The Gift of Grace

What is grace? Many have had difficulty understanding grace.  We know it with our heads, but do not have a true knowledge of it in our hearts.


Grace is defined in the dictionary as the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and bestowals of blessings.

 

An unmerited favor? Grace is a
gift freely given to someone who does not deserve it. God's grace is His eternal gift of salvation and the daily blessings we receive. A youth pastor once summed grace up as is when God gives us what we do not deserve.

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 2:8-9

 

Jesus freely gave His life so we can live.  Fully knowing all that we would do against Him; completely aware of the darkness in our hearts, minds, and soul; God gave His son for our past, present, and future wrongs.  We did not deserve this gift.  There is nothing we could have ever done to earn it.  We could never afford such gift.

But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.
Romans 11:6

This is the part of grace that sometimes evades us.  It's unbelievable that God would hand this over to us without anything on our part.  We don't have to be good enough, smart enough, attractive enough.  We just need to believe.

 

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience - among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.  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-
Ephesians 2:1-22