What is Grace?

What is Grace?

I’m all about that Grace, ‘bout that Grace

Maybe Grace to you is a girl you like, maybe Grace is something you say before dinner, maybe Grace is simple elegance to you, maybe Grace is a courteous good will that you do, maybe Grace is the polite manner you act… but Grace is very different in my eyes. God could have let us live on earth with no hope and He still would have been good because He created us anyways. But He did not do that, He sent his one and only son, so that we COULD have hope. “For God so loved the world so much that he gave His one and only son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16 NLT). But why did God did do that? Was it because we loved Him so much? Was it because we held the door open for the old lady at the store? Was it because we went one day driving with out trying to flip some one off? NO. God did this because He loves us. “This is real love – not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins” (1 John 4:10 NLT).

So let’s get to the major point of all of this. Who deserves Grace? Does anybody deserve Grace? No. None of us are good. Scripture even tells us that. “As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous  - not even one” (Romans 3:10 NLT).

  

Grace is an unmerited favor. God gives us what we do not deserve. So now that it is clear that NONE of us deserve this; tell me why recently there is so much judgment towards homosexuals? Do they not deserve grace just like us? So what these people are telling me are adulterers, drug abusers, sex addicts, perverts, and murders deserve grace but homosexuals do not? Oh so NOW people go look up the scripture which talks about homosexuality. “If a man practices homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman, both men have committed a detestable act. They must both be put to death, for they are guilty of a capital offense” (Leviticus 20:13 NLT). Welllllll, what about this? “Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people – none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10 NLT). I think that speaks for all of us. BUT, “Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11 NLT). So, to summarize this up; it is saying we were all like that at one point but then we were saved. For us to become saved, someone probably preached the gospel to us. AND THE GOSPEL IS GOOOOOOD NEWS.  So, how are we going to tell someone God hates them, when that is not the truth at all? What if we were the reason God brought those people into our lives?

 

 

                                              

But what are we supposed to do? We are SUPPOSED to show them the love of God. “If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3 NLT).  Also, let us not forget “Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32 NLT).

My prayer for everyone today is: Lord, even when it is hard for us to show love and grace, let us remember what you did for us. Help us love each other the way you love each and every one of us. In Jesus Name, Amen.

“Sometimes we are outright rude when we interact with people. We meet a gay guy or a couple living together, and we think we have the obligation and right to warn them what God thinks about their sexuality on our first meeting. As if their sex life is the first thing on God’s agenda.

It’s not.

Love is. Grace is. Mercy is. Jesus is.”

― Judah Smith, Jesus Is _______.: Find a New Way to Be Human