Grace – what is it?

We’ve been getting a few enquiries lately about grace, and what it really means in laymen’s terms, so I thought I’d have a go at explaining it simply, and it seems to me that the best way to understand what grace is is to understand what it does, so let me detail that quickly.

As the author of Romans says, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23), and the result of this sin is death, both physical and spiritual (Rom 6:23). Because of our crimes against God (our sins) we cannot be permitted into His presence, and so when we face judgement, we are found (rightfully) guilty and cast into the “darkness” (Matt 8: 12; 22;13; 25:30), what most know as hell. What exactly hell is like is a matter of some debate (and maybe another post), but what is not debatable is the absence of the presence of God. If we, in our sin, cannot be permitted to be in God’s holy presence, then our place of punishment must be far from Him. Imagine the pangs of loss we feel when loved one dies, but magnified infinitely! A terrible fate, to be sure!

Nothing we can do will make up for our crimes: no good deeds, no amount of giving to the poor, no level of love for our family or fellow man, nothing! The prophet Isaiah says it right when he says “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away” (Is 64:6). (Actually, a more literal translation of “filthy rags” is “menstrual rags”. Can you imagine standing before the all holy God clothed in nothing but filthy menstrual rags? Shrivel up like a leaf indeed!)

So what’s to be done, then? How can we be forgiven our sins and allowed into eternal fellowship with the Almighty God? Only through the sacrifice made by Jesus can our sins be covered. Only because Jesus took the punishment that was rightfully due us are we able to enter God’s presence. Only this gift makes that possible! But why did Jesus do that for us? What compelled Him to endure the worst, most excruciating death the ancient world had to offer? Was it something we deserved? Was it something He had to do? No and no. He did this of His own free will, because He loved us and He didn’t want us to be separated from Him for eternity. We were granted this favour, this unmerited favour, not because we deserved it, but because He wanted to give it! And that is grace! A gift beyond compare to people who did not deserve it, to people who He knew would frequently spit it back in His face! You want to know what grace is? Look to the cross. That is the best expression of grace you could ever see!