What Is Grace?

You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.

– Psalm 139: 1-2

What exactly is GRACE?

Grace is one of those “churchy” words that are hard to describe. You must experience grace before you can really understand the concept. And to muddy things up a bit, grace is both a thing and an ongoing process.

Receiving an unexpected, luxurious gift is one way to picture grace. It comes straight out of the blue, and we did nothing to deserve such a priceless expression of love. What’s more, we know that we could never afford it ourselves.

Likewise, grace is an ongoing transformation. It’s something

that changes us from the inside out starting the day we ask Christ to live through us until the day we meet him in person. Grace invites us to turn our lives over to Jesus. And as we begin our faith-journey as Christ-followers, it teaches us to become more like him and see the world through his eyes. It’s an evolving, full-bodied change of heart, mind and spirit.

Here’s one more picture of what grace is all about: Think of it as a block of fine marble that’s sculpted into a museum-quality masterpiece. With each tap of the chisel from the Artist’s expert hands, a work of beauty and craftsmanship emerges. It often takes much longer than anyone expects. But the results are awesome and lasting.

These examples portray a God whose love is relentless. Even before the foundation of the world, he decided to pay the high price for our countless failures to meet his perfect standards. That payment was made through the death of his own son (Jesus) on the cross. And it’s only by God’s grace that we have the faith to accept Christ as our Savior. We were once in prison awaiting the death sentence that we all so rightly deserve, but God’s loving grace set us free.

Grace is both a thing and a transformation. It’s also a work in progress. And most importantly, it’s God’s extraordinary gift of love to all who will accept it.