God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense
So let’s talk about the fact that God wants to pour more and more grace into our lives, as His precious children. For those who have come to know Jesus, and call themselves Christian, there is perhaps no word as important in our lives as the word grace.
Understanding God's Grace
It's been said that mercy is when you are spared something horrible that you deserve. And grace is when you are given something wonderful that you don't deserve.
And so we can say God is merciful because He offers to spare us the awful punishment we rightfully deserve. And we can say God is gracious in that He gives us wonderful gifts that we don't deserve.
Christmas has come and gone, and I wonder: have you forgotten the gifts that you received? Maybe some you're using, some you've forgotten about, some you've stashed away to regift! GRACE is God giving us gifts that we don't deserve – and gifts that would be tragic to discard.
Perhaps you're familiar with the old acronym for GRACE: God's Riches At Christ's Expense. Gifts given from God that we don't pay for... that cost us nothing... Because He paid the price for them. When Jesus died on the cross He unleashed GRACE on the world in a new way.
Grace is a Person
Do you want more of His grace in your life today? I do. But on the other hand, I learned something the other day that really got me thinking. In a podcast on the “Theology Project” YouTube channel, Dr Matt O’Reilly and Dr Bill Ury were talking about grace. And they began to talk about how grace isn’t a thing. It’s a person!
So when we ask God for more grace, we’re not asking him to empty a bucket of grace over us. We’re asking Him for more of Himself! Because grace is found in the person of God. The richness He gives is, in essence, the richness of Himself.
How do we get more of God? More of this richness? Well, we can’t earn it. It’s not something we can work our way up to earning. It is only by believing in Him as our Saviour, our God, our everything, that we begin to receive the grace of His presence. Jesus paid the price. We don’t have to pay to get it. We just have to believe.
Will it be a year of more grace for you? Draw near to Jesus. Put your faith in Him. Let your relationship with Him be the most important thing in your life.
And soon you’ll find your life is filled with more and more grace, because you find it in Him.
