’s love that moves us to sacrifice ourselves for the life of another. It’s love that moved God to offer himself on the cross to save the world.
Though it’s fun—invigorating, enriching, fulfilling, and so many other life-giving words—to explore God’s grace and seek to understand him more, we ultimately don’t need to understand everything to accept the free gift of salvation he offers the world through believing in his son Jesus.
As image bearers, we’re made to live in a way that reflects our Father. Though it’s confusing, at least to me, we’re called to live out this same grace. Micah 6:8 says it pretty well when it says, “do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” Jesus, being the perfect image of the Father, revealed God’s grace for us on the cross. We might not have to understand everything about grace, but when we choose to “present our bodies as a living sacrifice,” (Romans 12:1), we brightly reflect the image of God. We are walking in grace.
Something to take home with you now. I encourage you to explore God’s grace, (it’s a doozie for me, but I always gain something from it every time I do.) but also know that you’re living it when you choose to offer yourself as a living sacrifice. This is, as Romans 12:1 says, “pleasing” to God.
I’ve heard of God’s grace described in a few different ways—as his “undeserved favor,” his “free gift,” and his “favor towards the unworthy.” I may not understand it, but thank God to infinity and beyond for his grace!
The reason why God’s grace doesn’t make sense to me is because when I think of a just universe, in my eyes, if you break the law you not only deserve to be punished, but that’s exactly what you have earned. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.
Thinking logically, that makes sense. So when grace enters the universe, it makes me pause and think, where did this come from?
God’s basically saying, “Yes, you’ve broken the law, but I’m going to make a way out for you.”
Can you see how it doesn’t make sense to me? If you break the law, or I break the law, or someone else breaks the law, we should be punished. That, logically, makes sense. You punch me, I should be able to punch you. But that, praise God, is, and is not, the way the universe works.
This is because when we break the law, or “sin” to be more accurate, we are not only offending man, we are also offending God. It’s a two-way offense.
I don’t have any children, but in the world, it makes sense to me that if my son Bill punched my other son Tom, Tom should be able to punch Bill back. (Therefore, put them in the ring! Just kidding.) But, I’m also Bill and Tom’s father. I would empathize with Bill and know that, if he was in the right way, he wouldn’t have punched Tom. Something must be going on with Bill, then, that moved him to punch his brother. I also don’t want to see Tom being hurt, and know he deserves justice. At the same time, I am also Bill and Tom's father, so I would feel a measure of responsibility as well for the situation.
So, as the father, what do I do? How do I empathize with Bill, deliver justice to Tom, and reckon my responsibility as their father as well? Enter the universe we live in.
In the real world, we’re all a bunch of Bill’s. We all sinned. We all punched our brother Tom, and have offended God. We all deserve to be punished for our crimes. But God’s, our Father’s, grace enters the universe and says, “Yes, you deserve to be punished Bill, and I love you. Tom also deserves justice, and I love him. I am also your father, so, out of love, I will take your punishment, and serve justice, all at the same time.”
All this is going on within God’s grace. All this can be seen on the cross. All this was done because God so loved the world. God’s grace is a manifestation of his love. And praise God for his grace!
Yes, thinking logically, God’s grace doesn’t make sense to me—but neither does love! It’s love that moves us to sacrifice ourselves for the life of another. It’s love that moved God to offer himself on the cross to save the world.
Though it’s fun—invigorating, enriching, fulfilling, and so many other life-giving words—to explore God’s grace and seek to understand him more, we ultimately don’t need to understand everything to accept the free gift of salvation he offers the world through believing in his son Jesus.
As image bearers, we’re made to live in a way that reflects our Father. Though it’s confusing, at least to me, we’re called to live out this same grace. Micah 6:8 says it pretty well when it says, “do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” Jesus, being the perfect image of the Father, revealed God’s grace for us on the cross. We might not have to understand everything about grace, but when we choose to “present our bodies as a living sacrifice,” (Romans 12:1), we brightly reflect the image of God. We are walking in grace.
Something to take home with you now. I encourage you to explore God’s grace, (it’s a doozie for me, but I always gain something from it every time I do.) but also know that you’re living it when you choose to offer yourself as a living sacrifice. This is, as Romans 12:1 says, “pleasing” to God.
Closing Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank you so much for my limited understanding, and your all-knowing understanding, about grace. Though I may not understand everything, I thank you that you demonstrated your love and grace for us on the cross through your son Jesus. I pray that as I, and we, walk out the rest of our day we can live out your grace fully. Justly. Kindly. And with love. I love you in life, through death, and into life again!
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