Websters defines grace as: an unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification or a virtue coming from God (which I find interesting from a secular dictionary).
Grace. The idea that we are getting in abundance what we do not deserve. Don't confuse grace with mercy, because it's easy to do. Mercy is not receiving what we deserve.
Grace: receiving in abundance what we do not deserve.
Mercy: not receiving what we do deserve.
In the Church, we believe that by grace, through faith in Christ, we have been saved. (Eph. 2:8)
Paraphrased, this means: even though what I deserve is an eternity in hell because of my sinful heart and rebellion against the God of all creation, Christ (fully God, fully man) came out with love and joy and paid the full price for me [i.e. showed grace] in order that we may have an everlasting life.
Right? Do we all agree?
That's the Gospel.
We couldn't, Christ did.
We were dead, now we're alive.
It's an ongoing mystery to me how, once we accept this gift of grace, we no longer see the grace.
We accept it as grace in the moment of conversion because we realize on our own cannot defeat death.
But then there's the transition. The mystery, if you will.
We all (and I literally mean all) get to a point where we turn grace into mercy.
We begin to become desensitized to the beautiful grace of the gospel and begin to see the Gospel as being simply spared from death [i.e. mercy] then causing us to feel the need to preform to become worthy of grace, again.
Are you following?
We get to point where, in a sense, we believe the cross wasn't enough.
That the conquering of the grave for our sake wasn't enough.
We look to love more, serve more, speak more about the Gospel in subconscience hope of earning the Lords favor again.
It hits home more than you think. Don't you find it easy to preach the true Gospel of grace with a heart that is working earn grace? Are you catching that?
We can preach grace; yet, not know grace.
"...the grace of God [that] was given [to] you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched [abundance, plentiful] in him in all speech and all knowledge . . . so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful . . . "
1 Corinthians 1:4-9
Christ will sustain you.
You cannot sustain yourself.
How does he sustain you? By grace.
We cannot do anything on planet earth of any magnitude or for any cause that will cause Jesus to give you more grace then He already has. We have been given in abundance, as that verse says.
When we loose sight of this truth, we begin performing. We begin preaching a Gospel of grace yet missing the grace ourselves. We begin serving the people of Jesus before we serve Jesus.
Here's my challenge: if we truly believe that we have been saved by a grace that will sustain us to the end, we aren't to be serving people. Serving people produces a desire for a response of gratitude. When we really let the grace of the Gospel sink into our lives, we serve Jesus by serving His people.
[[[ confused? Read Matt. 25:40 ]]]
We no longer look/desire/want praise from the people of God. We want praise for God.
1 Corinthians goes on to say in verse 17: "For Christ did not send me [or you] to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of it's power."
We are not placed on earth to impress people [breathe a sigh of relief!]. We're called to represent grace. Because the cross was enough and will always be enough. That's the Gospel.
We're not called to live a life of proper presentations.
We're called to live a life with one presentation: I was dead, now I am alive. Only by the Grace of Christ in my life, daily.
How do we respond?
Of Christ, not of this world. This world is failing and broken. You'll never be satisfied apart from grace.
We've been brought out of the pit of hell because we were loved that much.
That's grace. Show grace. Live grace. Understand grace. Accept grace. Preach grace.
"For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your doing; it's the gift of God."
Eph. 2:8
***Understand my heart. We have been given mercy in abundance as well with grace. We're to "Seek justice, love mercy..." However, there's a distinct difference between the two. I am focused on the attribute of grace. The attribute of mercy would be a whole different idea. Also, we are to serve everyone. However, with the heart of serving them because we are serving Christ. "Faith without works is dead." We are also called for good works. But when the heart doesn't understand grace, good works are impossible. When we understand our purpose of simply representing grace, the works seep out of our lives.***
