Displaying God's Grace

What is Grace and what does it look like? The concept of God’s grace "Unmerited favor shown to unworthy men and women. If I were to ask you what Grace looks like in your life, what would your answer be? I remember seeing a post last night that said how grateful are we to have the ability to forget the history of our sins. If we had the ability to remember every sin we've ever committed I believe that we would probably torture ourselves emotionally and mindfully. So I see Grace in forgetting our past sins.

What about gracing others with forgiveness and kindness when they sin against us? Being kind to people who are constantly critical of you can be hard. Displaying love to the ones that present themselves as miserable and unlovable can be done, but it requires much grace.

Asking the Lord to help us be graceful to hurtful people can be a very difficult thing to do. So, how do we display grace?

Recently, I decided to research for myself a few biblical examples of how Grace was displayed in scripture, and the New Testament is filled with acts of grace, with Jesus at the center of it all.
John 1:17  “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

Here's a couple examples of grace in scripture and then I'll share my favorite example of the Grace of Christ. As I was researching God's grace I was able to recognize the grace of God from the very beginning in the fall of mankind. When Adam and Eve chose to sin, God had every right to kill them, to walk away from them, but He didn't. He called to them, He confronted them, He chastised them and He covered them,, now...that's Grace.

In Exodus Moses doubted God at every turn, he even asked God to send someone else, yet God graciously guided him. Moses was as flawed as they come "arrogant, stubborn, doubtful.  Yet God faithfully walked with him. God chose to listen to and walk with a man who, in his youth, killed another with his bare hands. That’s grace! In Judges, the Israelites repeatedly rebelled against God and yet He rescued them. David lusted, stole, fornicated, lied, and killed "yet God saw his heart and loved him- That's Grace. In one of my favorite stories Ruth could have allowed Naomi to travel alone because rightfully she was no longer her mother-in-law, but she loved Naomi and she respected her. She wanted to  know the God that Naomi knew. So she walked with her, she served her and she continued to honor Naomi- That's a beautiful example of how to display God’s grace. There are so many more beautiful examples of Gods grace throughout scripture. I haven't even touched on the New Testament yet, until now. My favorite example of Grace was displayed hanging on the Cross. Christ crucified- Without God’s grace, salvation is impossible! For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith "and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- Ephesians 2:8.

God shows His love for us in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Christ took the wrath of God on our behalf. He bore our sin in His body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. Before He died, he cries out to the Father and seeks forgiveness on our behalf. He cries out- Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Now, is there a Grace greater than that?

Could you love and forgive those who torture and murder your only child? Could you display such grace to people who are torturing you? Probably not, because we are not Christ, but we are called to love as He loves, to forgive as He forgives. So, in the midst of being subjected to the unlovable, the critical, the lost, and hurting people who are in most cases without Christ, could you continue to display grace? Sometimes granting grace to the meanest, most unloving, un-kind people is exactly what they need to get a picture of what the grace and the love of God looks like, even when we don't deserve it. In reality, none of us deserve it, but we've all been called to repentance, and that's Grace!

Col 3:13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.- Now That's Grace!