Grace

September 13

Grace. It’s that unmerited favor you hope the officer will extend to you when he pulls you over for speeding. Grace. It’s that charity you hope your spouse will extend to you when you’ve forgotten an anniversary. Grace. It’s that aspect of God’s dealing with errant man that enables Him to woo us back when we have failed Him abysmally.

Though we may choose to be gracious when we are offended, we cannot begin to measure the unmerited favor God extends to us by any paltry example of that commodity we may extend to those who hurt us. The Lord who inhabits eternity is without blemish so He can never require grace; He may only extend grace.

Unlike us, He cannot receive, He can only give favor. We understand the necessity for holding grace out to others because we’ve required it ourselves. “But God’s mercy is great and He loves us very much. Though we were spiritually dead because of the things we did against Him, God gave us new life with Christ. We have been saved by God’s grace,” Ephesians 2:4, 5.

How blessed we are to serve a Holy God who is gracious toward us although we deserve condemnation, who forgives us although we deserve punishment, who loves us although we are unlovely. How blessed we are that Christ has fulfilled every one of God’s laws perfectly and He loves us so much that we receive the benefit of His perfection. Grace.