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"Grace is realizing that God’s kind of love is a gift of enormous proportions. Armed with this knowledge, we can go forward and let our generous ways be fueled by God’s love itself, not our need for something in return."
As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 131.
If we really understood the enormity of the issue of grace when God is concerned I don't think we would ever have any issue with living like a victor. Grace is such an easy term to throw about in conversation. It is when we come face to face with the cost of what grace really expresses that we begin to understand how much this God really loves us.
Where as mercy is "not getting what you deserve," grace is "getting what you don't deserve." It is God's mercy that makes it possible for us to not be stuck down by lightening every time we choose to turn our backs on Him. It is grace that makes it possible for us to have relationship with him when our imperfections completely disqualify us from ever coming near this perfect being.
We don't deserve His love! We don't deserve Him giving us an identity, a purpose and a destiny. We deserve destruction. Sorry if that is a little too black and white to you but even the mere fact that you would find this discussion too direct is an indication that you don't appreciate the enormity of the issue of grace.
I think we can more readily understand the topic of mercy. We see examples of mercy happening all the time. Grace is a little more challenging because examples of grace look to be so crazy that we are actually turned off by what this might mean in our lives. Let me give you and example to help clarify these two concepts.
Let's say you are the absolute ruler in a strange and far off land. There is a criminal in that land that was finally caught and convicted to pay the ultimate price for the crimes he committed. Mercy is saying to that criminal, "Even though you committed the crimes I'm going to pardon you - you are free!" That's not too hard to understand - right? That seems to happen with a frequency that makes this kind of action not all that strange.
Grace would be if you then told that tried, convicted and pardoned criminal that you wanted nothing more than for him to come live in your castle and to become your son! That's completely crazy. You don't know this person - what if he comes into your home and takes everything of value from you? How often do you see this kind of grace being modeled in our world today? I think that's why grace is taken so lightly. The enormity of this amazing concept is just not seen except through relationship with God.
The Bible has this to say about the issue of Grace.
... 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 grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding,... Ephesians 1:6-8 (NIV)
God treats us just like that convicted criminal in my little example before. We are just like that convicted person - we deserve punishment. In spite of that fact, God gives mercy - we don't get what we deserve. That in of itself is a gift of enormous proportions. But then God does the unthinkable. Through grace, He invites us to be come part of His family. Not a family member that has no rights or responsibilities. No, a family member that has full authority to all God has and all God is.
It is when we begin to appreciate the overwhelming gift grace is that generosity in our lives starts to take on a power that is so much beyond what it has been in the past. Grace and generosity are tied together in ways that I don't know if I will ever totally understand. It is when we are generous out of obligation or with a motive that is beyond what grace has to offer that generosity becomes something that God never intended it to be in our lives. Until our appreciation of what grace is really all about, all the generous events in our life will lack a power that I think is needed to have lasting impact in this world.
I hope you can stop a few times today and ponder the subject of grace. My desire is that, by doing so, you will begin to see how big this gift of generosity is that God offers each one of us He calls His Children. Please don't let today be like all the others where you feel good about the generous acts you do simply from the standpoint of letting those actions be confirmations of what you hope is true in your life - that you really aren't that bad of a person. Let the enormity of grace be what changes how your generous actions make real and permanent change in the lives of those you come into contact with today.
Where as mercy is "not getting what you deserve," grace is "getting what you don't deserve." It is God's mercy that makes it possible for us to not be stuck down by lightening every time we choose to turn our backs on Him. It is grace that makes it possible for us to have relationship with him when our imperfections completely disqualify us from ever coming near this perfect being.
We don't deserve His love! We don't deserve Him giving us an identity, a purpose and a destiny. We deserve destruction. Sorry if that is a little too black and white to you but even the mere fact that you would find this discussion too direct is an indication that you don't appreciate the enormity of the issue of grace.
I think we can more readily understand the topic of mercy. We see examples of mercy happening all the time. Grace is a little more challenging because examples of grace look to be so crazy that we are actually turned off by what this might mean in our lives. Let me give you and example to help clarify these two concepts.
Let's say you are the absolute ruler in a strange and far off land. There is a criminal in that land that was finally caught and convicted to pay the ultimate price for the crimes he committed. Mercy is saying to that criminal, "Even though you committed the crimes I'm going to pardon you - you are free!" That's not too hard to understand - right? That seems to happen with a frequency that makes this kind of action not all that strange.
Grace would be if you then told that tried, convicted and pardoned criminal that you wanted nothing more than for him to come live in your castle and to become your son! That's completely crazy. You don't know this person - what if he comes into your home and takes everything of value from you? How often do you see this kind of grace being modeled in our world today? I think that's why grace is taken so lightly. The enormity of this amazing concept is just not seen except through relationship with God.
The Bible has this to say about the issue of Grace.
... 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 grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding,... Ephesians 1:6-8 (NIV)
God treats us just like that convicted criminal in my little example before. We are just like that convicted person - we deserve punishment. In spite of that fact, God gives mercy - we don't get what we deserve. That in of itself is a gift of enormous proportions. But then God does the unthinkable. Through grace, He invites us to be come part of His family. Not a family member that has no rights or responsibilities. No, a family member that has full authority to all God has and all God is.
It is when we begin to appreciate the overwhelming gift grace is that generosity in our lives starts to take on a power that is so much beyond what it has been in the past. Grace and generosity are tied together in ways that I don't know if I will ever totally understand. It is when we are generous out of obligation or with a motive that is beyond what grace has to offer that generosity becomes something that God never intended it to be in our lives. Until our appreciation of what grace is really all about, all the generous events in our life will lack a power that I think is needed to have lasting impact in this world.
I hope you can stop a few times today and ponder the subject of grace. My desire is that, by doing so, you will begin to see how big this gift of generosity is that God offers each one of us He calls His Children. Please don't let today be like all the others where you feel good about the generous acts you do simply from the standpoint of letting those actions be confirmations of what you hope is true in your life - that you really aren't that bad of a person. Let the enormity of grace be what changes how your generous actions make real and permanent change in the lives of those you come into contact with today.
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