Grace is such a wonderful thing! Without it we would be lost in our sin. The wonder of this grace that God sent to us is more than amazing and many times just seems to be not real. But grace is real and came to us in the form of Jesus Christ. The idea that a Holy God who does not need us and had wiped most of us off the planet except for Noah and his family would then send His Son to pay for our sins, is a story even the best writers in Hollywood could not dream up.
John 1: 14-17 says, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” Truly, grace is unmerited favor that we did not deserve but grace is so much more than that. Many Christians see the beauty and wonder of grace, and we are eternally grateful, in fact without grace there would be no eternity for us, in God’s presence that is. Every human being will face eternity, the question is where that eternity will be spent.
Grace has a component to is that many Christians are unaware of and because of that, they live passive and unproductive lives as disciples of Christ. That unrealized component is found in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. Paul says, “Because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
This scripture is so deep but I want to focus on three things that show that grace is not just unmerited favor but also the power of God to live out the life He has envisioned for you.
1. God tells Paul that His grace sufficient for him but that His power (God’s power) is made perfect in Paul’s weakness. Gods grace is infused with power in our weakness.
2. Paul boasts in his weakness. How many of us try to wear the mask of the super Christian because we think someone will perceive us as a weak Christian? Paul is more concerned with acquiring Gods power than what people will think of him.
3. He delights in hardships, insults and persecutions. Most Christians are trying to run as fast as they can from these because we like comfort and we want people to like us.
We all want the power that God provides but we aren’t willing to admit the truth before God and others. That we are all weak inside and we desperately need God and the power He provides. In order to get it we all are going to have to deal with our pride and self-sufficiency. If we want the empowerment that comes with grace we all have to humble ourselves and admit our weaknesses so that like Paul we can say, “when we are weak, then we are strong.
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