John 1:14,16 (ESV) And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. … For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
The first reference to grace in the New Testament is found in the first chapter of John’s Gospel (above). Poetic and majestic, it reminds us that the embodiment of God’s grace extended to us is in the person of Jesus. John chooses to introduce God’s grace, as the narrative of the gospel begins, with a comment about Jesus and his humanness, his character and, immediately, its extension to us as the objects of His grace.
“there but for the grace of God go I …”
A year ago today, we were in Africa. South Africa, Malawi, Swaziland to be precise. A mix of touring and mission work. I remember the time as one of deep contemplation. This was not the first time we have been actively involved in mission work in the developing world, and it has proven not to be the last. For me, similar times in India, Papua New Guinea, Kazakhstan and the poorest areas of mainland USA have provoked similar times of profound reflection.
“there but for the grace of God go I …”
The colour of my skin …
My ethnic background …
My race …
The religion of my parents …
My own life choices …
My own faith choices …
My level of education …
What my face looks like …
What I look like …
My gender …
How I was brought up …
Peace or war …
Poverty or prosperity …
“there but for the grace of God go I …”
God’s grace is often connected to events. To say God does not extend his grace to events and circumstances is to oversimplify and limit God’s omniscience and power. He shapes us through these – there is no doubt that our culture and our experience shape who we believe we are.
But in a fallen world, things will go wrong. God will not always be glorified. God is good to us, when we do not suffer; when we escape the consequences of our sins and those of others. He shows his mercy when we are honoured for who we are and what we look like, even when the world would want to say otherwise.
But the beauty of God’s grace in all its fullness is seen in the person of Jesus. Well may we say “what would Jesus do” when we find ourselves in confronting situations. Would he be repulsed, or would he love? Would he judge, or would he show mercy? Why did he seem to spend so much time with tax-collectors and men and women of ill-repute? When we don’t understand how God is working, that doesn’t mean that He isn’t. Remember, the disciples were often confused with what Jesus was doing, and why – and they got to hang around with him 24/7…!
The more I contemplate the notion of “there but for the grace of God go I …”, the more He has revealed how His grace has worked through His people here on earth, today. The hope in the eyes of a young Indian Christian girl, that smiled and shone at all she met, in spite of her abject poverty. The laughter of the PNG Christian man, as he described the beauty God had placed in his life, whilst at the same time we were looking out together at his village, in a valley in the highlands, ravaged by tribal fighting for 50 years. Or the voices of the Malawian church congregation, singing mightily to their creator God, all the while in the grip of the worst drought in recent memory.
These people are not deluded – they just know that God’s grace to them is first and foremost in the person of Jesus, sacrificial, once for all, giving them eternal hope. This life hurts, it’s unfair and there is often no rational explanation as to why things happen to some people and not others. But their hope is in the certainty of their eternity, where God’s grace, fully extended, will wash all of this world’s limitations away.
May our lives together, in our families and as a college community, in all its gatherings, continue to show glimpses of God’s grace in all its fullness.
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