"perfect Grace"

“Perfect Grace”

Revelation 21:1-7, 9-10, 22-23; 22:1-5

The Bible is the story of a God Who seeks us out.

It’s a story about a God Who initiates the whole deal.

It’s God’s idea to create us.

It’s God Who went searching for Adam and Eve as they hid naked in the Garden of Eden.

It’s God Who made the first clothing.

It’s Who God approached Abraham and called Him to be the father of many nations, initiating the Covenant.

It’s God Who came to Moses in the Burning Bush, calling him to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt.

It’s Who God came down to us from heaven in Jesus Christ, took on human flesh, and made His home with us, providing for us the model of how to live and love.

It’s God in Jesus Christ Who compares Himself to a shepherd who goes out searching for the lost sheep until he finds it and carries it home.

It’s God in Jesus Christ Who compares Himself to a woman searching for a lost coin.

She lights a lamp and turns over all the furniture in the house until she finds it.

Then, she calls all her friends and throws a great big party because the lost coin has been found.

And in that story, we are the lost coin; we are the lost sheep.

All through the Bible, it’s God Who is seeking us out, coming to us, yearning for us to turn to Him and be found—it’s not the other way around.

This is what theologians call Prevenient grace or the grace of God that goes before us, nudging us, searching for us, calling us into a life-altering relationship and journey with Him.

In Ephesians, we are told that we are saved by grace through faith.

And even this faith doesn’t come from us, it too is a gift from God.

We are told in 1st John Chapter 4 that we love only because God has first loved us.

And in our theology of Communion, we believe that the Real Presence of Jesus Christ comes down to us and meets us at the Communion Table.

We don’t go up to Him; He comes down to us.

It’s all about grace.

Even in the story of the Prodigal Son, it is God Who is waiting and looking and hoping we will return.

And when He sees us far off, He runs to us, put’s new clothes on us and throws a party, before we can make an excuse or beg to be welcomed back into the family.

And so, it should come as no surprise that we see in our Scripture Passage for this morning that at the end of this present age the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, comes down to us—we don’t go up to it.

It’s all God’s doing from the beginning to the end.

God created us, God searched for us when we went astray; God died for us, God makes it possible for us to believe this and accept it, and finally, a loud voice from the throne of God proclaims: “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people…

…They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”

Ultimately, this is all God’s design, God’s desire, God’s idea…

…not ours.

It’s all a gift from beginning to end, and thus it is all Perfect Grace.

And to top it off, we are called God’s Bride!

God has been trying to woo us to Himself from the very beginning.

It is God Who fell in love with you and me even before we were born.

It is God Who has made the first move and has never given up on us no matter how many times we have turned away.

God has been courting us all along; did we even know it?

(pause)

A counselor summed up his career this way:

“Many years ago, I was driven to the conclusion that the two major causes of most emotional problems are these: the failure to understand, receive and live out God’s unconditional grace and forgiveness; and the failure to give out that unconditional love, forgiveness, and grace to other people.”

This sounds to me like the failure to live out the Greatest Commandment, as put forth by Jesus Himself: “Love God and love other people.”

For us to truly love God—not to mouth the words because we are afraid of the consequences of not doing so—is to first receive God’s love.

Receiving God’s love transforms our lives and our worldview to the point where we can begin to love others because we have been loved with the true source of REAL LOVE

…because without experiencing God’s love, how in the world can we even know what real love is?