Gift or Grace?
“I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you.”
Genesis 6:17 NIV
By the time you read this, we may be high and dry, but as I sit before my keyboard, it is pouring down rain outside at a rate of more than 1.5 inches per hour. As the locals (during my youth) in East Texas would say, “It‘s a frog choker of a downpour.” While the rain is not a deluge of Biblical proportions, the torrent reminds me of the story of an epic flood and God’s covenant with Noah and family.
This saga of Noah is a reminder of how God, throughout the ages, has sought to preserve and redeem His creation. From Adam and Eve, to Noah, to the Israelites stranded before the waters of the Red Sea, God has repeatedly provided what I would call “Option G” for humanity. “Option G” could alternatively stand for “Gift” or “Grace,” or maybe it really stands for the Gift of God’s Grace.
A quick search of Webster’s defines grace as “unmerited divine assistance given to humans for their regeneration or sanctification.” Unmerited divine assistance; hold on to that phrase. Throughout the Bible, humanity has been rebellious and sinful before God. Though we are each made in God’s image, there is, never the less, a propensity to want to do things our way or to own it in our world. Ever hear anyone say, “my way or the highway,” or do you ever hear that in your own mind?
In Romans Chapter 3:21-25, Paul writes, “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction; since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption, which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.” (RSV)
God’s ultimate gift of grace to His creation took place on the hard wood of a cross on a hill outside of the city walls of Jerusalem.
A Prayer
Lord, thank you for your abundant, abounding grace. Thank you that we don't have to earn a drop of the mighty river of grace that flows freely for us today. Thank you for the unexpected, unmerited favor You've showered on my life. Help me put myself in the path of your love and grace. Help me not neglect the disciplines I need to meet with you regularly and to drink from the water of life. Thank you for your rich love. Amen.
by David Mathis on christianity.com
