A Year of Grace
A book I read many years ago was called, The Grace Awakening.” Truthfully, I cannot tell you one thing I remember about the book. However, I vividly remember the title. Why has this stuck with me for so long? It is because I need a grace awakening. If I am being honest, I suspect you do too! I was many years into my Christian life when I was suddenly overwhelmed by God’s grace. Without even recognizing it, I had slipped into a performance mindset and thought God’s love for me daily was based on how I performed. I didn’t think this was how I was getting to heaven, but I did think that this was how God responded to me on a daily basis. I don’t think this is uncommon, just unspoken and often unrecognized.
When was the last time you were overwhelmed by the reality of God’s grace? I don’t think it is possible to live in a state of perpetual bliss this side of heaven, but at times God in his goodness gives us a foretaste of his unmingled love and delight in us. When was the last time you experienced that love? Does it matter? I think it does. The Bible says, “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). You can only give what you have received. God pours his love into our hearts until it overflows into love for other people. Our love isn’t supposed to be a “grit our teach and do it even though we don’t feel like it” attitude. It is supposed to be the natural outworking of the love that God has poured into our lives as a child of God.
This is how grace is! Let me clarify something, grace is not an impersonal force. Ultimately, grace is found in a Person. Jesus is full of grace and truth. And because he has invaded your life and indwells you through the Holy Spirit when you accepted Christ alone as your Savior, you are fully loved and accepted. He is not mad at you or disappointed in you. He is not waiting for you to do something for him so that he can love you. He already loves you fully and completely. Nothing you do can increase his love for you. Nothing you do wrong can take away his love for you. His expression of love for you may change if you are sinning to put you back on the right path, but he always only deals with you out of love.
Isn’t this kind of grace a license for sin? That’s what they accused Paul of because he focused on grace. “What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!” (Romans 6:15) If you are focused on grace like the Apostle Paul, people who are not listening carefully may accuse you of this very thing! But Paul also says, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.” (Titus 2:11-2) Notice, it is GRACE that teaches us to turn away from sin and live a holy life!
Another book title I really like is, The Pressure’s Off.” (No, I don’t remember anything else about this book either!) But it reminds me of the reality of truly living by grace. This doesn’t mean that you are passively sitting by doing nothing. What it does mean is that what you do is not the ground of your identity in Christ. What people think of you is not the ground of your identity in Christ. What you fail to do is not the ground of your identity in Christ. God’s love through Christ precedes all that and is not based on our performance. He loves you because he loves you.
Because Jesus came to reveal the Father, this is how your Heavenly Father thinks of you too! If you aren’t sitting there thinking, “This is too good to be true!” then you need to examine grace more closely. Grace should arrest and overwhelm you. This is what it means to have a grace awakening.
