We Need An Abundance of Grace

(Romans 5:17) For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. 

The subject of grace has fascinated me for some time now. To be honest I never really understood what the word grace meant until recently. There are some who believe that God is good, his grace covers our entire life, we can live however we please and none of it really matters because he loves us, a form of what's often referred to as antinomiamisn. Then there are some at the other end of the spectrum who believe that, while God is good and his grace has afforded us our salvation, we have to be very careful. Every mistake and every bad decision has consequences. They believe we can fall from grace very easily and risk losing our salvation so while they teach grace to some extent; they try to bring some balance by injecting a measure of fear, some not as direct as others but their underlying message is a mixture of grace and some form of law. One group in particular even teaches that every word spoken, every decision, and every act of the believer is recorded and one day will be judged and a decision will be made of whether they’ve earned atonement. The Apostle Paul spends a significant amount of time on the subject of God’s grace in fact some have said he preached what they call 'radical' grace, so much so that he raises the question “Shall we sin more so that grace may abound.” While Paul uses many examples from the Old Testament to demonstrate a distinction between grace and law, the more I read the more I realize that the message of grace is one that can be found all throughout the word of God. Some say teaching too much grace will lead to an abundance of sin and lawlessness, but I have to respectfully disagree. I believe it's an abundance of grace & the gift of righteousness that will lead us to reign in life through Jesus Christ. I love that he makes it clear that it's in this life, not just in the sweet by and by. 

As a child and as a young man I always thought that the bible revealed a righteous, holy, and perfect God who designed a very specific plan that would teach me how to achieve a measure of righteousness that would hopefully make me acceptable to him and that would allow me to spend eternity with him. Whether or not it was taught this way, for me, the primary goal was to avoid hell which of course wasn't easy. Fear of hell fire and fear of losing my salvation at any given time by making one mistake, accidentally or willingly; it was that fear that drove me but over time I began to develop my own relationship with God. Even so there was always that element of fear mixed with some degree of grace. Fear of rejection or fear of torment for sin if I didn't pray through and get re-washed frequently at an alter. The fact is there are many who live this way and while they are truly sincere in their regret and sorrow, they'll cry their eyes out at the alter, beat their chest, and often go away the same only to fall right back into the same rut of mistakes. I have now come to the conclusion that the entire bible actually reveals the loveliness of Jesus to us. Something I'm afraid some of us are failing to reveal to the world. The bible is not just there to rebuke us even though it does provide direction. It’s not just to tell us how bad we are until we feel bad enough that we repent or are driven to the alter by fear of hell fire like many of us are. I believe if we reveal the love of God, and the goodness of God to each other and to the world it will lead to repentance, not just a regret or a sorrow, but an actual transformation of the heart. Just a note, my point isn't to tell anybody else what they should believe, but to share what I myself am learning and what I believe at this point in time. I’m no bible scholar and I certainly don't know everything in fact like my Pastor used to say the more I learn the more I realize how much I really DON'T know.

Though I’ve gained some understanding of God's grace I know that I’m only scratching the surface.  I believe learning more about God is a process that will take more than a lifetime. Over the past year I've been listening to preached messages that have focused on teaching a perspective of grace that I’ve never heard before. I know it's not an entirely new concept within Christianity but it is new for me and being somewhat of a skeptic I've taken the information and examined, compared, and cross referenced it in the scripture to see how consistent it is throughout the entire bible. Of course I haven't studied the entire bible so this is a work-in-progress but thankfully with today's technology we can search and find information in the bible at the touch of a button. I’ll be spending a significant amount of time on this blog discussing what I’ve learned and what I continue to learn regarding God's grace. I've compiled notes along with scriptures interspersed with a little bit of my own commentary and hopefully by sharing my experience in learning about his grace I might just help someone else see the love that God has for us the way I’m beginning to see it, perfect, unfailing, and unconditional. It's a message of his love that's revealed through his grace and truth which came through Jesus Christ! 


(John 1:17)  For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.