The Grace of God
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”—Ephesians 2:8-9
In the classic novel, Les Miserables, the main character, Jean Valjean, is convicted of stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving family and sentenced to serve five years in prison, but is forced to serve fourteen more for numerous escape attempts. Upon his release he is forced to carry a yellow passport with him that shows he is a convict. All of his attempts at finding shelter are quickly dashed once the yellow passport is seen, until he approaches the local bishop and he is mercifully taken in. Embittered at his condition, he then steals the bishop’s silver and runs. He is quickly captured and taken back to the bishop who promptly says that he in fact has given the silver to Jean Valjean and he is free. The bishop then “reminds” him of the promise he made to live a better life, which Valjean has no recollection of making. Valjean had been caught in the act and deserved to go back to jail, but through the bishop’s gracious act, he was free. Valjean had come to experience grace. He received something he didn’t deserve, pardon and freedom.
God is completely gracious toward us. He does not treat us as our sins deserve. According to the Scripture, our sins deserved one thing and one thing only, death (Romans 6:23). God would be perfectly just to condemn us for our sin and leave us to die in our sinful state. We did not deserve His salvation; on the contrary, we didn’t deserve anything. It is by His grace alone that we are made beneficiaries of His salvation. We are no more deserving of salvation than a condemned killer deserves to be set free from prison. We, like the prisoner, are guilty. It is only by His grace that we are saved.
We are the prodigal sons who have spent our lives doing whatever we wanted, turning our backs on the One who gave us life. It’s when we come to the end of ourselves, when we have exhausted every gift and treasure that we have been given, that we turn to God. It is when we come to Him poor and wretched, asking for forgiveness, that the twins of God’s redemption (grace and mercy) are made available to us. A.W. Tozer describes how God is gracious to us:
“Grace is the good pleasure of God that inclines Him to bestow benefits upon the undeserving. It is a self-existent principle inherent in the divine nature and appears to us as a self-caused propensity to pity the wretched, spare the guilty, welcome the outcast, and bring into favor those who were before under just disapprobation. Its use to us sinful men is to save us and make us sit together in heavenly places to demonstrate to the ages the exceeding riches of God’s kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”—A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, p. 93.
God’s grace was made available through the giving of His Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is the greatest gift given to men, wrapped in swaddling clothes, ready to be received by all who come to Him in repentance and faith. As the Apostle Paul wrote,
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works”—Titus 2:11-14.
May we respond to God’s amazing grace with hearts filled with praise, knowing that what we deserve is God’s condemnation, not His salvation. God has made salvation available through Christ and it is through Him we have been imparted grace. May His grace continue to shine upon all who come to Him in repentance and faith. Amen.
In the classic novel, Les Miserables, the main character, Jean Valjean, is convicted of stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving family and sentenced to serve five years in prison, but is forced to serve fourteen more for numerous escape attempts. Upon his release he is forced to carry a yellow passport with him that shows he is a convict. All of his attempts at finding shelter are quickly dashed once the yellow passport is seen, until he approaches the local bishop and he is mercifully taken in. Embittered at his condition, he then steals the bishop’s silver and runs. He is quickly captured and taken back to the bishop who promptly says that he in fact has given the silver to Jean Valjean and he is free. The bishop then “reminds” him of the promise he made to live a better life, which Valjean has no recollection of making. Valjean had been caught in the act and deserved to go back to jail, but through the bishop’s gracious act, he was free. Valjean had come to experience grace. He received something he didn’t deserve, pardon and freedom.
God is completely gracious toward us. He does not treat us as our sins deserve. According to the Scripture, our sins deserved one thing and one thing only, death (Romans 6:23). God would be perfectly just to condemn us for our sin and leave us to die in our sinful state. We did not deserve His salvation; on the contrary, we didn’t deserve anything. It is by His grace alone that we are made beneficiaries of His salvation. We are no more deserving of salvation than a condemned killer deserves to be set free from prison. We, like the prisoner, are guilty. It is only by His grace that we are saved.
We are the prodigal sons who have spent our lives doing whatever we wanted, turning our backs on the One who gave us life. It’s when we come to the end of ourselves, when we have exhausted every gift and treasure that we have been given, that we turn to God. It is when we come to Him poor and wretched, asking for forgiveness, that the twins of God’s redemption (grace and mercy) are made available to us. A.W. Tozer describes how God is gracious to us:
“Grace is the good pleasure of God that inclines Him to bestow benefits upon the undeserving. It is a self-existent principle inherent in the divine nature and appears to us as a self-caused propensity to pity the wretched, spare the guilty, welcome the outcast, and bring into favor those who were before under just disapprobation. Its use to us sinful men is to save us and make us sit together in heavenly places to demonstrate to the ages the exceeding riches of God’s kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”—A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, p. 93.
God’s grace was made available through the giving of His Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is the greatest gift given to men, wrapped in swaddling clothes, ready to be received by all who come to Him in repentance and faith. As the Apostle Paul wrote,
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works”—Titus 2:11-14.
May we respond to God’s amazing grace with hearts filled with praise, knowing that what we deserve is God’s condemnation, not His salvation. God has made salvation available through Christ and it is through Him we have been imparted grace. May His grace continue to shine upon all who come to Him in repentance and faith. Amen.
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