I’ve been stopped by the police a few times over my 50-plus years of driving. Most of those times I’ve received a ticket. I felt terrible! Once or twice I didn’t get a ticket when the officer could have given me one, extending me grace. I felt great! There are other times when I’ve been extended grace by different people, often by my wife. Every time I’ve experienced grace from someone I’ve felt great!
There’s no greater giver of grace than God! Whatever God does, He goes all out, and that includes His extending grace. Just to be clear on what God’s grace is, here’s how A. W. Tozer defines it in his book Knowledge of the Holy. “Grace is the good pleasure of God that inclines Him to bestow benefits upon the undeserving.” Putting it in my own words, the grace of God is His undeserved favor toward us. It’s only by God’s grace that we can have a right relationship with Him.
There’s a video on YouTube of a street preacher being asked a question by someone listening to him. The person asked, “What are the parameters to get into heaven?”
The preacher replied, “Perfection.”
The woman asked, “So is anyone in heaven right now?”
The preacher said, “Yes.”
She asked, “And they were perfect?”
“No,” the preacher replied.
“How’s that possible?” the woman asked.
The preacher replied, “Grace.”
The preacher then gave her the good news about God’s grace in a nutshell. He said something to the effect that we’re all sinful and deserve judgment, because God is just and has to have sin paid for. (This should not surprise us, even we mere mortals want justice to be done.) But, God had a plan; He sent His own Son to be born as one of us. This Son, Jesus, never sinned while on earth, but He died for our sins, taking our punishment upon Him. Because of what He did we’re offered His free gift of forgiveness. All we have to do is accept it. We can’t earn it; it’s a gift we can only receive.
If you’re looking for a specific place in the Bible where this good news about God’s grace is put in the proverbial nutshell you can do no better than go to Romans 3:22-24. “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Note the operative word “grace” in the passage. No wonder the most loved of all Christian hymns is “Amazing Grace.”
There are many religions in the world, and we ought to respect everyone’s right to believe what they want. All religions have their unique aspects, and one aspect that makes the Gospel of Christ (Christianity) unique is that it’s all about God’s grace. Most religions focus on what we need to do to earn favor with God, to get right with Him. Not so with the Gospel about Jesus. We don’t have to work at earning a right relationship with God, in fact we can’t. It’s only by the grace of God that we can be His person, in a relationship with Him, now and forever. There’s great relief in believing that. Yes, God’s grace is great!
“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
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