GRACE

Is grace, to you, in the grab-bag of pleasant sounding Christian words, but not more? Do you understand what grace means to the believer?

Grace is the bedrock on which our salvation is built. Grace is that which every good gift, especially the ability to believe, is given.

What good things exist in your life? These are due to God’s good grace. From the air that gives you life, to your very life itself, there is nothing great or small that you call good which does not come from His hand. In our common parlance, grace is but the talent to be steady when on uneven footing. We diminish the notion of grace as but graciousness. The grace of one human unto another cannot compare to the grace of God to His sinful, rebellious creation.

The reformers believed we are saved by faith alone (sola fide) through grace alone (sola gratia). So our faith, not our works, saves us, but this faith is provided to us by His grace. While we were but sinners, Christ came to seek and save the lost. This concept is grace defined.

At any rate, ‘Amazing Grace’ is just that – amazing. It comes to us while we are mired in the depths of sin, and promises to lift us from there to the presence of the most holy. We may not always be able to appreciate this grace in the greater picture by which God sees it, but look to the small things in your life that come from His hand... and be thankful.