It is commonly said that Christianity is supremely a religion of
grace. And that is certainly true. We sing about grace … we write poems about
grace … we name our churches and sometimes our children after grace. If you ask
us … we certainly believe in grace. But outside our worship services … the word
is rarely on our lips. Think about it.
Part of our problem is
in the nature of grace itself. Grace is hard to accept … hard to believe … and
hard to receive. We all have certain skepticism when a telemarketer tells us,
“I’m not trying to sell you anything. I just want to offer you a free trip to
Hawaii.” Automatically we wonder, “What’s the catch?” … because we have all
been taught that “there is no such thing as a free lunch.”
The truth is grace
shocks us in what it offers. It is truly not of this world. It frightens us
with what it does for sinners.
Grace teaches us that
God does for others what we would never do for them. We would save the
not-so-bad. God starts with prostitutes and then works downward from there.
Grace is a gift that costs everything to the giver and nothing to the receiver.
It is given to those who don’t deserve it … barely recognize it … and hardly
appreciate it.
It doesn’t take me long
to realize … God is a lot more gracious than I am!
You know how I know
that? Because He saves people I wouldn’t save if I were God. He blesses people
I wouldn’t bless if I were God. He uses people in His service I wouldn’t use if
I were God. Is that true of you, too?
Which is why I’m glad
He’s God and I’m not. The Bible says that He is “the compassionate and gracious
God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness,” [Exodus 34:6] … and
that is good news for sinners like me. VERY good news!
The doctrine of grace
may be the hardest doctrine in the Bible to accept. It’s not that grace is hard
to understand. We know what the word means. Our problem comes in the
application. Grace asks us to accept two things we don’t want to accept:
First … there is nothing
we can do to save ourselves.
And second … if God
doesn’t save us, we will never be saved.
Nothing more clearly
summarizes the true meaning of grace than the simple phrase found in Jonah 2:9,
“Salvation is of the Lord.” There it is
… right out in the open.
That statement is both
striking and humorous because it comes from the world’s worst missionary. But
that’s the beauty of the story of Jonah … because he is not the hero of the
story. God is! At the beginning Jonah is running from God; at the end he is
arguing with God. In between he is praying and preaching. That’s no hero! But
it is a man of grace!
This book of Jonah is
about God. It’s obvious when you realize the great fish is mentioned four times
… the city of Nineveh is mentioned nine times … Jonah is mentioned 18 times …
and God is mentioned 38 times. This book is really about God and how great His
heart is toward prodigal sons and daughters who run away from Him. God never
gives up on Jonah … not when he runs away … and not when he sits under a vine
and pouts.
Here is the take-away
lesson for all of us: We are so much like Jonah that it’s scary. There’s a
little Jonah in all of us … and a whole lot of Jonah in most of us. That’s why
we need … not just grace … but outrageous grace!
Have a great weekend in
the Lord … basking in the sunshine of God’s outrageous grace!
“For it is by grace you
have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift
of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” [Ephesians 2:8-9]
