What’s the Catch?
Romans 3:23-24 All have sinned and are not good enough to share God's divine greatness. They are made right with God by his grace. This is a free gift. They are made right with God by being made free from sin through Jesus Christ.
Grace is a word that Christians use rather a lot. But have you ever asked yourself – what exactly does that little word – grace – really, really mean?
Well, my dictionary tells me that “grace” is the free and unmerited favour of God, as shown in the salvation of sinners. What does that mean? Quite simply this – that we’ve all sinned, we’ve all fallen short of God’s perfection. But instead of giving us the punishment we deserve, He blesses us.
Now, just stop and think about that for a moment. As dictionary definitions go, the theory is fine. But from a human standpoint, come on, it’s a pretty strange reaction. When someone hurts you, what’s your response? Is your natural inclination to turn around and bless them as opposed to, say, exacting revenge? Probably not.
And it’s for that very reason that we find this concept of grace such a difficult one to wrap our minds around. It’s, well, unnatural.
For a long time, I kept my distance from God because deep down, based on the natural law of cause and effect, I knew that there was no way that I could be worthy. There was no way I could ever meet up to His demands of perfection. All I could see were all the things that I’d done wrong, and fair enough too. That’s natural.
All have sinned and are not good enough to share God’s divine greatness. They are made right with God by his grace. This is a free gift. They are made right with God by being made free from sin through Jesus Christ. (Romans 3:23-24)
We’ve all seen those advertisements for something that, allegedly, is FREE … and yet there’s always, always a catch, right?
But if someone who loves you gives you something for free – if they’re really doing this from the heart – then there’s never a catch, at least there shouldn’t be.
That’s how it is with God. Forgiveness is free to us, completely free, because He loves us. That’s what grace is. Oh, and the catch? Well the only catch … is that someone else had to pay for it. Jesus.
So if and when you find yourself hovering off at a distance from God, based on your natural understanding of cause and effect, sin and punishment, remember that God’s response to your sin is completely unnatural. Grace.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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