Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, it is relatively easy to accept grace but it seems rather challenging to live a life of grace.
I say it is relatively easy to accept grace, because we human beings have the tendency to earn it first. Do a trick – get a cookie! A doctor told a story about an elderly woman he met as he was walking through a shopping mall. Because she appeared in pain and obvious distress, he introduced himself as a medical doctor and asked what was wrong.
“Oh, doctor,” the woman said, “how sweet of you to stop and care for a complete stranger. My arthritis is killing me, I have terrible cramps in my legs, pains in my chest and a migraine headache.” The doctor urged her to seek immediate medical attention.
But the lady answered, “Oh, doctor, I can’t do that now. I’ll see my doctor when I’m feeling better.” Physicians tell us that this is not uncommon. People want to wait until they get better before they seek medical help. It doesn’t make much sense, does it?
Neither does it make much sense when people resist grace because they want to earn it first. It doesn’t work that way! Grace cannot be earned. If grace could be earned, it wouldn’t be grace anymore. Grace is an undeserved gift. It’s like receiving a birthday gift two months before, or a Valentine in July.
The gift of God’s grace in Christ Jesus is much more precious that any other gift we will ever receive. It is a gift of forgiveness, cleansing, new identity as children of God, a new life here on earth and eternal life in heaven.
God’s gift of grace comes to us out of His overwhelming love for us, that’s all. We cannot earn it, we don’t deserve it, we can only gratefully accept it by faith. The Bible teaches in Ephesians 2: 8 and 9, 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.
It is by faith that we recognize the enormous value of God’s grace. When we believe in Jesus as the very essence of grace, then we receive what God so lovingly offers to us.
The Apostle Paul captured the meaning of grace in Romans 5:6 At the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. The gift of grace is totally undeserved.
The good news of God’s loving grace is summarized in the great promise our Lord Jesus shares in the 3rd chapter of John: For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through Him.
That’s pure grace, 100% solid grace. Nothing deserved, nothing earned. Everything according to God’s own initiative – love for Jesus’ sake.
Now, having received this precious gift of grace, what do we do with it? How do we live a life inspired by the undeserved gift of grace? There are two main challenges we face, two extremes: we either want to repay it, or we want to hoard it.
The desire to repay it, to give something back for it, again stems from a misunderstanding of what grace is or isn’t. The desire to reciprocate is common among human beings. You do something nice for me, I do something nice for you. Somebody gives us a present and we feel obligated to return the favor.
Many years ago a friend called me up just before Christmas saying he had a present for me. It was a good size box, covered with a very attractive Christmas wrapping paper and a nice bow. It came as a complete surprise, and I placed it under our Christmas tree. I was not expecting anything from him. I was so pleased, that I went out looking for a suitable present for him. I found it in a bookstore. Since my friend was a Jewish Christian, I thought he would enjoy a nice picture book about Jerusalem. I wrapped it up in the best paper I could find, put a bow on it, and delivered it to his place.
I was a bit puzzled as to why he was so reluctant to accept my gift at first. On Christmas Eve, when time came to open our presents, I understood. When I opened that box, I discovered that the supposed present was a book of carpet samples that I had left in my friend’s house and failed to pick up even after he told me about it. It was his way of returning them to me.
So much for reciprocity. I let him stew in his guilt for two weeks before I forgave him.
God does not want us to repay Him for His gift of grace. What could we offer Him anyway? Our suffering? Our blood? God’s grace is a unilateral gift initiated by His love. All the Lord wants from us is to enjoy it and use it properly, according to his purpose.
I heard about a sixteen year old who received a brand new car from her dad for her birthday and totaled it that same night. Fortunately, she didn’t get hurt much but I am sure that’s not what her dad had in mind.
Our heavenly Father does not want us to wreck the gift of grace either. God’s grace is not a license to sin. We can’t say, “Oh yea, God forgives us, so let’s go out on the town and do as we please!”
The gift of grace is designed to lead us in the newness of life, not in perpetuating the old one.
St. Paul explains this in Romans, chapter six: Shall we go on sinning so that grace may abound? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Grace forgives; we strive to do better the next time.
Or, we wouldn’t accept a gift and put it away in a closet, would we? Yet, that’s what we do when we don’t take God’s promise of forgiveness at face value. We allow the devil to make us miserable by reminding us of our past mistakes, failures, and sins – even though God has forgiven them a long time ago. Psalm 103: 12 says that God has removed our transgressions as far as east is from the west. Yet, how often do we hold on to guilt and shame as we doubt God’s complete forgiveness for Jesus’ sake?
One of my favorite Gospel songs is “My Sins Are Gone.” In celebration of God’s grace, the refrain says this about forgiven sins: “They’re underneath the blood of cross of Calvary, as far removed as darkness if from dawn. In the sea of God’s forgetfulness, and that’s good enough for me; praise God, my sins are gone!”
The other challenge to living the life of grace is the other extreme: trying to hoard it. “God forgives me, good for me, I just don’t want to forgive other people.” I know this may seem like an exaggeration, but if we search our hearts long enough, we have to admit that we are not as willing to forgive others as we have been forgiven. We would prefer to place some conditions on our forgiveness before we administer it to others.
Jesus shared an illustration about hoarding grace and the unwillingness to share it. It is recorded in the 18th chapter of Matthew, in the parable of the Unmerciful Servant.
A man who owed millions to his master was called on the carpet and told to pay up or else. Not being able to pay the debt, he fell to his knees and begged for an extension. The master took pity on him, cancelled the debt altogether, and let him go.
But when the forgiven debtor came across someone who owed him a hundred, he grabbed him by the neck and demanded a payment. He refused to grant an extension to the poor man and had him thrown into prison. When the master found out about it, he summoned the man back, and this time he didn’t let him off the hook.
Now, the Bible makes it clear that God’s grace is as deep as the ocean and I am certain that Jesus didn’t want to scare us out of our wits with parables like that, but rather encourage us: in the light of forgiveness that we have received, to be willing to forgive others. And we are not talking about major crimes against humanity, but the little things – the slips of the tongue, the stepping on of toes, little rivalries, petty jealousies, things like that – forgiving hundreds versus millions.
Paul conveys an invitation to a life of grace in Colossians 3: 12-13 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other, and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
So what do we do with the undeserved gift of grace? We can’t repay it and we can’t hoard it. There is only one thing that the Lord wants us to do. When we gratefully receive the gift of grace and appreciate for what it is, we are to pass it on to others. By doing so, we please the heart of God.
Jesus explained to His followers that whenever we share even the little acts of kindness with others, we are actually doing them for Him. And acts of kindness, expressions of grace, are contagious.
You may have seen the TV commercial that begins with a woman preventing a pizza delivery man from stepping into traffic. A person observing it then helps someone else, and that person another, and it snowballs – until it gets back to the scene with the pizza man again. Great message, isn’t it?
That’s the secret of living the life of grace. Having been led by the Holy Spirit to gratefully and joyfully receive the immeasurable riches of grace in Christ Jesus our Savior and Lord, let us live in the newness of life and become givers of grace and a blessing to others, Amen.
