A Re-Post on Grace
The ultimate story of rags to riches!
His grace displayed
in saving the worst men
Behold, God’s riches
of grace are a Person (Jesus)
Christ, the fountain
abounding in His grace
Over my foul sin and
mountains of mistakes
In pleasure He’s immeasurably gracious
Now we’re seated with Jesus in the heavenly places.
~ Shai Linne
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
~ Ephesians 2:4-9
Oh, beloved, there are days of clarity that He will give us if we will but ask – and then let Him come. And short moments of spiritual revelation are almost always validated almost immediately by a torrent of correlating data AND intense spiritual attack.
Today was one of those days.
Over the years, this writer has understood that grace is a gift from G_d. And this gift has been provided to us at the expense of our Savior. Grace is a gift… Yeah, I thought, but I have to open it (like a beautiful Christmas gift or something). This view is partially true, but almost totally incomplete.
Then, about a year ago, it became clear that grace is not just a pretty gift. Grace is an epic-ginormous flood of His riches and goodness towards us. And grace is the power to do His will. This view, too, is true, but…
Today He showed up and made something clear… i guess it takes a theologian at least a couple decades to begin to understand the tenets of our Faith…
Grace is not an energy. It is Him.
For by Grace are you saved… Just like He is Love. He is Grace.
I was digitizing Grace… making it into some thing or energy to be applied in life, like an engineering problem of energy transfer (and needing to maintain efficiency). In my thinking – grace was from Him, but i did not grasp it AS HIM.
Upon reflection, this downgrade of Grace in my thinking was a huge lapse. Like A.W. Tozer said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”
So, yes, G_d is gracious. But this is simply Him being Himself. Again, this is just like the truth that G_d is loving. But in Him being loving – He is simply being Himself.
So, are we catching this? Grace is not just good stuff from a good G_d. Grace is G_d giving us His very Self… All the real righteousness… All the peace… All the joy… All the Presence of Himself in our lives.
Grace is His Life saturating and consuming and replacing our life.
Grace is not a force to be wielded. It is His Power in us.
