The grace of God is as overpowering to my sin as His sovereignty was over the nothing at the creation. His grace is the unstoppable force that makes my sin, which was once entrenched, anchored, tethered to the very foundations of the earth, skitter into the nothing like a hockey puck. It is His grace that removed my sins as far from me as the east is from the west. His grace is so potent, so broad, so forever, so condescending, so costly, so penetrating, so prodigal, that to call it amazing is to miss the boat.
We cannot even begin to fathom what it means that by His grace we are forgiven. Even that, however, is only part of the story. The promise of God is not only that we will be forgiven of all the filth that infests us to our core, but that we will be cleansed of it as well. The grace of God removes the stench, removes the guilt, removes the power, and in the end the glory of His grace is that we will be like Him, the giver of this grace.
I am, of course, merely stuttering. It is a task akin to cleaning the Aegean stables to try with inadequate words to capture the breadth of our sin. It is Herculean to try in turn to express the still more powerful reality of His grace. I am comforted in my failure here, however, in knowing that some realities are just too too to be communicated by words. Even the omnipotent Spirit of God at least once found words to fail Him. He said, speaking through the Apostle Paul, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him” (I Corinthians 2:9). The grace of God not only covers our sins, not only cleanses us from sins, but then rewards us beyond all imagination. The grace of God doesn’t merely rescue us from eternal torment, but delivers us into eternal, immeasurable blessing, being with Him. All this, for a wretch like me.
We will, for all eternity, climb further up and further in. We will grow in eternity, increasing in our capacity to take in His glory. We will see Him more clearly with each new day. We will start each day astonished again that there is still more, on into eternity.
To live a more full life is to seek to diminish the distractions that hide from us the important and eternal truths. If I simply remember to explore the scope and depth of my sin, and to swim in the greater depth and power of His grace, what more does my life need? Do I need to seek out other joys? Is there any reason to try to find drama? Must I work to find contentment? To live a fuller life is to adopt the wisdom of Mary, the sister of Martha. We choose the better portion when we simply sit at His feet, drink in His wisdom, and delight in His fellowship. It is to live a gospel life, to wallow in His grace. We have the Pearl of great price. We did not, however, sell everything we have. Instead it was given to us by the Pearl, the One who did sell everything He had.
As we aspire to live better lives, which certainly includes greater care and caution in the broader culture’s media that we take in, we are less concerned that this movie or that website or this other television program might tempt us to commit this worldly sin. The greater issue is that the world’s cultural baubles distract us from the simple things. That talk radio program about how awful the Democrats are, that makes it far too easy for me to forget how awful I am. That mindless pop song is less likely to We must not allow the world to set our agenda. While they desperately deny their sin, we humbly confess ours. While they despair of eternity, we long for it, because of His grace.
The devil, because he is more crafty than any of the beast of the field, delights to beguile us. He is the one who pulls us away from simplicity, from living in light of all that the Bible tells us. He wants us distracted. We fight him as we seek to focus our thoughts, rather than allowing them to be carried about by every wind of the culture. We, by His grace, meditate on His law, and thus see our sin. We, by His grace, meditate on His grace, and thus enjoy the peace that passes understanding. We are to see every complaint, whether spoken or merely felt, as a temptation away from grace, to see every boast, whether spoken or felt, as a cause for shame. We, by His grace, guard our minds, which in turn guards our hearts.
In the end, however, the glory of His grace answering our sin isn’t how wonderful things turn out for us. This is His story, not our own. His grace ultimately exists not for His sons but for His glory. Grace exists to the praise of His glory- it is who He is. His kingdom is built in this way. This is the good news of the kingdom of Jesus Christ, that He came to save sinners. He came to save a wretch like me. Because of His grace, when we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we first begun.
