Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Philippians 1:2
God’s grace was the prized topic of the Apostle Paul. But not solely Paul, also John Newton, writer of “Amazing Grace”, was one who greatly valued the extravagant grace of God. He wrote this regarding grace—
“I am not what I might be, I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I wish to be,
I am not what I hope to be; but I thank God I am not what I once was,
and I can say with the great apostle, ‘By the grace of God I am what I am.’”
From the pen of D.L. Moody comes this keen observation of grace—“The law tells me how crooked I am. Grace comes along and straightens me out.”
Paul poses the most critical question any person can ask—“O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
Thousands of years before Paul’s inquiry, Job asks the same question—“But how can a man be righteous before God?”
John Stott defined grace as—“Grace is love that cares and stoops and rescues.”
And now soak in the words from Romans 3:23-25—“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed.”
From Ephesians 2:7-9—“That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast.”
From Romans 5:20-21—“…where sin abounded grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Amazing and beyond what we might ever consider… the rescuing reality of God’s grace…
Romans 5:8—“God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Paul, Newton and Moody wrote on grace, we are wise to speak with grace, certainly to be gracious with our words. We ought also to speak of grace. “Let your speech always be with grace…” – from Colossians 4:6. God’s grace indeed loves, cares, stoops and rescues!
Maranatha!