I Know God is Gracious, But What Is Grace?

I, like all Christians around the world, know that God is abundant in grace. However, until recently, I couldn’t begin to tell you anything about grace. In modern Christianity, grace has become a buzzword that has lost it’s meaning due to overuse (and misuse). So what is it? Why does God show it to us? Why does it matter?

Grace can be simply defined as “the unmerited favor of God.” However, there is much, much deeper meaning that you have to feel before you can understand grace. God’s grace is revealed to us by His word and the death and subsequent resurrection of His son Jesus Christ. Similarly, agape is one of many Greek words for love, but it represents the deepest form of love. You feel it deep within your heart and soul. God’s agape love and grace are two parts of his divine character. In fact, His deep, reckless love for us is the reason he shows us grace.

“Grace is cool and all, but why is it important?” Several of you are probably asking this question. Let me explain using my own personal realization of grace.

Growing up, I was always a Type A personality. I always meticulously overprepared for everything. As a result, I hardly ever failed. When I did fail, I became my biggest critic. According to my mother, I used to slap my own hands as a toddler whenever I did something wrong. This unfortunate self-harshness carried over when I became a Christian. Every time I gave in to my temptations, I gave myself a lot of grief. It was so bad in fact, that I often questioned if I was even a Christian anymore. 

Eventually, I decided to do the one thing no guy likes doing: open up. However, God can only sanctify us when we become vulnerable to Him and to others. This is why community is so important. So I went to our RUF intern and laid the whole thing out in front of him. I detailed all the temptations that I faced and constantly caved into. How could I be a Christian if I failed to resist the things that were sinful? Why would He still love me? After lots of prayer and scripture reading (which I will come back to later), I finally began to understand grace. Remember when I said grace had to be felt to be understood? This is where it gets important. 

Every man and woman is totally depraved apart from God. This means that no matter what, it is nature that  we choose sin unless God intervenes. Grace is the unmerited favor of God and because of this he has made it so that when we fall back on our sinful nature, he still covers us with his righteousness (not ours) and hears our repentance. It is the key to the shackles of sin that have weighed us down since The Fall. When I realized this, it felt like a sack of bricks being lifted off my shoulders. The feeling of grace is the feeling of a lifted burden heavier than any man could bear. There was nothing that I could to completely separate myself from God. Because of his love and mercy he would pursue me to the ends of the Earth to bring me back to the flock. And what did I do to deserve this? Nothing. God chose us before the foundation of the Earth and knew that we would fall short. He paved a path but knew there would still be pitfalls. However, because of grace, he rescues us from the pit when we fall in and holds our hand the rest of the way. Grace means that we can live life without fear of our righteousness falling short because he clothes us in his righteousness. Grace also transforms us from checklist Christians into redeemed children of King of the Universe who have a healthy, loving relationship with him eternally. 

As promised earlier, here are some bible verses dealing with grace that I like to pray through and meditate on:

Romans 11:6 (My personal favorite)

Titus 2:11

Ephesians 2:8-9

Romans 3:20-24

I pray that we would all remember His grace and the sacrifice of His son Jesus so that we may live our best lives for Him. My hope is that fellow Christians will be reminded of this truth of the gospel and be renewed and that the nonbelievers will be further intrigued to explore His grace and love for themselves. Peace be with y’all.