Why Is Grace So Amazing?

No matter what your mess was, is or may be, God has a message for your mess - it’s grace - amazing grace!

Eugene O’Neil said, “Man is born broken,he lives his life by mending, but the grace of God is the glue.”

Grace is God’s extensive healing for sin’s wounds, grace is God’s best lavished on us, grace is God’s blessings showered on us, grace is God’s favor poured all over our lives!

Why is grace so amazing?

1. Because Grace Is Contrary To Human Logic. Vs. 11a

How can one man, one death on one afternoon be so powerful as to change the course of history and humanity? How a great Savior can save a great sinner is a mystery best solved by putting aside human logic!

In school I remember when I heard the phrase “New Math” for the first time - I thought to my self, “What was wrong with the old!”

Phillip Yancy calls grace “God’s new math”! He writes, “Instead of earning wages, God dispenses gifts. It’s not according to merit or fairness, because if that were the case, we would all end up in hell.”

The woman who was a widow dropped 2 puny coins into the Temple collection and her 2 coins were more valuable to God than all the religious g doctors put together! GO FIGURE!

Grace is not about finishing last or first, or totaling up all our good and bad. KEY: Grace is not about uncertain accounting before God, but our unconditional acceptance in Christ.

Jesus teaches that the 99 sheep are not the issue, but the 1 lost sheep that counts to God! GO FIGURE!

2. Because Grace Is Courage To Face our Ghosts. Vs. 12

The power of sin is broken by the overpowering grace poured out on our lives!

Romans 6:11,14 “Therefore, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”

Romans 6:17, 18 “But God be thanked that though you were slaves to sin...you became slaves of righteousness.”

It was about the year 1760 when John Newton would write “Amazing Grace” – out of the haunting of his sins. He said when he wrote those words, he was perpetually haunted by the 20,000 African ghosts of his past. At the age of 11 he set sail for the first time and for over 30 years he sold and traded slaves from Africa to West India.

It is reported that at times he was so wretched that even his crew regarded him as little more than an animal. One time he fell overboard and his ship’s crew refused to drop a boat to him. Instead they threw a harpoon at him and they dragged him back into the ship.

PICTURE...the famous “Madagascar”. When it would set sail from Africa it would start out with over 600 slave. By the time it reached it’s destination, there were normally 200 slaves survived the trip. The smell of death was so powerful that this ship was docked far from the rest of the ships.

PICTURE...The slave’s compartment

In March of 1748, John Newton found himself in the most desperate situation of his life. During the voyage the crew had repeatedly heard his bitter boasting of being a freethinker who did not believe in God. He had even lashed himself to a mast during a storm and dared God to strike him dead, in order to prove Himself real. The ship leaking badly, in danger of being overwhelmed beneath one of the mountainous waves of a powerful Atlantic storm. In a moment of weakness and terror, he uttered the words: “Lord, have mercy on us.” This was the first time he had prayed since childhood, and it shook him to think that he had stooped to ask for help from God.

By the time the storm ended, most of the rigging had been blown away, making navigation almost impossible. After 7 days of drifting with no land in sight, the crew was practically without hope. One man had already died when the captain came to challenge John Newton. The captain was of the opinion that Newton was somewhat like Jonah: “A curse to the ship”. The crew had even discussed throwing him overboard, but decided not to.

As Newton returned to work, he recalled a Bible verse that he had learned as a child. Luke 11:13 “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children; how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" Finally brought to the end of himself, Newton prayed: “God, if You’re true, You’ll make good your Word. Cleanse Thou my vile heart.”