Wednesday Wonders: The Wonder of His Grace

Have you ever thought to yourself (in an “I’m certainly above that” kind of way) how unbelievably appalling someone’s behavior is—or even gone so far as to scoff at or sort of look down on them because of it? Most of us would be ashamed to admit it—but we probably have done it. When we do that, I believe our attitude does not reflect God’s heart for that person. Ironically, when we behave in that way, we are forgetting the very vehicle of our “new life in Christ”—grace.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.…” (Ephesians 2:8-9). It’s not of us, so how can we act as if we’re somehow better than anyone else? We become like the Pharisee, who stood by himself and prayed, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector’ (Luke 18:11).

Perhaps we haven’t committed the same sins or been involved in the same negative behaviors (or maybe we have but have forgotten the “log” that was in our own eye), but we certainly could have been. We’ve all fallen short of God’s grace in one way or another, and often we fail to acknowledge all the potential hardship it has prevented us from—thus the well-known idiom, ‘There but for the grace of God go I.’ This means, essentially, “I would likely have experienced or done the same bad thing if God had not been watching over me.”

Paul clearly states in I Corinthians 15:10 that all he had become was not because of himself—but because of God’s grace: “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them--yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” Paul was abundantly grateful of and aware of God’s grace in his life, marveling often at where he had been and where he could have ended up apart from God’s redeeming grace. None of us truly knows in what situation we may have found ourselves if Christ had not, through grace, taken hold of us (Philippians 3:12).

And so, Paul admonishes the Roman believers (chapter 12, verse 3) “…not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” And the credit for this urging goes to “the grace given unto [him].” Grace is God’s operational power—it is the means by which we are saved, as well as the means by which we serve the Lord—this can include discipling others, evangelism, ministering to the poor, etc.—anything God tells us to do requires His grace in order to accomplish it.

So when grace is not being activated—i.e., we are walking in pride and judgment of others—it would seem that the converse would also be true, that exercising a lack of grace enables us to do what God asks us not to do. In Matthew 7:1-2, Jesus says, ““Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Ouch. A lack of grace seems to go hand-in-hand with a lack of compassion—and therefore, mercy. This type of hypocritical judgment (remember, it’s an attitude of the heart) is contrary to the character of God. He is “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love” (Psalm 145:8).

I’m not saying that we ignore destructive patterns if we can lovingly assist someone in altering them—free of judgment. Neither am I saying that we should allow ourselves to be abused or our healthy boundaries to be trampled on. What I am saying is that if the Lord’s mercies are new every morning, shouldn’t ours be also? And won’t more grace abound in our lives as we extend His grace to others? “Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again. Give portions to seven, yes to eight, for you do not know what disaster may come upon the land” (Ecclesiastes 11:1-2) means, figuratively, that if one shows liberal generosity it will be returned to him or her at a time when it is most needed. Do we not all desire grace to abound in our lives? Let us then be generous in our distribution of it—for it truly is a wonder, both to give and to receive.