G is for...

 

I do not at all understand the mystery of grace—only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.

—Anne Lamott

The cross is the lightning rod of grace that short-circuits God’s wrath to Christ so that only the light of His love remains for believers.

—A.W. Tozer

 

Grace is an unmerited gift. Mercy, on the other hand, is not being dealt a well-deserved punishment.

Thank God for both! But today we’re discussing grace.

Consider the Anne Lamott quote, above. Who does truly understand the grace of God? Our little human minds cannot comprehend a thing so far beyond our own capabilities.

We could never extend such an amazing, undeserved gift as that which God so freely bestows upon each of us. We sin…He saves. We stray…He finds us and brings us back to the fold. We defy His statutes and commandments…He forgives, and gives us another chance to get it right. We hate…He loves. We wallow in the filth of sin…He washes us clean and dresses us in robes of righteousness.

 

Unmerited grace.

I love A.W. Tozer’s definition of the cross: The lightning rod of grace. A source so powerful that it short-circuits God’s wrath (directed at us, sinful mankind), redirecting it onto Christ (the sinless Son of God), who bore it in our place. With the wrath of God fully spent, all that’s left is the light of His love. As believers, we dwell within that glorious glow.

That’s grace.

Ephesians 2:8—For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: