GOD'S INCREDIBLE GRACE
-- By D. James Kennedy

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8,9)

I want to tell you something which is at once so simple that the wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein; something that even a seven year-old can understand; and yet so profound that there are many with college degrees will not be able to understand.

I am going to speak about the amazing, the astounding, the incredible grace of God. Now that would seem to be a simple enough concept. Grace is a word we are all familiar with. There is nothing complex about it. We ought to be able to understand its meaning. And yet I have never met a person who had not come into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ who could explain what it really means. The Scripture says, "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned." (1Corinthians 2:14)

What indeed is the mystery called grace? Does grace mean that if we do the best we can that God will bless us and take us to Heaven? Is it not simply another way of talking about justice? Is grace justice?

I suppose that if man wrote a bible, the basic message would simply be this: Good people go to Heaven and bad people go to Hell. I say that because that's what most people think the Bible says anyway! It seems to make sense. It is equitable. It is fair. It is just.

But there is just one small problem. There are no good persons. The Bible states it plainly, unequivocally: "There is none that doeth good, no, not one." (Romans 3:12) If there is none that do good -- and if only the good people go to Heaven -- then Heaven is going to be a very lonely place. So we do have a problem with the idea of justice.

Furthermore, there is another problem with this idea of justice; the idea of quid pro quo, this for that. You do so much good, you get so much reward.
Would God then be indebted to us! The problem with quid pro quo is there is not an ounce of worship in quid or a hallelujah in quo. I'm afraid that our message of justice fall far short of the wondrous message which is contained in the Bible -- a message not of justice but of grace.

You say, "Ah, I'm beginning to see it now. Grace is love, right?"

Well, not quite. Now it is true that all grace has within it an element of love, but it is not true that all love has within it an element of grace. For example: You meet the most beautiful, most lovely girl you have ever seen in your life, and you fall head over heels in love with her. Isn't that gracious of you! Of course not because she is altogether lovable.

Or as another example: You love God. Is that grace? Not at all, for God is certainly worthy of our love. No, love doesn't quite do it. It is not merely love, but it is love to the unlovely, to the unworthy. It is love with a downward reach. It is reaching down to those in need and to those who are even detestable because of their filth or their habits, and giving to them some token of your love. That, my friend is mercy. It is an admirable trait, but still it falls far short of grace.

To grace must be added another element. Grace is far more than justice, far more than love, far more than mercy. As I have told many a person, the first thing you need to understand about the Gospel is that it is not just; it is not fair.

Christianity is not fair. Let me hasten to add that there are two ways in which something cannot be fair. It can be less than fair, and that is usually what we mean by that term, or it can be more than fair. It can be supra-fair, and that is what Christianity is.

Grace is love reaching downward, not only to the unworthy, but it is favor granted to the undeserving, rather even to those who deserve positive punishment.

In this great summation of all the truth of Scripture and the Christian faith, the Bible says, "By grace ye are saved"-- by that kind of undeserved favor and mercy reaching down to ill-deserving, Hell-deserving sinners such as I. That is the meaning of grace by which we are saved.

Yet, still there are those who struggle with this. Sometimes their problem is a matter of their pride. They cannot bring themselves to say, "I am an undeserving, an ill-deserving, a Hell-deserving sinner." That is too difficult for them. Their necks are too stiff to bow to those words, and so they cannot receive the grace of God.

Ministers oftentimes ask people, "Are you saved?" I think we might do better to ask people, "Have you ever been lost?" because that is precisely the problem so many people have. They cannot be saved because they have never really felt that they were lost. The only one who can be saved is the one that realizes they are hopelessly lost. And so I would direct the question to you: Have you ever been lost? I mean really lost?

To be really lost means to not know where you are going. In a spiritual sense it means that you are going to leave this world and leap out into darkness -- not knowing where you are going. In fact, in the truest sense, it means that you are going to Hell!

I am reminded of John Newton who wrote the great hymn "Amazing Grace." Newton was one of the most blasphemous man his friends had ever known. He was a slave trader. He was captured by the very slaves he traded and was made a slave of the slaves.

One day he escaped. While on a ship bound for England, a violent storm hit. Newton was terrified. He thought, "If only there was some mercy for me. Mercy? How could there possible be mercy for someone like me?" Suddenly the face of God burst upon his heart and mind. He realized the wonder of the love of Christ, the grace of God that was willing to reach down and accept even one such as he. That hour his eyes were opened, and he stepped into the Kingdom of God.

Newton later wrote that marvelous hymn, "Amazing Grace."

Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!
I was once was lost but now I'm found, was blind but now I see.

You sing it. Do you mean it? Do not stiffen your neck. Do not claim your abilities; come with your disabilities. Do not come with your hands filled with all manner of good things, supposedly which you have done. Every religion of the earth that I know about says, "Something in my hand I bring" as it approaches God. The New Testament alone says, "Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling." When you take hold of that cross, in that moment the grace of God flows into your life, and you are transformed!

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17) That is the wonder of grace. That is what creates a heart filled with love and adoration for Jesus Christ.

Some say there is no such thing as a free lunch. That is the first lesson of economics. Is it different in the spiritual world? No, my friend, it is not. Heaven is free to you and me; but it was not free to Him. It was paid for at an infinite cost by bloody sweat and tears ... by the excruciating agony on the cross ... by the wrath of God Almighty that fell upon Him who bore our sins upon the tree. An infinite penalty paid in our place.

Those of us who trust in Him will one day sit down at the marriage feast of the Lamb and enter into all the freeness of paradise. We will settle down in mansions on high, in a new body, in a new universe, forever and ever, where time shall be no more. We shall rejoice forevermore in that land where there is no pain, no suffering, no tears, and no sorrow. When God Himself, with His own finger, shall wipe away the very last tear. And it is all free to us!

Jesus paid it all. The offer is extended. It is received by the simple hand of faith. If you have not already, won't you reach out that hand right now and accept that incredible gift offered by that astounding and amazing grace of God, that you too might step out of the darkness of death and sin into the Kingdom of God!

Prayer: O God, may your Holy Spirit open the eyes of the blind that they may see themselves in all their filthiness and uncleanness and unworthiness, and cast themselves before Thy Cross, O Christ and say, "O Lord Jesus, I am unworthy of the least of Thy favors. Cleanse me by Thy blood. Wash me by that stream that flows from Calvary's mountain that I may be made whiter than snow; that I may enter with Thee into the Kingdom of God. Change me right now and grant me the free gift of life eternal." In Thy name I ask. Amen.

"Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to His disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.'"
(Matthew 9:37-38)

"You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you."
(John 15:16)

"He paid a debt He didn't owe,
Because I owed a debt I couldn't pay!"

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In
my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told
you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you
also may be where I am."
- John 14: 1-3


Jesus says,
"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock:
if any man hear my voice, and open the door,
I will come in to him, and will sup with him,
and he with me"
- Rev 3: 20

"For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord,
every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall confess to God.
So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God."
(Romans 14: 11)


"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep
to gain what he cannot lose."

"Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus."