[Thursday's Devotional] - The Definition of Grace

The critics are right: Grace is unfair.  We deserve God’s wrath and get God’s love, deserve punishment and get forgiveness.  We don’t get what we deserve.  Paul put it ironically,
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.” Romans 6:23 [NIV] 

If you want fairness, try a religion which says we may have to go through thousands, even millions of incarnations before paying for all our sins or one that lists things we must ‘do’ in order to qualify. 

Thankfully God’s word tells us:

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9 [NIV]

“He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” Titus 3:5 [NIV]

It seems unfair that a human rights abuser like Saul gets forgiven, or Moses whose foul temper led to murder and rebellion against God, or a murderer/adulterer like King David, or a thief hanging on a cross who has a conversion just before death.  Yes, it’s unfair— wonderfully and gloriously unfair I would say.

In this try-hard, perfectionist lifestyle we need to remember grace.  God’s grace is sufficient when we feel like we’ve failed.  God’s grace is sufficient when we worry we have let someone down.  God’s grace is sufficient when we just want to slow down.  God’s grace is sufficient when we feel guilty for something we’ve done wrong, God’s grace is amazing.

Many have penned the wonders of God’s amazing grace, in 2013 Phil Wickham wrote and sang “This Is Amazing Grace, This is unfailing love..…you would lay down your life that I would be set free” you can listen to this modern and upbeat song with the link below:

This is Amazing Grace [YouTube - 5 mins]  

Dawn Milward