One of the most frequently used words in Christian worship is the word ‘Grace’. We bring our services to a close with what we call ‘the grace’. It’s a wonderful benediction because it sends us out into the world with the assurance that God has been with us and will be with us until we meet again in His presence.
We say the words but what do they mean to us? The word ‘Grace’ trips off the tongue easily and pleasantly. I think it’s one of the most beautiful words in the language. Over the years it’s been chosen by many a parent as the Christian name of a daughter, no doubt in the hope that she will grow up to live up to her name! If you’re interested in art you’ll know the famous sculpture “The Three Graces”depicting three goddess sisters from Greek mythology celebrating their beauty.
The word is also used in commerce. When your insurance premium is due or your driving licence is about to expire, out of the goodness of heart of the insurance company or the motor tax authority you may be given an extra few days, the ‘period of grace’, to effect the renewal. You’re still liable and if you fail to comply, you’re in real trouble. To the Christian, ‘grace’ means much more than that, although it’s not easy to put it into words.
C. S. Lewis offers a helpful thought in defining what grace is. During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world were discussing whether any one belief was unique to the Christian faith. They began eliminating possibilities. What about the Incarnation? It weas said that other religions had different versions of gods appearing in human form. And the Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from death. The debate went on for some time until C. S. Lewis wandered into the room. "What’s the rumpus about?" he asked, and heard in reply that his colleagues were discussing Christianity’s unique contribution among the world’s religions. In his forthright manner, Lewis responded, "Oh, that’s easy. It’s grace." So, let’s ask the question.
WHAT IS ‘GRACE’?
The word has a variety of meanings. For example, it may mean that someone has found God’s approval, as when it said, “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (Gen 6:8). It’s used in Proverbs to describe someone whose words are kind and loving; their “speech is gracious” (22:11). That’s something that should be a characteristic of all Christians. But even the best of Christians sometimes take liberties.
I read the biography of the late Dr Donald English, an acknowledged leader of World Methodism. He was said to be genuinely “a friend to all and the enemy of none”, as Wesley put it. However, he did on one occasion say to his students: "Oh, occasionally I have been tempted to offer the ‘right knee’ as opposed to the ’right hand’ of fellowship!” I take some comfort from knowing that even the saintly blink occasionally! We all do!
The classical definition of ‘Grace’ is “God’s unmerited favour”. Grace is perhaps the best one word summary of what the Bible is about. An expert in Greek literature says that in those old stories, grace indicated a favour done out of the generous heart of one Greek to a friend without any expectation of a favour in return, but it was never done to an enemy. Grace in the New Testament is used with a higher meaning.
The grace of God is quite different to all others. It expresses the love, the kindness, and the generosity of God toward us. It represents the attitude of the Almighty toward His wandering, rebellious creation. But it’s more than an attitude. It’s God’s love in action on our behalf. Grace is God loving, God stooping, God coming to the rescue, God giving Himself generously in and through Jesus Christ. Under grace, God gives us what we don’t deserve - Heaven; and He doesn’t give us what we do desrve - Hell. God’s grace forgives what it can’t excuse. So let’s find out:
WHY IS THE GRACE OF GOD SO NECESSARY?
In the words of Scripture, we’re all like the people of Ephesus that the apostle Paul described as spiritually “dead in your transgressions and sins” having incurred God’s “wrath” (1:1,3). If we only have a superficial concept of sin, of how it alienates us from God, we’ll have an inadequate understanding of the grace of God. The truth is that we’ve all fallen short of God’s standard.
The late David Sheppard, before he entered the ministry and became a much-loved bishop, was a famous cricketer, who played for England. He was once stumped twice in the same Test Match. Once he was stumped by yards, and once by a few inches. He pointed out that in the newspapers next day, it didn’t say “stumped, but only just”. No, he was out, whether it was by yards or by an inch. He comments, “Some people miss the kingdom of God by miles. Some miss it by inches. But if you’re out, you’re out.” Paul is saying that we all stand condemned but much loved by God. It’s our own doing. But thankfully, God hasn’t left us in our predicament as we discover:
WHAT HAS GOD DONE IN GRACE?
Jesus Himself made it crystal clear in His words to Nicodemus: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever 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 that the world should be saved through Him” (John 3:16).
Grace became personalized when God clothed Himself in human form in the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace is Christ coming in Bethlehem to share our life and spending Himself in lowly ministry. The ultimate expression of grace is when He died in our place, bringing to the world life and hope. Grace is God showing His mercy towards sinful humanity; we who were so undeserving, so unworthy of His love. It is Jesus giving, loving, dying on the cross, and going to the utmost limit for His enemies.
The apostle Paul was utterly entranced by what God in Christ had done for him. He’d been a self-satisfied, proud Pharisee, intent on eliminating the followers of Christ, but as a result of an amazing encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, he had been changed from a persecutor and a blasphemer to a believer. He never ceased to wonder of God’s grace. He classed himself as “the chief of sinners” (1 Tim 1:15). There was only one thing that could account for His transformation. “I am,” he said, “what I am by the grace of God” (1 Cor 15:10).
It was Paul’s great ambition to revel in “the riches of (God’s) grace.” It’s a valid test of a person’s conversion to Christ. Does our experience make us praise God, to make us rejoice “with joy unspeakable and full of glory”? (1 Pet 1:8). Hymn writers have searched for language adequate to express it: John Wesley writes of “boundless mercy”; his brother Charles of “mercy all, immense and free”; and Isaac Watts was transfixed by “the wondrous Cross”. Are we, too, similarly taken up by “the riches of God’s grace” - “Love so amazing, so divine”? It will have an effect on the quality of our spiritual life. We need to think and meditate on God’s grace until we find ourselves “lost in wonder, love and praise”, and find out more of:
WHAT’S SO AMAZING ABOUT GOD’S GRACE?
John Newton’s famous hymn tells us, it’s “Amazing Grace … that saved a wretch like me.” It’s because of what Jesus did: “we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.” Paul tells us how: It’s “according to the riches of his grace” (Eph 1:7). Here it is again: “By grace you have been saved” (2:5). It’s “amazing” because it’s contrary to the values of this world. Jesus told a parable to demonstrate that God gives His grace quite unconditionally. The story He told involved the payment of workers who appeared to receive grossly unfair payment at the end of their day’s work. Why should the employee who had only worked one hour be paid the same as the one who had worked twelve? But that was Jesus’ point.
He was teaching about grace, which can’t be calculated like a day’s wage. It’s about the gift of grace we receive from God, not something we work hard to earn. Jesus made it so clear through the employer’s response in the parable: “Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go, I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money?" (Matt 20:13-15). The full-day workers got what they were promised even though others were paid twelve times what they deserved. The whole point is that God dispenses gifts, not wages. His currency is love and mercy and forgiveness.None of us gets paid according to merit – otherwise we would receive nothing - it’s all of His grace.
Another great hymn tells us: “Who is a pardoning God like Thee? Or who has grace so rich and free?” There’s a permanent quality about the salvation made possible by the atoning death of Jesus on the cross. It’s not like someone who’s got out of their depth while swimming in the sea and been pulled out by a lifeguard but on an other day be lost. No, God’s saving action is for now and through eternity. The apostle Paul tells us that God “made us alive together with Christ … raised us up with Him … in the heavenly places” (Eph 2:5,6).
The story of mankind’s state is of Paradise Lost, yes, but through God’s intervention for those who come to Jesus in repentance and faith, of Paradise Regained. The apostle writes, “grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life” (Rom 5:21). Sin did reign but God’s grace is an active and sustaining force for our salvation. The grace of God in our lives doesn’t merely start a process of salvation and then leave it to us to carry on. Grace not only starts but also completes it.
Our salvation is entirely due to God’s grace. The apostle writes: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Eph 2:8). No one can boast of his own good works. It’s all of grace, every bit of it. It’s entirely and only by grace. It’s God’s love in all circumstances. The Rev Sandy Millar, the former Rector of Holy Trinity, Brompton, tells of how he visited a young woman in Holloway Prison. There was only one card pinned up in her cell. He noticed the words: "Happy Birthday” which was the printed message and underneath was hand-written, "We wish things could have worked out differently but all our love. Mum and Dad." Sandy Millar comments, "God could have written that about our world.”
Grace is the provision made by the Godhead before the foundation of the world for the salvation of mankind (1 Pet 1:20). This is clearly beyond human understanding but it’s God’s revelation through the Scriptures and supremely in the life of Jesus, His atoning death and His glorious resurrection. The question arises: on what ground does He do so? How is it possible for the righteous God to declare the unrighteous to be righteous without either compromising His righteousness? God’s answer is in the cross of Jesus.
Grace is the way that God has devised of reconciling His righteousness and yet forgiving the sinner. It’s all because of what He has done in the Person of His dear Son when our sins were laid upon Him on the cross. God’s grace is really amazing! But there’s one last question to be answered:
WHAT ARE OUR OBLIGATIONS IN RESPONSE TO GRACE?
In the prologue of John’s gospel he tells us that Jesus was “full of grace and truth” (1:14) and goes on to say “of his fullness we have all received and it has been grace upon grace for us” (16). If we have received His grace by coming to Him in repentance and faith, in other words being ‘saved’, then Jesus is to be the benchmark for our lives in all what we do and say.
The description that John gives of Jesus is a very helpful model of what it means to be His disciple: “The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” This statement is one of the most memorable ever written. John used the remainder of his gospel to unfold its significance. Let’s see the implications it has for us as followers of our Lord. It speaks of:
RELATIONSHIP
Jesus “became flesh and lived … among us”. It literally means that He came and pitched His tent here. He came to live in our neighbourhood. This is about relationship, about being willing to engage. We’re not meant to be spiritual hermits. Although we are not to be “of the world”, we are still “in the world”, in the sense of relating to all kinds of people as did our Saviour. There weren’t any “no-go areas” for Him – the immoral, the ritually unclean, the Samaritans – we’re all precious to Him. If the contact could result in bringing help and hope to those who needed His message, whether or not they were accepted in society, He never failed to reach out to them.
The grace of Jesus gave Him courage and resolve to come to Planet Earth and be among us even at great personal risk, often misunderstood and misrepresented. He wants us as His hands and feet in the work of His kingdom, to be grace-extenders. He came as a servant, putting other’s interests first. When we come to know Christ we don’t just enter into a new vertical relationship with the living God, but we enter into a new horizontal relationship with one another. But it also requires:
APPLICATION
John personally vouches for the authenticity of what Jesus did in practice: “We have seen his glory … full of grace and truth.” In His incarnation, Jesus came to our world and became identified with the human race. His was a mission of grace. It’s seen in all His actions and we’re called on to follow Him. It may well mean going against the grain and leaving our comfort zone in being a grace-extender.
Grace is giving the benefit of the doubt. That’s how relationships are transformed. Grace is forgiveness. Grace is a heart of compassion. Grace doesn’t keep a score. Grace is about giving and helping. We need to experience and express this sort of love and commitment for one another. This is the challenge, certainly to me. Our Lord doesn’t expect perfection down here but He’s looking for progress!
Jesus wants His disciples of all ages to make the transition from the substandard culture of human beings tainted by the Fall, to the grace of Jesus Christ. We must move past being satisfied of just knowing about the grace of God and accept the challenge of extending that grace in our world. God wants us to live out His amazing grace in every part of life.
(As a closing hymn: John Newton’s famous hymn, “Amazing Grace.”)
