Handling Grace with Grace

Grace is something Christianity is well acquainted with. It is a foundational principle in our salvation experience after all. But I don't think we handle grace too well. Instead we tend to handle grace in two ways that are not healthy as Christians.

One way to handle grace is to underestimate its power in relation to good deeds. People who do this tend to put an emphasis on works even though they intellectually believe that they are saved by grace instead of works. Their lives are based on following the rules as if they are not quite sure if grace will really do it. A good way to identify these folks is by observing how they interact with children. They over balance rule enforcement and rarely show them examples of grace. Right living is important but we must live rightly for the right reasons.

The other way to underestimate the power of grace is to try to hide one's faults in an effort to conceal things we really need grace for. In our society image is everything. We have come to believe that it doesn't matter what we really are as long as we project the right image. Therefore, if I look like a good Christian I must be one. The fact here is that grace can, and must, overcome all of our faults. Hiding our secrets from other men does us no good. God sees through all of that.

But why is it important to accept grace properly? Accepting grace is foundational to our relationship with God. A person who accepts grace lives a life of thankfulness. It becomes the focus of their life. Someone who accepts God's grace realizes that they are nothing before him in regards to their own achievement. Instead they can truly live as sons and daughters.