Justifying Grace
God draws near to us with prevenient grace before we’ve even accepted him. But what saves us is not prevenient grace, but justifying grace, which is God's gift that forgives and washes away our sins so that we are clean and righteous in His eyes.
Derek Wilson always says "justified means just-as-if-I'd never sinned." I love that! God's forgiveness is a gift of grace, not something we can earn.
The Gift We Cannot Earn
I already hear some of you saying "yes we know this." But oh friends how often I sit with people and talk to them of their Christian journeys and I detect something in them saying "I hope I'm good enough in God's eyes." "I hope God sees that my goodness outweighs my sin." “I hope I’ll make it to heaven.”
Subtly, so many of us have come to believe that God is measuring us day by day and one day we are going to have to prove to Him that we have been good enough. After all, that's how the world works, isn't it? Prove your worth! The world shouts at us.
Some companies have changed their Christmas bonuses to be performance related. If you've proven yourself and worked the way you should, you'll get your bonus. If you haven't, then sorry for you. It's probably a good practice in business, but how many of us have begun to believe that God works this way? We think He looks at us saying prove your worth, and I will give you the amount of forgiveness you deserve. But that's not how God works. When it comes to forgiveness, it's not more and more striving to measure up. It's more and more grace!
Grace Beyond Performance
Listen to Paul's words on this, in his letter to Titus: "When the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 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, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:4-7).
My life was changed when I finally got it into my heart that God forgave me: not on the basis of my own earning it but because He loved me and I had received that love. The pressure lifted off my heart. And I could finally close my eyes and sing: You're a good good Father, it's who You are, And I'm loved by You, it's who I am!
I don't want to live this year wallowing in shame or feeling stained in God's eyes. I want to remember that grace means God's Riches at Christ's Expense. We are justified (just as if we’d never sinned), not by striving to show ourselves perfect but by His grace through His death on the cross. And this is the best news there is!
