Grace is such a beautiful word.
Forgiveness.
Pardon.
Unearned favor.
Second chances.
We name our churches Grace. We name our daughters Grace.
As we should, because grace truly is amazing.
But if we’re not careful, I think our idea of grace can slip towards a lie. That God has somehow changed His mind about holiness. That He cancelled the rules. Stopped caring about how we live. Learned to control His temper. Went to anger management during those undocumented years between the Old and New Testament. That our sin doesn’t matter.
Grace doesn’t mean “It doesn’t matter.”
Grace means “You can’t, so God did.”
If sin didn’t matter, grace wouldn’t be necessary. If we could accomplish it on our own, Jesus would not have come.
The beautiful gift of grace isn’t that God stopped caring about our sin, it’s that He cared so much that He did for us what we could not do for ourselves. Our transformation begins when we stop striving to do, and start to focus on what He’s done.
“Answer this question: Does the God who lavishly provides you with his own presence, his Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust him to do them in you?”
-Galatians 3:5-6 MSG
You can’t, so God did.
You can hear my whole message on this topic (plus more crazy stories about my aversion to power tools) by clicking here. A great resource for continued conversation on this topic is Tullian Tchividjian’s book Jesus + Nothing = Everything.
Pastor … If God could ever be proud of what His kids write about, I think He is smiling about this post. It hit the mark with me.
Blessings to you my brother.
Oh yes … my daughter Tara told me about your site. She sat under your ministry when she lived in Avon. Say hi to your mom for me.
Thank you Carl. I appreciate the encouragement….glad this spoke to you. It’s been speaking deeply to me.
Blessings to you….