Grace

My buddy Jess blogged this on Facebook the other day and I wanted to share it with you. He is one of my favorite people to talk with about the scriptures and spiritual things. I think you'll see why when you read this.

In the spring of 1993 an amazing thing happened to me that changed the entire course of my life. I had a supernatural encounter and a taste of the grace that is part of the character of God. From that day till now I have been in pursuit of an understanding of the grace that pursued me.

Some of the things that I have discovered:
First grace is a person. He is the essence of God and the heart of all that is good. His name is Jesus Christ. Not the Jesus that is portrayed on stained-glass or in Hollywood, but rather the healer of the sick, the one who raised the dead, the one who has compassion on the prostitute as well as the preachers. Looking into the eyes of this man is to see into the soul of God Himself. Jesus came to show us that God was not the God we were making Him out to be. He was not a cosmic cop in the sky that was without feelings. He (God) could be human and experience all the good and the bad that life had to offer. This is the person of Grace.

Second Jesus came to accomplish many things, reconciliation, true servant leadership, restoration, and freedom. The scriptures never say that Jesus came to save us from hell. They do however tell us that He came to save us from our sin. This is good news. Actually this is great news. It wasn’t hell that was separating us from experiencing the heart of God, it was our own sin. Jesus brought to the table a new law, the law of the spirit of life, and it makes us free from the law of “sin” and death.

Grace assures us that no matter what we have done or how often we have done it we are set free from it. So we find that God is not mad or even saddened by our humanistic behavior but rather it is part of His plan for redemption of all men. We do reap what we have sown in this life. There is a wage that must be paid for our sin and the wage is death. Death encompasses much more than just the act of life lost. It is loss of dominion. We are repeatedly told to choose life in scriptures and we as men have been given great responsibilities to fill the earth (an act of life) and subdue it (an act of dominion). This “life” is accomplished though grace.

Thirdly I would say that grace is far more powerful an agent then we have made it out to be. I would go as far as to say if you don’t realize that you can do something awful in the eyes of man and still be forgiven by God then you don’t really understand grace. No I am not saying do them (the sins) Romans 6:1 asks do we continue in sin so that grace may abound? Certainly not! Grace is not a license to sin it is freedom from sins. God created this life for us to enjoy and we all have part to play in life itself. Grace is the factor that keeps all things in harmony. I once read about an early church father who would bend over and look at the earth up side down. Once when he did this one of his followers asked why, his reply was that, “grace keeps it all hanging”.

Grace is the good news that changes the hearts of men. Grace is more powerful than our traditions and denominational views. Grace is the goodness of God in operation in this life. Grace has the ability to overcome any sin and any sinner. As a matter of fact the greater the sin the greater the grace available.

Grace is one of the greatest expressions of love. God is love. Grace is an expression of the heart of God towards you. Fall into the arms of grace and embrace all of it. Grace is coming for you! A great flood of His grace is upon and is covering the whole earth.