A WORLD WITHOUT GRACE

What would it look like if the world ran without any grace given to others? It would fit into a pure model of social exchange, where everyone, in every interaction, tries to get the most from others but give little of themselves. Certainly such social exchanges happen in day-to-day life but there’s also a lot of grace given to others. This grace seems a remote concept, almost sentimental, without a place in our lives or our society. It is a vague, slippery thing to us, probably because we seem to experience grace so rarely. By definition, Grace is any act of pure unconditional kindness extended toward a person, cause, organization, or toward wellness, care and comfort. Grace is God’s best gift to the world. It is a spiritual nova in our midst exerting a force greater than vengeance, stronger than racism, stronger than hate. Real grace is the true message of Jesus. All faiths have virtues and creeds and justice and truth, but Jesus speaks merely of receiving the love that God has for us. Just accepting it, not having to earn it or making ourselves worthy of it. And frankly, accepting something we have not earned or are not worthy of, is not an easy thing for most of us. Where would we look for a vision of a world where our divisions are reconciled and healed? Where would we encounter an amazing grace that can save people like you and me? Would we really want to live in a world without grace? Christians make an extraordinary claim, that the God of the universe loves extravagantly the creatures on this small speck of a planet drifting through space, and will stop at nothing to bring them home. Ephesians 2: 7-8 says; “So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus. God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.” You have been saved, and you had nothing to do with it… saving us was all his idea, and all his work. All we have to do is trust him enough to let him into our hearts. It was His gift from start to finish! We didn’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! God bases everything on His love. It was love for us that caused Christ to give His life for us on Calvary. There was no limitation to the love of God as He gave His Son as a sacrifice for our sin. As pastor of First Baptist church, my hope has been to encourage enough interest in how Grace, can influence attitudes toward mankind and change the community as well as the world. Consider some simple qualities of Grace, such as humility, forgiveness, brotherly love, selfless giving, and patience. This world would be quite different with these qualities. We may be very surprised at the people we will find in heaven. You see – God has a soft spot for sinners. And unlike us, His standards are quite low. He will accept anyone.