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Episode 2
The Significance of Grace
With regard to salvation, we are saved by grace and not by works (Eph 2: 8-9; emphasis mine). We are justified freely by grace (Rom 3:22-24). Not only are we justified by grace through faith but we have access to the same grace (Rom 5:2). ‘Salvation is by grace through faith. No more. No less’ (Gaddy 1993:79). To experience the grace of God, a person must come just as he/she is – a totally bankrupt person. When we accepted Christ, God made us his children (John 1:12).
There is a vast difference between servants and children. Servants are accepted and appreciated on the basis of what they can do. When their performance is poor or unproductive, their position will be at stake. They prove their worth by their works! But children relate with their father differently. It is not based on performance but relationship. Their position as children is secure and unaffected by failure. They are secure in their relationship because of who they are! We do not have to prove our worth to God by our performance. God is not impressed! Service to God should be out of love and not law! We are to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ (2 Pet 3:18; emphasis mine).
Grace explains many things. For example, how do you explain that a person living in sin seems effective in ministering to others when he/she exercises the spiritual gifts? How do you explain God blessing an undeserving person? The most logical and biblical answer is the kind of God we have. He is gracious, big-hearted and magnanimous. God is no respecter of persons. God’s grace always abounds. ‘And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work’ (2 Cor 9:8). God's grace is always sufficient for me (2 Cor 12:9).
God’s grace proved sufficient for Paul. In spite of all the dangers, persecution and adverse circumstances, Paul was able to say, ‘I have run the great race, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith’ (2 Tim 4:7) all because of God’s grace. When Paul said, ‘By the grace of God, I am what I am’ (I Cor 15:10), he meant that he was a sinner saved by grace. Grace did more than saved him. Although he considered himself least among all apostles (1 Cor 15:9), worst among all sinners (1 Tim 1:16), it was God’s grace that lifted him from miry sin to the great heights of ministry. He became one of the greatest apostles of Jesus Christ. From the least he became the greatest. How did that happen? By the grace of God. ‘Without grace he would have been nothing; to grace he owes everything… Grace did more than save Paul; it brought him honor and dignity’ (Jones 1997:101; 104). Hence Paul’s life is all about grace. He cannot forget that it was grace that saved him; it was grace that sanctified him and it would be grace that would see him through.
The grace of God is unfathomable. Our finite minds are unable to fully grasp the riches of God’s grace. Someone once said, to understand the grace of God, first take the water from the Atlantic Ocean and cast it into the Pacific Ocean. Next take the water from the Pacific Ocean and cast it into the Atlantic Ocean. Then only can you fully comprehend the grace of God. Or you take a ball bearing and string it up. Then with a feather you stroke that ball bearing until it melts. Only then will you be able to truly grasp the meaning of the grace of God!
God’s love and grace are a never-ebbing sea. You may think that you see across it, and you launch out into it only to discover that there is still another horizon and then another and another; it is endless, it is a vast abyss, it passeth knowledge. The riches of his grace are as large and as great and as profound as God Himself… (Lloyd –Jones 1997:118).
God’s grace has no limits. The river of God’s grace never runs dry.
God Dealing With Us
There are two aspects of God dealing with us. On one hand, He deals with us according to the standard of his holiness. That means He has to punish sin. It is important to remember that Gen 1-11 teaches ‘grace in the midst of judgement’ and not ‘grace replaces judgement’. Churches today have emphasized the law at the expense of the tender mercy and grace of God. Do we know what Paul was talking about? Have we experienced ‘the incomparable riches of his grace’ (Eph 2:7: NIV)?
Let us look at the grace of God in dealing with us. God deals with us graciously (Rom 8:32) and compassionately. ‘As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we were made, he remembers that we are but dust’ (Psa 103:13-14). Moreover, ‘to be merciful is your true delight’ (Micah 7:18). Just as salvation is given freely, so are his blessings. You can't earn God's blessings but must receive them as gifts through Christ. Grace always gives you more than what you earn or deserve (cf Mt 20:1-16). The workers were hired at the last hour not because of the owner's need but the workers’ need. We need him more than He needs us.
In the Garden of Eden, God placed all kinds of trees except one for Adam and Eve to eat from. When they fell, God dealt with them in grace. How? He made garments of skin for them (Gen 3:21). What baffles me is that in the midst of the serious consequences of disobedience, God took time to make clothes for them! That was grace in action.
God delights to do good, ‘I alone know my purpose for you, says the Lord; well-being and not misfortune, and a long line of descendants after you’ (Jer 29:11; cf Jer 32:38-41). God can restore what has been lost. ‘I shall recompense you for the years that the swarmer has eaten, hopper and grub and locust, my great army which I sent against you. You will eat until you are satisfied and praise the name of the Lord your God who has done wonderful things for you, and my people will never again be put to shame’ (Joel 2:25-26). God can take all your broken pieces and make them whole. There was a popular song that says
Something beautiful, something good,
All my confusion, He understood.
All I have to offer Him was brokenness and strife.
But He made something beautiful of my life.
God does not treat us as we deserve to be treated. ‘He has not treated us as our sins deserve or repaid us according to our misdeeds’ (Psalm 103:12). Imagine if God does that, where will we be? Who can measure up to his standard? All our sins, small and big, will be exposed on this earth! God forgives our sins when we confess them. His forgiveness is total, complete and unconditional. ‘As far as east is from west, so far from us has he put away our offences’ (Psalm 103:10). They are put out of his sight. ‘…For you have thrust all my sins behind you’ (Isa 38:17). He does not keep score of your sins nor retrieve them. ‘Who is a God like you? You take away guilt, forgive the sins of the remnant of your people. You do not let your anger rage forever, for to be merciful is your true delight. Once more you will show us compassion and wash away our guilt, casting all our sins into the depths of the sea’ (Micah 7:18-19).
In other words, after casting all our sins into the depths of the sea, God puts a big sign, ‘No fishing here!’ He will not dredge them in the future. Once our sins are blotted out, they are remembered no more. ‘I am the Lord; for my own sake I wipe out your transgressions and remember your sins no more’ (Isa 43:25; cf Jer 31:34b).
God’s forgiveness is always a full forgiveness. That is still more marvellous. When God forgives us our sins He keeps nothing at all back. There is no reservation and there are no conditions. He does not say, “Now I am going to forgive you on condition”- never! “I forgive you,” says God “because my Son bore the punishment of your sins.” He justifies us freely, fully; our past sins are forgiven, our present sins are forgiven, our future sins are already dealt with there. O the riches of His grace! (Lloyd-Jones 1997:120)
Why is it possible for God to forgive and bless us? Because he is God! As Lloyd-Jones puts it, ‘God cannot give in any other way. God does not give grudgingly; His nature makes that impossible. God must be liberal. Because he is God, he can only act in one manner, and that is he gives with fullness, with freedom, with super abundance, without let or limit’ (ibid:118).
A pastor was disciplining his church member harshly. So I said to the pastor, ‘Don’t you think you need to be more compassionate like God?’ His instant reply was, ‘Too bad I am not God!’ Then I said to him, ‘But shouldn’t we at least try to be more like God?’ All he could say was, ‘Well…’ That night I went home burdened about his attitude. I remember praying, ‘God, I am so glad he is not God. If he were, then all of us are sunk!’
The God we believe and worship is so different from what people imagine. The very nature of the God of the Bible is to bestow grace freely. Through the death of Christ in our place, God's justice is completely satisfied. ‘But now by Christ’s death in his body of flesh and blood God has reconciled you to himself, so that he may bring you into his own presence, holy and without blame or blemish’ (Col 1:22). Therefore, God can without violating his justice or moral law forgive us freely, completely and absolutely. ‘If we confess our sins, he is just and may be trusted to forgive our sins and cleanse us from every kind of wrong doing’ (1 John 1:9). No matter how many times we sin against God, he will forgive us when we repent.
Discussion Questions