God’s Grace

(Ephesians 2:8-10)

In trying to understand the grace of God there is no other scripture in the Bible that so succinctly defines it than these few verses.

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God– 9 not because of works, lest any man should boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8-10)

The depth and breadth of God’s grace is almost unimaginable. But at the same time it is quite simple to learn and understand.

What is God’s Grace?

This scripture gives us the best answer to this question.

God’s grace is a free gift from God, as the scripture says above in verse 8. It is not a gift given because of anything we do, that is, we cannot work for it or do works to receive God’s grace. It is given to any person on the grounds of their faith.

God’s grace is available to all mankind, but it is not given to everyone. It is given only to those who come to God seeking His grace. Those who choose to reject God do not receive His grace, not because God does not want to give it to them, but because they do not want it. They have been deceived by the devil to believe they are OK without God’s grace, and that is a real tragedy.

But what IS God’s grace? I have heard it best described as:

“The undeserved kindness and favour of God”

It is undeserved because we cannot do anything to deserve God’s grace. We cannot do any work or any other thing to deserve God’s grace and so it is always a gift and never a due payment for something done.

It is God’s kindness towards man because in His grace He chooses to overlook all of our sins and faults for the purpose of helping us to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. He wants us to be perfect as He is perfect, as we are told in Matthew 5:48.

And it is God’s kindness because He continues to overlook our weaknesses and failings that cause us to go astray even as we try to walk the straight and narrow path that leads to life. God knows that we are going to fall and fail as we walk. He knows we are going to make many mistakes n the pathway to perfection in His son, Jesus Christ. He accepts that we are all “works in progress,” not yet complete but on the way.

And when we do fall and fail, He is there to help us, to pick us up again and set us on the path once more when we turn to Him seeking His help. This is the kindness in God’s grace and it is without limits.

Why Grace?

God had already established a set of rules for man to live by in the laws and commandments given to Moses. These rule did not rely on grace but on compliance. Basically they said: keep the commandments or suffer the consequences.

But rules and regulations and sacrifices was not what God wanted for man.

What God truly sought for mankind was that people would appreciate Him for who He was, and give Him the praise and glory due to Him for all that He has done for mankind. After all, God created all that we can see and is worthy of the respect, praise, worship and adulation that should be forthcoming to Him.

But man rejected God.

Man chose to listen to the voice of the devil when Adam and Eve rejected the command of God and listened to the snake instead. In doing this they sinned against God.

Effectively, Adam and Eve “broke” God’s Creation by choosing to reject Him and following the traitorous devil. And the Creation has been broken ever since.

Man could not fix his own broken state and so there was a dilemma for God.

Think about it like this, if you break a china cup or plate, it cannot fix itself. There are two possible courses that typically could take place. Either you throw out the broken item, or you fix it.

God had these same two choices. Should He throw out mankind because we were broken, or should he “fix” us?

I imagine it must have been a tough decision, and there were at least two times when God was ready to “throw out” mankind by completely destroying the human race. He came close to this at the time of the flood, and fortunately Noah found favour in the eyes of God. If not for that one man there would be no human race today. And again, God wanted to destroy Israel and create a new nation from Moses, until Moses reasoned with God to turn away God’s wrath.

Thankfully God chose to “fix” us rather than throw us out and create a new version. And the “glue” He used to fix mankind was grace.

Since man could not fix himself, God had to intervene. He did this out of His kindness and love towards man and this is what grace is.

Without God’s grace man had no hope. There was no chance of ever returning to the state of perfection that God made man and there was only the ability to see it from afar but without ever being able to achieve it.

But through grace God has removed the chasm of sin that stands between man and God, enabling man to return to His maker and be healed of the sin that is transferred from each generation to the next.

I mentioned above that through God’s grace He has chosen to help us as we walk with and in Jesus Christ. It is by His grace that we receive all of the gifts of God, and especially the gift of the Holy Spirit.

This is why God bestowed His grace upon us: so that He could help us to be redeemed and restored to perfection.

If it were not for God’s grace we would be doomed. God would indeed appear to be a hard God seeking only the destruction of man.

But because of God’s grace we see God as one who helps, counsels, comforts and guides us to find the way of life and peace. He gives us all of His gifts for the purpose of coming to life with Him in His kingdom.

So let us be thankful for God’s grace and give Him the praise He is due. Seek to find His grace and live in God’s grace always for in it we have shelter, protection and the power to become the children of God. What a truly great blessing is God’s grace.

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