Exponential Grace

What is God teaching me right now?

Lessons in grace.

Grace.  It's probably our favorite thing without even realizing it.  It's one of mine!  When we make a poor decision and we look to God in repentance our answer is, "you are forgiven. clean slate." Grace!  When we do it over and over again and come back feeling cruddy we get the same response!  Grace again!

The beautiful thing about God's grace is written in Romans 5:18-21:

"Therefore just as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man's act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all.  For just as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.  But law came in, with the result that the trespass multiplied; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, just as sin exercised dominion in death, so grace might also exercise dominion through justification leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

It never stops.  Grace never stops.  In fact, when we need it more, it gets more i-n-t-e-n-s-e!

This isn't really normal.  So as humans, we don't know how to handle it.  Most of the time we drag ourselves around resenting God's grace and continuing to intensify it more and more involuntarily because we just can't handle it.  We abuse it.  We cheapen it.  We continue doing our thing... believing that we understand grace.

Grace is the gift of freedom that is offered to all who desire to accept it.  I ask myself a question today... have I even truly accepted it?  This gift that is so powerful and loving and costly.  Do I really know what I have?

Here is a history lesson that is still putting it into perspective for me...

 Back in the day, slaves were a common thing in society.  In fact, it was normal even in the Biblical times.  Which is why so many writers in scripture parallel slavery and freedom in reference to the spiritual. 

So here's an  interesting fact... when a slave was up for sale, they normally had a price tag on them and people knew how much that slave was worth.  Probably a good indication of the kind of work they would provide to the owner.  However, in the most rare cases, sometimes an owner would purchase their OWN slave and would put them on display with a tag that read "FOR FREEDOM" so everyone would know that the owner sacrificed financially to allow their slave to be free... basically a "Not For Sale" sign.

This is the part that just baffles me.  When this happened, a slave was so grateful for the gift of freedom that the owner gave... so speechless... so awed... that they continued working for the owner anyway as a sign of gratefulness.

Honestly, we would think this is "so touching", but insane.  I bet I would run for the high hills if I had a tag that said "FOR FREEDOM" ... but the reasoning behind this was if an owner was loving enough to purchase their freedom, they were respectful enough to keep serving as a free man. 

Galatians 5:1 says, "FOR FREEDOM Christ has set us free."  You think they knew about the sign?  You think there is more weight to this statement than, "oh that so nice... now I don't have to worry about what I do anymore getting me into hell."

I think so.  And it leaves me so convicted.  Do my actions cheapen the freeing grace of God?  Or do they reflect my reverence for the exponential grace that flows lovingly from my Savior. 

Pam