Hey again, so God put this on my heart to share a few weeks ago and has been building on it since that time. What He wants me to do is share about what Grace is from a true biblical perspective and not just my opinion or feelings on it. I've been a church kid for most of my life and have heard and seen many different explanations of grace in the past. For me, understanding grace came when God did something in my life that no one else could do - but I'll get to that later. So, at church a few weeks ago I was asked to explain to some very little kids what God's grace is. I prayed and asked God for help because I knew the typical textbook definition answer wasn't going to cut it to under 5 year olds. You see, I was brought up in a very strict religion that firmly taught the Bible but from a very incorrect and loveless perspective. In fact they made the Bible itself an idol before God through their pride and tradition essentially nullifying the voice and ability of God to speak to them. I learned later in life by God opening my eyes that studying the Bible from an intellectual perspective alone isn't enough. Jesus taught us this when He answered the Devil who was misquoting the Bible saying in reply "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4).
You absolutely MUST have the Spirit of God to guide you to the truth that is in the Bible otherwise it simply becomes a lifetime of useless, formulated head knowledge. This is why you see in the story from Acts chapter 8 Phillip asks the Ethiopian eunuch "Do you understand what you are reading?" and then went on to help him understand who Jesus is and why he came from the Bible he was reading. The end result was the Ethiopian eunuch became a believer in Jesus. Grace is similar in that you can understand it in your mind but to know it in your heart is a very different matter. So back to the kids... The definition I was given of grace as a kid was this "Grace is unearned or undeserved favor or kindness". While this statement is quite true, I know it wasn't at all relevant to me as an 8 year old boy whose main focus in life was transformers and Lego - I needed someone to break it down for me. So that's what I did for these kids. I prayed and this is what God told me to say... "Grace is someone else taking the punishment for the bad things you've done." I told them "this is what Jesus did for us. He chose to take the punishment for our sins in our place. that's what grace is".
The kids understood it perfectly because every kid out there knows what it is to do something wrong and also knows that some form of punishment comes as a result. To skip out on that punishment and have someone else take the fall for your crimes is unnatural and also quite surprising. Grace has the ability to bring wisdom through education of the acquittal. Now just to lay down some fundamentals before I go on... everyone has sinned. There's not a single person alive that hasn't sinned at least once in their lifetime. As a matter of fact, all of us have sin in our bloodline. It's in our nature to sin because of who we come from... Adam and Eve. They committed the very first sin of rebellion and disobedience in the garden and then a whole truckload of problems including death followed. Basically as humans we were doomed - and Jesus knew that. So that's why He came to die for us to be that grace for us. To wear our punishment and have it skip out on us. But it wasn't enough for just anyone to die - they had to be perfect... sinless. So this is the very reason Jesus was born of a virgin. He didn't come from the sin stained male bloodline of humanity. He was the perfect sacrifice for an imperfect world.
Now, what I need to share is this... By Adam and Eve sinning it caused an existence of perfection to plunge into sin, darkness and death for all their offspring. Perfection ruined. So imagine this... God just says "Ok, everyone can now come to Heaven. No need to believe in Jesus sacrifice for your sins... All the people that love me and follow my ways in you come. And all the murderers, thieves, adulterers, those that practice witchcraft etc... in you come too. My grace says everyone can come in..." Now, obviously I'm speaking as a fool here. Can you imagine how perfect Heaven is going to stay if God did that? I would say less than 10 seconds and the whole place is ruined. It'd be like the garden of Eden all over again and I'm sure God doesn't want a repeat of that not after the amazing lengths Jesus went to redeem us. I use this as an example to show you that God's grace never goes above His character, His Word, His love or His justice. God is completely holy and just and perfect in all His judgements. He is the only one who can judge accurately and justly. So what is grace then? I'll explain it like this. Grace is an awakening and an enlightening to the truth. It's when you know the truth of the situation that you are set free from the lies that blind you and lead you astray.
Jesus taught us this in John 8:32 "And you will know the truth and the truth will set you free." Grace is not an excuse to continue doing the wrong thing when you full well know it's wrong. In fact the Bible says in Romans 6:1 "Do we keep on sinning and abuse God's grace? God forbid!" Grace is actually the exact opposite. Grace is the knowledge that you deserve full punishment for what you've done yet Jesus chose to take all that punishment on Him that day on the cross instead of you. Grace prompts your heart to just humbly say "Thank you Jesus..." and not "I'm justified in all I do because of God's grace" while you continue in blatant sin harming yourself and others. The Bible says in Titus 2:12 that "God's grace teaches us to do the right thing, and to deny the impulses to sin" - not that God's grace is an excuse to stay in rebellion and sin. I'll use myself as an example to reinforce this. I was an addict to some very shameful and life robbing practices for probably a good two thirds of my life. Even though I was a "church going Christian" I couldn't break free of these things no matter how hard I tried. I think my best effort once was to last 3 days but then I was dragged back into the same horrible and shameful existence.
No one in the church could help me and no one spoke of these things because I believe they too all were slaves to it just like me. None of them knew the truth and none of them were set free because if they were, they would have spoken about it and been able to help me. They were all just desperately trying to hide it from being seen and keep up their pretty little religious facades in front of each other. What happened to me is this... I almost died. I got to the point of suicide and very close to losing my mind then something truly amazing happened. God opened my eyes to the pain my life was causing my family and those that loved me so I came clean to them about everything. I allowed them to pray for me and to tell people they trusted to pray for me too. Within 3 days, God appeared to me and ripped out of me an evil that had lived in me for far too long. It was this evil in me that was driving me and had me chained to this horrible sin for years and years. Since that day which is now years ago, I've been free all thanks to Jesus and His immeasurable grace for me. You see, I deserved every bit of punishment for all the things I had done but God in His grace chose to set me free.
A 'get out of jail free card'. Why? Because He had plans for me. He saw past my addictions and saw a vessel that just needed to be cleaned before it could be used. That day my life changed forever all because of Jesus and His amazing grace for me. Honestly, there is no way the guy I was back then could write these things but I can today because of God's grace. So now that I'm set free from all those horrible things that haunted me day and night do I go right back and do the same things knowing that God's grace is always with me? Absolutely No! I ain't ever going near that stuff again as long as I live. To tell the truth Jesus said these words to me "Mark, you're now free. You'll stay free as long as you don't let them back in..." Jesus said the same thing to a paralyzed man He healed in John 5:14. So for me, Grace is an understanding of how truly lost, hopeless and broken I was before Jesus intervened. Grace prompts my heart to an attitude of gratitude and also teaches me to avoid going back to that place and those things that robbed my life and caused me so much pain. So I hope that helps explain God's grace to you in a plain and useful way that reaches your heart. God's grace is an outward expression of His limitless love for us to save and help us even when we don't deserve it.
God's grace and man's grace are two very different things. Man's grace is to overlook or ignore an offence pretending in ignorance that it never happened - but God's grace is the full knowledge of the crime and also the full payment for it provided on the cross through Jesus. And remember God says if we ever do sin, we always have Jesus there ready to forgive and defend us when we confess and turn from it in our hearts (1 John 1:9). God loves you. I pray that today His grace shines bright and leads you into the truth of what He says and sees you to be. Priceless, Amazing, Full of potential and Worth dying for. God loves you always. Stay Gold.
[ May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace - 2 Corinthians 1:2 ]
