THE original grace—the grace that made us who we are—is celebrated in the creation stories in Genesis. In the stories, God pronounced all creation, including humankind, very good (that is, full of grace). This is how it was recorded:
Genesis 1:31 And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Grace can also refer to the secondary gifts we perceive in the skill and intelligence of creatures, especially those that show a touch of the divine. The gospel says the boy Jesus grew in grace and favor, meaning that he began to exhibit his unique personality and potential to contribute to his community. We sometimes say a human being has a graceful character. When we use that word – graceful – to describe a creature, it is because that creature is expressing its God-given self.
We have just described grace as it relates to creation. There is another way of speaking about grace that is more about redemption than creation. Even though God had pronounced original grace, when a human being heads off in the wrong direction and ignores the Giver of grace, redemptive grace comes to the rescue. That grace has been very well described in the song “Amazing Grace”. That grace prompts us to repent, it prompts us to return to God. We call this, conversion. Also, whenever we forget grace and our need of it, amazing grace prompts our memory and then upholds our will, our intention to right our lives, to make amends. The process of continual conversion is the grace most associated with the Holy Spirit. We can call it sanctifying grace. The action of this kind of grace is summarized as repentance, confession, and amendment of life.
Redemptive grace is focused on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We may even refer to Jesus as Grace himself; as Grace in the flesh, as Grace walking around. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ can inspire us in at least three transformative ways:
– it can change our awareness of ourselves,
– it can change our awareness of our potential as human beings
– it can also change our awareness of God’s purpose for us and through us for all creation.
It is this changed awareness which makes Christians to embrace a life of service in the kingdom. In other words, but for this grace, we will not be serving God today. It is also that grace which makes spiritual power available to us to do the works of Jesus. That spiritual power which the grace of God makes available is what God uses (through us) to heal the world and to bring it into more and more wholeness. This grace is the assistance given us when we choose to become the people that God meant us to be; when we give ourselves fully to the purpose of God for our lives and for the world.
TO BE CONTINUED.
READ ALSO: The grace of God
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