Do you understand Grace?

Do you understand grace? Is it difficult to wrap your mind around it?

Grace is such a hard thing to understand because it is so foreign to the way humans interact on a daily basis. Biblical grace is "unmerited favor" or if we say it the way I like to explain it: "power straight from God that we don't deserve; we don't know why God gave it but we thank Him because we know we need it". Neither of those definitions fit anything we run into in our daily lives.

Consider your job: if you work hard you expect the boss to treat you kindly, if you have a poor work ethic you expect the opposite. Consider the law: you do something bad you get punished, you obey the laws and the law tends to leave you alone. Relationships tend to work the same way: if you treat your significant other right they'll treat you right; if you start fights they'll fight back.

Every human interaction is based on this concept: "get what you deserve", and we are offended if anyone's actions transgress this unwritten human law. Now I don't point out this unwritten law to criticize it because we couldn't survive in this world without it. If we simply gave our money to whoever wanted it we'd be poor. If we gave our time to whoever happened to walk past us we'd get taken advantage of. Part of wisdom is learning how to get the best return on your time, attention, money and affections, but part of being a Christian is understanding that little of that applies to God.

"While we were yet sinners Christ died for us". This isn't normal human behavior, we don't just give people things especially when their behavior offends us, but God is different. He gives grace to those who could never deserve it and His power to those who could never earn it, at the same time, however, He alone has the right and authority to judge those who are outside of His grace. He's more than any human could be; He is God.

As Christians we have to realize this point: you can't earn God's love because He gives it freely. If we sin we have to recognize that we must confess and repent but throughout that process God will still be good to us. If we do good and dedicate ourselves wholly to the work of God He will still be good to us. The reason for Him being so good to us isn't us, its Him.

So if you get confused about grace or find it hard to understand don't fret. "His ways are higher than our ways". Let's just thank God for His wonderful gifts!