Good Enough for Grace

Everyone knows that the one question any good Santa should ask a child is whether they have been "good" over the past year.  And if the answer is yes, the result is presents.  Lots of presents.  The unspoken understanding is that the child deserves presents for their good behaviour.  The silent equation is goodness = gifts.

But how often do we apply the same mentality to God and His grace as well?

I realised recently that my understanding of grace was limited: I have always known and believed that grace is a gift, and by definition, not something that I could 'purchase'/acquire myself.  However, a line in a song by Tenth Avenue North stopped me in my tracks the other day and got me thinking.

"Why are you striving these days?
Why are you trying to earn grace?"

I noticed the Father Christmas mentality I sometimes adopt when it comes to grace: grace is a gift given to those who are trying to be good.  We would be fooling ourselves to think that any of us were really "good", but God is more interested in our efforts and honours those who try to do good.

Now, don't get me wrong, God does delight in our efforts to please Him and to follow His word by loving Him and loving others.  But this has nothing to do with grace.  Grace has nothing to do with me or with anything that I do or don't do.  My efforts at 'religion' or 'Christianity', my church attendance, my enjoyment of church, my Bible-reading habits, my prayer life, my thought life etc. have no effect on grace.

 "For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything."

 [Galatians 5:4, MSG]

Grace is God's undeserved and unearned forgiveness and love, which He has given to us freely through Jesus.

But this seems too good to be true and doubt creeps in.  Like the serpent in the Garden of Eden we ask: "Did God really say..."   Did God really say His grace was enough?  Did He really say His grace would cover anything?  Even that?

So we doubt, and we set to work establishing a back-up plan, just in case God changes His mind.  We work at being good, just in case we find ourselves faced with the question "Have you been good this year?"

We put limits on grace and restrictions on God's power. We believe that we aren't good enough for grace. And that is precisely the point: we are not, and never will be, 'good enough' for grace. To be good enough at once cancels out the need for grace.  And our efforts to add anything to it eliminate the possibility of grace. It is either grace or it is works. It cannot be both.

"If by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace."

[Romans 11:6, NIV]

There are no limits or restrictions or standards or prerequisites for grace.  There is nothing too "bad" or "sinful" that it cannot be covered by God's grace.

 "But where sin increased, grace increased all the more."

[Romans 5:20, NIV]

You can't outdo grace.

Grace finds me when I'm in the pig-sty, filthy and covered in mud.  Grace finds me when I'm far from home and I've forgotten where I belong.  Grace finds me and beckons me when I have nothing to offer.  And when I return, grace flings its arms around me and welcomes me home.


Because in the end, it's all about grace.