Chapter Three
The Grace of God and Jesus
“However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me - the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace” (Acts 20 v 24).
These are the sentiments of the apostle Paul as he shares with us what is deepest and dearest to his heart - the grace of God. He was so eager to tell people about it and felt so passionate about it that he wanted to share it with everyone he came across. He hoped that people would respond to God’s undeserved kindness to them, and share in a life of peace with their Creator, having been forgiven for their wrong, sinful, rebellious ways. For trying to pass on this amazing message he was beaten and outcast, by even those who used to be his friends. Ultimately he was killed for trying to share this gospel of grace.
Not only are forgiveness and reconciliation on offer, through grace, but also the hope of Eternal Life. God is prepared to forgive our wicked ways, which truly deserve death, according to the law, and give us the gift of eternal life which we do not deserve (Rom 6 v 23) - this is indeed grace. Unfortunately, no matter how hard we work at it, there is really no way to escape from the fact that we will end up dead. Scientists are trying to dream up ways to stop us from dying, and many, many religious people have even come to the conclusion that death is really a release from some physical jail (our bodies), and that on death, we are released to a life of bliss in eternity with God. They have made death equal life.
Although there are a variety of thoughts and convictions on the matter, we all really and truly end up as dust, dead, as the Bible so plainly describes in many places: Genesis 3 v 19; Psalm 89 v 47-48; Ecclesiastes 9 v 5-6 and 10; Ezekiel 18 v 4; 1Cor.15 v 20-23; 1Thess.4 v 13-14; and Heb.11 v 8-13.
Being gracious is a part of God’s character. When the name of our Heavenly Father was proclaimed to Moses in Exodus 34 v 6, He was described this way: “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and GRACIOUS God, slow to anger, abounding in love”. Also in 2 Chron. 30 v 9 we are told “The Lord your God is gracious and compassionate. He will not turn his face from you if you return to Him”. Nehemiah 9 v 17 says, “But you are a forgiving God, GRACIOUS and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them”.
This last sentence refers to God’s people, whom Moses had brought out of Egypt. It was not long before they “became arrogant, stiff necked, and did not obey your commands. They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them”. In fact they were so rebellious that they wanted to throw Moses out of the leadership and set a new leader over them to take them back to slavery in Egypt! Yet, it says of God, “You did not desert them”, even though they deserved to be deserted. That equals grace.
Legally and justly, God might have left them to rot in the desert. After all, “the law came through Moses”, and under the law their rebellion should be dealt with by death. But this is not the character of our God. Thankfully, He showed His Love by being gracious beyond measure to them, as we are reminded in Psalm 103 v 10-13 “He does not treat us as our sins deserve, or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him”. Indeed, “The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.”
“The Lord is good to all; He has compassion on all He has made” (Ps 145 v 8, 9). “The Lord longs to be gracious to you. He rises to show you compassion” (Isaiah 30 v 18).
Even though the Old Testament is full of affirmations and examples of God’s grace, most of the people still did not really understand just how gracious He really was. This is strange. With such glorious reflections on the character of our Father in the Holy Scriptures, it is a wonder that there could be any room for doubt. But such is the nature we possess; we have the ability to make darkness out of the brightest light.
God knew that we were still not convinced of how gracious and loving He is. He knew that from the moment we were created. Nevertheless, He determined that He would not stop until the full measure of His grace was poured out to us. And so the grace of God was revealed through the Lord Jesus Christ. In John 1v 17 we are to told, “The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ”.
And what a challenging revelation the grace of God proved to be - and still proves to be - up to this very day. In Luke 1 v 40 we are told of Jesus “The child grew and became strong; He was filled with wisdom and the GRACE of God was upon Him”. In Luke 4 v 22 again “All spoke well of Him and were amazed at the GRACIOUS words that came from His lips”.
Jesus came proclaiming a loving God that the people had not even begun to imagine, having a heart of compassion and grace for those who were not acceptable by the religious or secular standards of the day. Jesus came offering grace to even those who were thought to be supremely unclean, the lepers. He even allowed himself to be touched by the wicked (Luke 7 v 37-50).
In His stories, Jesus shared His insights about the forgiving, loving, compassionate, gracious and joyful God that our Heavenly Father is. One of the most challenging and memorable of his stories would surely have to be the parable of the merciful father in Luke 15 v 11–31. Think about it and see where you fit into the picture. It is a story about the truly gracious, loving heart of our Heavenly Father. It is also the story of a son who wants to go his own way, leave the family home, take his share of the inheritance and go and do his own thing. The son ends up losing all his inheritance in wild living, in the end not even being able to afford enough food to eat. Who wouldn’t say, “Serves him right!” I have certainly felt like that. We can even find Bible verses to support such a response, for example Proverbs. 5 v 23; and 10 v 4; and the popular saying, “We reap what we sow”.
Not so with the father in this story. We don’t find this father sitting down inside the house, sulking in his self-righteousness, ready to justly punish him, thinking about how much money his son has wasted, and how it will have to be repaid in order for him to find favour with the family again. Instead this father is not reasonable at all. We find him pouring out grace and love on his undeserving, wayward son. I love his response, which is recorded in Luke 15 v 20-24 , "While he was still a long way off, his father saw him (he had to be looking for him, surely) and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him....The father said to the servants, “Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him, put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf, let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again: he was lost and is found. So they began to celebrate.”
I can imagine that the listeners were shocked and dumbfounded. Yet, Jesus was telling the listeners, and us, the readers, what God is like. Do you believe it, a God of such love, compassion and grace? You had better believe it, because we are all, to a greater or lesser extent, just like the wild-living son.
The reason I love this dad’s response is that I need our Heavenly Father and Jesus to respond to me in the same way. In fact, we all need the grace of God to reach out and touch us. We have all been like sheep that have strayed out of the way, our sins having separated us from God. All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We all have the heart that is described in Jer.17 as being deceitful and beyond cure, and it would seem that most of us have done things that we would not like others to know about. But God is there and He knows our lives inside out. There is nothing that is hidden from Him. He actually knows us better than we know ourselves, which is a very humbling awareness to have.
Although God knows us and our weakness and wickedness, as our Father he is always wanting us to return to him, ready to celebrate with rejoicing in heaven (Luke 15 v 6,10,32) when we repent and determine in our hearts to follow Jesus.
This is typical of God’s grace and love. He has taken the initiative in reaching out to us in a very clear and unmistakable way, by giving us His own dear sinless Son, Jesus, to be our saviour. Millions of people have heard the name “Jesus”, and are aware that it means “saviour”, an indication that God’s message of grace is for everyone.
As we noted above, it was Paul’s life’s labour to complete the task of testifying to the gospel of grace. Paul himself had experienced God’s undeserved kindness being richly poured out on him, and he wanted to let everybody know how wonderful it is to share in the blessings of joy and forgiveness, and the hope of eternal life.
In 1 Tim 1 v 13,14 Paul says of his conversion: “Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord Jesus was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and the love that are in Christ Jesus”.
Under God’s justice, Paul was worthy of death. Under God’s grace, found only in Jesus, Paul was given a new start. This new start, this peace with God, is on offer to all of us, as stated in Titus 3 v 7 “So that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs, having the hope of eternal life”.
Romans 3 v 23-24 tells us, “For all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus”. 1Tim 2 v 4 says that God “wants all men saved”, having come to a knowledge of the truth. The extent of God’s desire to have us become part of His family and share in His grace and the blessings that flow from it, is described in Rom 5 v 8: “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”. God had His Son treated as a sinner deserves, so that the sinner could share with Christ in the eternal life that Christ deserves, by having faith in what was done for us (Isaiah 53; 1Pet 2 v 24; 2 Cor 5 v 21; 2 Cor 8 v 9).
“Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me,
I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see.”
These words are true for all who come to understand the gospel, the good news of God’s grace in all its marvelous truth.
So now we wait - but let us not be idle. We are encouraged by Peter “to prepare our minds for action; to be self controlled; to set our hope fully on the grace to be given us when Jesus Christ is revealed from heaven”.
Until then, may the spirit of the living God and his Son, Jesus, burn in you with all power and love as you “Proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour” and tell others about the wonderful things the Lord has done for you.
