Grace means we do not get what we deserve. We do not deserve God’s love yet by his love and grace he brought
us salvation from the wages of sin which is death. Instead of the death we
deserved, we were given the gift of eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
That in itself is amazing but God continues to pour out grace upon us in our
continuing weakness and sin. The verse above assures us of that. The power of sin has been broken in our lives
once we have accepted Jesus’ salvation but we still battle sin in the ongoing
work of sanctification. Grace is given to help us in our weaknesses and to get
victory over sin. Grace gives us the second and third chance that we do not
deserve.
The problem though is that whilst God continues to show us
grace, we have great difficulty showing that same grace to others. Have you
ever wanted to sort out someone else’s life and sin? Have you ever wanted God
to give them what their sin deserved especially if they have hurt you? Have you
ever felt they were ‘lucky’ not to get what you felt they deserved? This is where God wants us to extend the same
grace to others that he has given us.
Forgiveness is the greatest expression of grace; God’s forgiveness to us
and our forgiveness to others.
Jesus is ‘full of
grace and truth’ John 1: 14 and always showed grace to sinners. The only
people Jesus got angry with were the religious leaders who were full of
unbelief and stubbornly refused to acknowledge the Messiah in their midst.
Sinners such as Zacchaeus, the woman caught in adultery, the man whose friends
let him down through the roof of the house, prostitutes and tax gathers were
all treated with grace and turned from their sin. They were not treated as the
Law demanded but with grace and love and consequently they had their sins
forgiven, much to the disgust of the religious leaders. They didn’t deserve
forgiveness but by grace they got it.
We too were treated with grace when Jesus reached down to us
in love and forgave us our sins. We need to ask God to help us to deal with
people in grace just as Jesus does. The world is full of sinners who do not
need to be told what they are – they know that – what they need is people
filled with the love of God and grace to take them by the hand and bring them
to Jesus where they will find the love and mercy they need. People do not need
our condemnation and criticism no matter what a mess they have made of their
lives. We have been shown grace – let us go and show that same grace to others.
