Linking Grace and Forgiveness

Grace, the mysterious attribute of God that astonishes us all linking grace and forgiveness. As humans, we are made in His likeness, but the depth and breadth of who He is out of the bounds of our understanding. Especially grace.

The world is often transactional. From the time we begin school, we earn our grades. As workers, we earn our compensation. Even in families and friendships, reciprocity is seen as part of relationships. Receiving gifts becomes less common and more difficult for our souls to understand.

Grace is a gift. Sometimes referred to in Scripture as “unmerited favor,” our training in the world’s ways makes God’s gifts foreign to our thinking. In Ephesians, one translation says that He lavishes us with the riches of His grace. All we must do is believe that He loves us, that He paid the price for our sins, and that He wants relationship individually with those He created. We struggle with two things:

First, the simplicity of the requirement seems too easy. All He requires is that we believe that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross is full payment for all our wrongdoings.

Second, we are self-centered from birth and find it near impossible to fathom the unselfishness of Him who forgives when we believe. We think that He must require more than faith in Him and Him alone. The lesson of the Christian life is that there would be no forgiveness without His grace and His sacrifice. He makes a way through what seems to be impossible to us.

Ultimately, God made the transaction complete because His kindness leads to our repentance, His grace offers us the gift of salvation, and His mercy extends to all who will believe in Jesus and His payment for our sins.

Have you received His grace?

Ephesians 1:7-8A In Him we have redemption [that is, our deliverance and salvation] through His blood, [which paid the penalty for our sin and resulted in] the forgiveness and complete pardon of our sin, in accordance with the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. Amplified Bible (AMP) Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation, La, CA 90631. All rights reserved.