I have been doing a series at Lifegroup on grace and unbeknownst to me I experienced real grace up close and personal. But more on that later. Here is my definition of grace: the unmerited favor of God toward man giving him both the power and the will to serve Him.
As I thought about grace for daily living and what it means practically, I thought about two things. The first is that in order to apprehend this grace we need to really understand our powerless state (our weakness)(see II Cor. 12:9). We need to dispel the silly idea that we can do anything to please God. The notion that God is more pleased with us when we have a quiet time, or read our Bible or turn off the TV during a provocative scene is not Biblical. God is not more or less pleased with us by what we do. He is pleased by the condition of our heart - a broken and contrite heart. That brings me to my story. About a week ago Luana was telling me about an issue and I did not understand what she was saying, and I got angry for no reason. I went into my room and to bed. As I lay down I tried to understand why I got mad and could not come up with a single reason. Then it really hit me as I realized that I have a very wicked heart. That stayed with me as I got up the next morning for my quiet time and I spent the morning in confession. The amazing thing is that I then had an incredible day of closeness to Jesus. The lesson for me was that God works mightily in hearts that are broken and yielded to Him.
The second idea is that we apprehend this grace by hard work. That sounds somewhat contradictory to our understanding of grace so let me explain. In I Cor. 15:9-10 Paul explains that he is who he is by the grace of God - but then says that it was effective as he worked harder than all of the rest of the apostles. The key is the motivation. When we work hard to please God we dispense with grace, but when we work hard because we are thankful for what He has done for us realizing that we do not deserve it, then grace flows. Saving grace is free, but sanctifying grace is about discipline and working hand in hand with God (see Phil. 2:12-13). He has given us work to do (Eph.2:10) and will give us the grace abundantly for every good work (II Cor. 9:8).
Lastly I want to point out that the last two parts to the definition are extremely important and are what distinguishes Christianity from religion. Religion (even Christianity as religion) is man's attempt to reach out to God to please Him and to appease Him. Thus it is works based and will never achieve the goal. True Christianity is God reaching out to man in his pitiful sinful state for no reason other than His love for man and providing everything to restore that relationship. Not only does he do that but He also gives us the desire to serve Him and more importantly the power to do it. Desire without power results in Paul's condition in Roman's 7. On the other hand, power without desire results in all sorts of problems.
May God grant us all the ability to appreciate His marvelous grace.
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