Grace

The Rev. Paul McKim Laura Street Baptist Church

There are times in our lives when things just need to be simplified. We have walked through a season like that in our corporate experience. The shutdown of normalcy and the gradual return has caused us all to look at things and examine the value of much in our lives.

Coming out of Covid, I pray that we all have defined those things that are most precious in our lives. At times, it is important to stop and reflect and examine what is critical in our spiritual lives. There are many voices and much clamor for our attention and devotion in the realm of the spiritual; it behooves us to pause and see what we should value. When I stop at times to reflect, I always come back to the wonder of grace.

Grace is a much-used word in church life, but I fear a much underappreciated reality in the lives of believers. We often define grace as, “God’s unmerited favor.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book, “The Cost of Discipleship” said, “Grace is everything for nothing to those who don’t deserve anything.” A.W. Tozer said, “Grace is the good pleasure of God that inclines him to bestow benefits on the undeserving.” Someone once defined grace in the form of an acrostic saying that it is God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.

All these expressions of grace are helpful, but can’t begin to examine the depth and richness of grace as experienced by the saint of God. The Apostle Paul said it this way in the book of Ephesians, “but God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved.”

God’s word describes the fact that Jesus has taken upon himself our penalty. He has paid the price for our sin, and we can take his righteousness to ourselves. We can never deserve or earn this kind of goodness; it is all grace. God describes for us this kind of grace when he tells us that he made him who knew no sin, to become sin, that we might become the righteousness of Christ.

We welcome that kind of saving grace into our lives, but that is not the only kind of grace described in God’s word. God tells us that he gives us grace to sustain, or to empower us. God tells us he gives us grace to refine us. If we are the recipients of such love beyond limit, should we not practice bestowing that same kind of grace upon others?

Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers. He was sold in Egypt, then fled for righteousness from Potiphar’s wife and was rewarded by being cast into prison and forgotten. After a long string of events, Joseph finds himself interpreting a dream for Pharoah. Joseph is raised to lead Egypt and becomes the very agent of deliverance for his family. When his brothers come to buy grain from Egypt, Joseph meets them with grace.

As believers we have been embraced by grace. This kind of embrace demands that we share that same grace with others. We are currently a culture without grace. May we be change agents in a world that desperately need Jesus.