True Meaning of Grace

When you think of the word grace, do you really know what it means?  Do you really understand the power behind the word?  For me, it was about seven to eight years ago that I truly learned what that word meant.  Until that time, if you had asked me what the word grace meant, I would have told you with confidence that it was the act of praying before you eat dinner.  I thought it was a synonym for giving thanks to God for the food I was about to eat to sustain my body.  I was way off target, as I think many people like myself probably are.

I have learned that grace is the opposite of mercy.  You can't talk about one without talking about the other.  Grace is the undeserved gift that is freely given to us by God; Eternal Life.  Mercy is God withholding that which we do derserve; Death.  So to say it in simpler terms, grace is us getting what we don't deserve while mercy is us not getting what we do deserve.

Romans 5:15
But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.

Romans 5:17
For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

Grace is such a powerful word!  It takes into account the cross and what it offered to each and every one of us.  It visually shows us that God has the power to do for us what we can't do for ourselves.  I know I can't afford to pay the debt that I owe.  Through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross and the grace that is attached with it, my debt is paid in full.

Imagine this...
You are in a 5-star resturant.  You have just finished eating the best meal of your life.  The waiter brings the bill to your table and walks away.  You pick up the bill and look at it.  Instantly your eyes bulge out of your head and your breathing increases because the bill is much more than you expected.  You open your wallet to realize you don't have enough money to cover the tab.  Your heart drops as you wonder how you are going to get out of this mess you have gotten yourself into.  The waiter returns to the table and you start to tell him that you can't afford to pay for your dinner.  He stops you before you can finish and he tells you that someone else already paid your bill in full. 

Someone who you couldn't see, saw that you had a struggle and without you asking or even deserving it, he covered you completely.

How would you feel if this was really you?  Would you feel appreciative?  Would you accept the gift? Would you say no thanks and try to find a way to cover the bill yourself?

Well I would like to remind each of us that this person really is us.  We have accumulated a debt through our sin that we cannot afford to pay.  God, who we cannot see, foresaw that we were struggling and without asking or even deserving it, he paid our bill in full.  He covered us because He knew we could not cover ourselves. 

Romans 3:23
For all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God.

Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Question to parents.  Would you sacrifice your child for the benefit of someone else?  To take this question further, would you sacrifice your child for the benefit of someone who has shown nothing but hatred towards you?  They have spat on you.  They have mocked you.  They have hurt you physically and emotionally.  I don't even have to think about this question.  The answer is not just no, but emphatically no.

God did just that.  He gave what was most valuable to Him up for sacrifice for you and I.  We put Jesus on the cross.  We spat on Him in our disobedience.  We mocked Him in our unbelief.  We hurt Him physically and emotionally through our constant abuse of His grace.  In spite of our actions, He not only said yes, He emphatically said yes. 

As a result we should respond to Him out of gratitude and not out of duty.  Duty says that at some point I can pay my debt off, but gratitude says that even though I can never repay you what I owe, I will continue to show you how much I appreciate you by never forgetting your act of grace.  I will look for opportunities to show that same grace to others.  I will forgive where forgiveness is needed.  I willl show compassion where compassion is needed.  I will offer a hand where a hand is needed.  I will remember the gift I received.  I will remember the gift was freely given when I did not deserve it.

Now that we have been given grace, we must fight to honor it through our actions and our attitudes.  We must remember the cross and the price that was paid on it.

Romans 6:1-3
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

Romans 11:6
But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.

What Jesus did on the cross was enough.  We don't have to add anything to it.  God said in II Chorinthians 12:9 that His grace is sufficient.  Whenever we try and add to what God has already done, we cancel out the power of the cross in our lives for that moment.

I ask each of you that have read this blog to look within yourself and seek out the opportunity to give grace to someone else.  It is through God's grace that we live in His inheritance.  I don't know about you, but I want all that my Father has for me.  The key to me accessing it is through His perfect grace that He so freely gave to me.

Acts 20:32
And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.