by Travis Tubbs
Per Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, the word “grace” is defined as the unmerited divine assistance given to humans for their regeneration or sanctification.
If you are like me (which you are indeed like me because you are human), “unmerited divine assistance,” or as I like to call it “undeserved love,” is something we desperately need all the time. Every person who walks this planet is in need of it, especially with the times we are living in now.
As we read in the book of Romans 3:10-12, Paul writes “as it is written: “None is righteous, no not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one” (ESV). This certainly wasn’t a new concept in Paul’s day because he was quoting verses of Psalm 53 and Psalm 14. These words were true in Old Testament times and they still ring true today. No one is good. No one is righteous in comparison to God and according to His standard. Not only are we not good, but because of our unrighteousness (sin), we are completely deserving of death: Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death…” (ESV).
Scripture is clear that we are all born into sin. In Psalm 51:5, David writes “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (ESV). If David, who was considered to have a heart after God, acknowledges that he was born a sinner, then how much more should I have the same realization about myself! I am not equipped nor able to possibly meet or achieve God’s holy standards on my own. Nor are you. Thankfully, God gives us all kinds of grace. Not because we earn it or deserve it, but because He simply chooses to do so out of love.
Psalm 145:8-9 reminds us that the Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in love. It reminds us that the Lord is indeed good to all, and His mercy is over all that He has made.
We are all recipients of grace from God. Everything that is good we have in this life is a result of grace from the totally sovereign God of The Bible (James 1:17).
Even though we all receive various kinds of grace from God, there is a very specific, marvelous grace that He gives through Jesus Christ. It’s the grace that saves sinners from the eternal punishment of their sin. It saves sinners from themselves. It is a grace that we are told that comes through faith: “For by grace have you been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV).
This kind of grace is what we desperately need the most. This is the kind of grace that makes a spiritually dead man alive (Ephesians 2:1-3) and a child of wrath (which all sinners are) into a child of God.
If we have truly received this kind of grace, then we will desperately push others toward the word of the only One that can give such grace. We’ve even been commanded to do such.
Corinth Baptist Church 