Grace is…

Grace is messy. You don’t wash up before receiving grace. We treat grace like a first date, trying to dress and act in such a way to attract the other. But Grace is not for the clean and attractive. Grace reaches down into the grave through the gunk of our sin to the rotten flesh of our spiritual bodies to give us new life. He says, “Bring me your troubles. Bring me your dysfunctional lives. Bring me your blush-inducing sins. Those things can’t stop me.” This is Grace.

Grace is more than forgiveness. Sure, Grace takes away the guilt and condemnation that we deserve, but there is so much more. Grace changes you. He says, “Your sins are forgiven,” and then He proceeds to rip those sins out of your life like the little green-thumbed lady next door yanks the weeds out of her flower bed. Grace is life-altering. Go ask the apostle Paul. He held men’s coats while they bashed in a man’s skull with large stones. Think about that for a second. He helped kill a man because that man was preaching the message of the gospel. Then, he met Grace. And everything changed. He went from persecutor to the persecuted. More importantly, he went from swimming in the sewage of his sin to being swept along in a river of righteousness. You can too. That’s what happens when you meet Grace.

Grace is always there. We don’t meet Grace, get set on the right path, and head off on our own. No, Grace picks us up and carries us along. He says, ” I will never leave you nor forsake you.” You don’t wear out your welcome with Grace because His love has been set upon from before time was created, and it will last long after time has been lost in the ocean that is eternity.

Grace is personal. This is no impersonal force that makes us happy. Grace is a man born in Bethlehem to a young mother, who named Him Jesus. He walked this earth, worked as a carpenter, and told jokes with a Middle Eastern accent. He was born and lived to die so that He could pour His grace upon all of us. He felt the nails pierce His hands and feet, felt the spear rip through His side, and felt the full wrath of an infinitely holy God.

All so that you and I could experience Grace.