Grace. It’s a word that has become so common, that I think it has lost the grandeur that it truly entails. Whether being used by a boss “taking it easy” on an employee who has made some type of mistake, or first-time parents naming a newborn, grace is not a foreign concept for most people. But grace carries so much more weight than simply a reprieve or a name. Grace changes things.
But what exactly is grace? And how does it apply to our lives today? How do we take such a lofty principle like grace and let it shape our everyday lives? Well, for starters, if you are reading this and know nothing of Jesus Christ, let me encourage you with this – the Bible tells us that ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Holy God, unholy and unrighteous people. You, your neighbor, your friends, the president, we all have fallen short of God’s holiness, or His glory, and we deserve eternal separation from Him, forever. Now, I know what you’re thinking, where is the encouragement in that? Well, not only has God made a way to spare you and me from eternal separation from Him (that’s mercy), but He has offered us the free gift of an eternity spent in His presence! That’s grace! We don’t deserve it, and we certainly cannot earn it, yet He has freely offered eternal life to us. Now THAT should encourage you!
But is that it? Is grace just the favor given to us by Almighty God? Not quite. In Titus chapter 2 Paul says that the “grace of God…teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. To live soberly, righteously and godly lives in this present age” (my paraphrase). Let’s key in on the three actions Paul challenges us to take as we think about applying grace practically in our lives. Live sober, righteous, and godly lives. God’s grace, His favor upon us, should compel change in us both personally (soberly), relationally with others (righteous), and relationally with God (godly). We lift high the saving work of Jesus when we not only herald the eternal life that he bought for us but when we, as Titus 2:9 says, “adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things” or in other words, when our living is changed today because of the grace of God.
So, let me challenge you to think deeper and wider about what God’s grace means, and how it should motivate your daily life internally, externally, and vertically. Let’s recapture the splendor of the true power of God’s grace, to not only save but sustain as well!
