Car conversations are the bestest. While on a car trip to who knows where, my sister Rachel posed a question: “What exactly is grace?”
It’s one of those words where we kind of have a general idea of what it is, but the details are kind of fuzzy.
It’s also one of those “Christian” words you throw into prayers to sound more holy. Ya know:
God, please give her grace as she’s going through this. Amen.
Good job.
+5 holy points added to your inventory
But seriously: what is grace?
I’m gonna tackle it first because I clearly have all the answers, and then I’ll give you some other peoples’ thoughts. Allow me to reach back into the caverns of my past and pull out this simple-to-remember definition:
Grace is getting what you DON’T deserve.
It’s really generic, but that’s exactly it.
So: when you ask for grace on this test, that means that you clearly don’t deserve it but you’d like it anyway. When you ask for God to give someone else grace, you’re acknowledging that none of us deserve anything . . . but you’re pulling out that truth that God gives to His people from His infinite storehouses.
I looked up the word grace in Strong’s concordance, and it’s defined as “to find favor in the eyes of some one, to be acceptable to him.” Here’s some more handy definitions:
- “Grace is free sovereign favor to the ill-deserving.”(B.B. Warfield)
- “Grace is love that cares and stoops and rescues.”(John Stott)
- “[Grace] is God reaching downward to people who are in rebellion against Him.”(Jerry Bridges)
- “Grace is unconditional love toward a person who does not deserve it.” (Paul Zahl)
- “Grace is the unmerited, loving favor and graciousness of our Creator.” (Life, Hope, and Truth)
Sounds like the most important components are:
undeserved + saving + love
It’s a heavenly basket of odds and ends of wonderfulness.
God saving you and promising to bring you to Heaven one day. UNDESERVED.
God promising you ultimate victory. SAVING.
God making arrangements for you to get an encouraging text right when you needed it. LOVE.
God allowing you to get to class on time. UNDESERVED.
God taking you down a different road so you don’t get in a car crash. SAVING.
God giving you that dream job; that best friend; that really really fab day. LOVE.
Grace is who God is, what He gives us, who He gives us.
So, try to describe it. You could make a whole list. In fact, I’d encourage you to download the printable below and start a GRACE LIST.
So, in this season of thinking about gifts, consider this daily gift: God’s grace, poured down from on high for YOU, beloved one.
