The Power of Grace

Our study of Romans at Calvary Chapel Sydney has thrown us into the deep end of God's grace, and we are blessed for it.  "Grace" is one of the many words in Scripture that we often sell short by stunted or cliche definitions that are true but inadequate to convey the immense importance and impact of truth.  Have you ever had the situation where you are trying to take a picture of a breathtaking landscape or scene but the hi-tech camera you hold in your hands cannot contain or translate the beauty right before your eyes even in landscape mode?  Language, being limited, can sometimes be inadequate to explain all the wonder and impact of a small word that means more than the world to us.

God's grace is like that.  Our struggle to comprehend God's grace springs from the reality it is of God Whose ways and thoughts are higher than ours and is not of this world.  I have heard grace described as unmerited favour, and this is true--yet it only begins to scratch the surface of what grace is.  It is love that stoops, the glorious God out of His goodness choosing to reveal Himself to people dead in sins and dying in our place because He would have us saved to live with Him forever.  Grace is also God's power and influence that saves, strengthens and helps us in time of need (Hebrews 4:16).  God's grace is also the good standing we have before God, for by faith in Jesus "we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand" (Romans 5:2).  The most basic description of grace I can conceive of that conveys these three points (at this moment) is undeserved favour from God, God's power and strength that helps us, and good standing before God given out of His goodness alone.

All God's dealings with us are all of grace, for we cannot deserve or do anything to rightly earn His attention, affection or assistance.  We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus, and even when He points out our sin it is by His grace.  As born-again receivers of God's grace, we are enabled and called to extend grace to one another.  Today I had a lovely (and no so lovely!) object lesson of God's grace in an unexpected way.  At some point, I coughed or blew my nose, and somehow missed the tissue and left a deposit of phelgm on my shirt.  Gross, right?  I washed my hands and thought I was all clean and sanitised--but I wasn't.  A loving brother discreetly pointed out my defilement, and I was glad to be able to address the issue and could clean up before continuing in conversation with people.  Instead of distancing us from one another, knowing someone cares enough to inform us of our faults for our benefit draws us closer and frees us from shame because we realise we need grace.

When God points out our sin, it is not to humiliate or ridicule us:  it is all of His grace.  Because God is gracious, He genuinely cares about us and involves Himself in our lives.  He is not embarrassed to be around us though we fail and have countless faults.  We are a source of sin that is disgusting even to us, yet He continues to be gracious toward us and declares us righteous by the power of the Gospel.  There is not one thing we need to do or try to change about ourselves for Him to freely extend His love and grace to us.  All His instruction, correction and revelation about Him and ourselves is all of grace:  freely given out of His goodness and freely received by totally undeserving people.  Oh, the wonder of God's grace!  May God open our eyes to see the depths of His amazing grace and follow His lead to walk in holiness always.