God’s amazing grace

Out of the fullness of his grace he has blessed us all, giving us one blessing after another. God gave the Law through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is the same as God and is at the Father’s side, he has made him known. (verses 16-18)

Read John 1:10-18

Philip Yancey, in his book ‘What’s so Amazing about Grace?’, defines grace like this: ‘Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us more . . . and there is nothing we can do to make God love us less’. If you have doubts about this, turn to the Bible and examine the kind of people God loves. David, a murderer and adulterer, becomes the greatest king of Old Testament times. A man who had done nothing but evil is promised by Jesus, ‘Today you will be with me in Paradise’. Saul, a torturer of Christians, becomes the greatest missionary of all time and an apostle of grace, a servant of Jesus Christ.

We live our lives in such a sharp contrast to the way God wants us to live and, according to human reasoning, God ought to inflict on us some terrible punishment. And this is where grace seems so illogical. Instead of turning his back on us, God still loves us. He won’t give up on us. He sent his Son, Jesus, to take on himself the cost for our sinfulness. He died a cruel death for our benefit—not because we deserve it but precisely because we don’t deserve it. As Yancey says, ‘Grace costs nothing for the recipient but everything for the giver’.

God of all grace, thank you for your powerful love. Help me to be full of your grace towards other people. Amen.

by Vince Gerhardy, in ‘Guidance for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 2002)

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