What does grace really mean?

Jesus came into the world to love not to condemn

So many people have a distorted view of God and how He views us.  We are busy trying to live up to what we see as our end of the bargain or holding up our end.  As this comic pair, the Skit Guys say, God never gave us an end to hold up.  It is impossible to let God down  because He knows us more intimately than we know ourselves, it is impossible to shock him or let Him down.

Grace means undeserved favour or blessing.  Jesus said if we want to enter the kingdom of Heaven we need to accept Him and enter His Kingdom with the simple faith of a child.  We can gain access through the work Christ did in dying for us on the cross and not through anything we have ever done or will ever do.  When Jesus was raised from the dead He demonstrated that not only would He give us new lives here on earth but that when we die if we choose to have a relationship with God, that we can experience eternal life and go on to live in Heaven.

Often, Christians believe we are’saved’ (from hell) by grace but we need to somehow earn God’s favour for everything else.  The Bible teaches us that we are, “Saved by grace not works so that no-one can boast in their own righteousness.”  Why then do we persist with feelings of worthlessness and compare ourselves with pride or lack of self-esteem with others?

Chapter 8 of Paul’s letter to the Romans starts off by telling us,

“So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature.  So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.”

God knew we would never be good enough by ourselves and that we would regularly mess up and yet He says,

“Nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (NLT)

Today we need to dump the guilt trips, accept God’s grace and mercy and ask Him to form us into what He wants to be.  The Skit Guys have another clip which illustrates what this may look and feel like:

© Michelle Sherlock 2014 (My photo Cologne Cathedral taken 2012)