I’m a rules kinda person. As far as I can remember, I always have been. I like to know where the boundaries are, what instructions I need to follow, what is acceptable and what isn’t. I like order. And logic. And reason. And defined consequences. I’m not really a colour outside the lines kinda gal.
But I’m also human, and as much as I like the rules, I also sometimes get them wrong, whether I misunderstand, forget or just out and out rebel against them. It’s in our nature.
The same can be said for God’s rules – his laws. When God designed the universe, including us, he made everything to work together, to fit together, in a certain way. Some, like gravity or the speed of light, are just the way things work. We can try our hardest to work against them but we won’t be very successful. Others, like do not murder, cheat or lie, were established by God in order to keep us safe, happy and healthy as a society. These are laws that we can choose to disobey if we want. And this is where things have often gone wrong.
Saved by Grace
We have all rebelled against God’s rules. Adam and Eve started it, but ever since then, we have decided to do things our own way, without God. We’ve decided we don’t need him and we mess things up. All the time. Even those of us who have committed our lives to Jesus. We make mistakes. We say the wrong thing. We do things that hurt others. Not always. Not even on purpose most of the time. But we do. We aren’t perfect. We call this sin – this just means anything that separates us from God.
“But your iniquities have made a separation
between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you..”
— Isaiah 59:2
Some of us know that we are distant from God. We try and do all sorts of things to make us better people, to make up for what we have done wrong. We give to charity. We go to church. We help the elderly. We pray for the sick.
And all of these things are really great! But no matter how hard we try we can never be perfect. It’s only a matter of time before we make another mistake, say something unkind, get angry, lie, cheat…Because God is perfect we can never reach his standards. Every time we miss the mark, it’s like we build an invisible wall between us and God.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” — Romans 3:23
God knew that there was no way for us to get it right all the time. He knew that we would sin and miss the mark A LOT. He knew that there was nothing that we could do to reach him. So he came to reach us. He sent Jesus, his son, God on earth, to bridge the gap for us and show us his grace (2 Timothy 1:9).Jesus was perfect, is perfect, and he paid the price for sin with his death on the cross, so that his perfect life can be exchanged for our sinful one.
It is by grace that we have been saved, through faith, and not of ourselves; it is the gift of God, not of our works, so we cannot boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).
We are saved by grace when we simply believe that Jesus exists, that he paid for our sins on the cross when he died, and that he rose again to give us new life. Our adoption into his family is not based on our performance but on Jesus’ sacrifice and our faith that ‘it is finished’ (John 19:30).
Some of us knew that we were saved by grace a long time ago, but somewhere along the journey of life we got off track. At some point we stopped living by grace and started to think “Now that we are Christians, we know better and we have to work hard to maintain our right standing with God”. We strive and stress to keep up with all of God’s commands, seeking God’s approval and acceptance by our works rather than his free gift.
How did that happen? Jesus died for us while we were still sinners, still broken, still messing up. That grace is still available for us now.
“When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation.” – Romans 5:6-9
Grace Defined
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines grace as this: “unmerited divine assistance given to humans for their regeneration or sanctification”. In other words, the grace that we receive is the undeserved, un-earned, un-warranted heavenly help, from God to man, to free us from the consequence and the power of sin, to restore us to God’s chosen people and to transform us ever more into to image of Jesus.
How incredible is that? And yet, if you’re anything like me, it’s still hard to fully grasp what that grace really looks like – let alone embrace! Yet, the word is found continually throughout the bible and is the essence of salvation. As such, we should probably have at least a basic understanding of it!
One thing I love about Jesus is that he used stories to explain confusing, theological concepts simply, in ways that we can understand.
In Luke 15, we see Jesus tell three stories to demonstrate the enormity of God’s grace:
- The Parable of the Lost Sheep
- The Parable of the Lost Coin
- The Parable of the Prodigal Son
A parable is just fancy way of saying a fictional story with a moral for us to learn from – like one of Aesop’s fables. Parables teach us something and so, to fully appreciate the message, we need to understand the context in which these stories were told.
Luke 15:1-2 says that “Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people – even eating with them!” The religious leaders of the day were criticising Jesus because he was friends with sinners. They believed that holiness could be ‘achieved’ by keeping separate from both sin and “sinners” and were upset that Jesus was going out of his way to befriend these types of people. What they didn’t understand was that Jesus came for the redemption of sinners. And they had forgotten their own need of a saviour.
So Jesus told them these three stories in a row to correct their misconceptions.
Grace Unveiled
The first story was about a lost sheep. Jesus describes a shepherd who leaves his ninety-nine sheep who are in the safety of the flock, to search for one lost sheep. He searches and searches until he finds it and, when he does, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home, calling his friends and neighbours together throwing a party to celebrate the return of the sheep that was lost. Jesus then goes on to give the moral of the story, in case they missed it: “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” (Luke 15:7).
Story two is about a lost coin. A woman has ten silver coins and loses one. She begins a desparate search for the lost coin, sweeping the house and searching carefully until she finds it. And when she finds it, she is overjoyed, calling her friends and neighbours together to celebrate with her. Again Jesus spells out the moral – “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15:10)
The final story Jesus tells is probably the most famous among them: the parable of the prodigal son. It is the longest of the three but well worth a read, even if you have read it before:
There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need.So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ So he got up and went to his father.
But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate.For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’
(Luke 15:11-32)
I’ve heard the story of the prodigal son preached so many times. And the focus is nearly always on the son – how disobedient the son was, how terrible his sin was, how he turned his back on his father and squandered everything that he so willingly gave him.
And yet, this story is much more about the father than the son. It is much more about the extraordinary, extravagant, unrestrained love of the father, despite the extraordinary, extravagant, unrestrained wastefulness and disobedience of the son.
Three stories. Three lost things. Three parties when the lost things were found.
Grace Undignified
Jesus really wanted to make something very clear to the self-righteous, religious people of the day: God loves, more than anything, when sinful people turn back to him, and his grace is so big that he will do everything he can to bring them back to him.
What did the sheep do to be found? Nothing, in fact he may not have even realised he was lost. What did the coin do? Absolutely nothing at all. And the son? His repentance was important, as it ultimately led him back to the father, but it didn’t earn him the right to be forgiven. In fact, he had very clearly ruined, not only his reputation and inheritance, but any right to be welcomed back into the family. Nothing he could do could make him worthy of being accepted.
And yet, while he was still a long way off, his father spots him in the distance and runs to meet him (Luke 15:20). Before he’s even had a chance to explain. Before he can even begin the speech he has prepared. His father runs to him and embraces him.
In the Middle Eastern culture of the day, it was considered highly undignified for a man to run, especially for someone with low social standing. But Jesus was trying to communicate something This father’s love for his son was such extravagant, extraordinary, crazy love, that he would set aside his dignity and run to meet him.
The prodigal son deserved punishment. He deserved to be disowned, dishonoured and rejected, never allowed to return.
And yet, instead, he orders his servants to bring his son the best clothes, place a ring on his finger and put sandals on his feet, and he arranges a celebration in the son’s honour. In his honour? What did he do to deserve honour? This is the same question that the older brother asked. And is likely the same question that the religious leaders were asking too. They believed that you get what you deserve. That in order to please God and receive his blessing, you have to do everything right, pray, read the bible, say and do the right things. But this son did everything wrong. What made him deserving of honour?
Grace Undeserved
If we’re honest, this is often our response to grace too. This is why we find it so difficult to define – or accept when we are offered it. It defies all logic and doesn’t seem fair. It seems to good to be true.
But that’s the whole point. Grace is receiving what we don’t deserve. The son didn’t do anything to deserve his father’s love. It’s not about him. It’s about the father’s grace. The son simply had to accept the forgiveness that he was offered. He enters the celebration, likely confused and overwhelmed. and he is welcomed back with open arms. People are thrilled to see him. There is no more guilt, no more rejection, no more shame.
This father’s love represents our heavenly father’s love for us. Even when we turn our back’s on him, even in our absolute worst moments, even when we are caught up in sin, God’s love for us is unchanging, extravagant, lavish, unending, crazy love. He loves us no matter what. And at the first sign of our return, he goes berserk, rushing towards us, throwing a huge, celestial celebration in our honour.
That’s extraordinary grace.
“And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 8:38-39
Thank you God that you love me so incredibly. You are so worthy of praise. Help me to understand more of the love you have for me.
I’m sorry for all the times I mess up – for every time I miss the mark and try to do things my own way. Thank you that you sent your son to take the punishment I deserve.
You are so full of grace. Thank you that your mercies are new every morning and that there is nothing that I can do that is too much for your extraordinary grace.
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