What About Grace?

 

I just wrote a blog on living a righteous life and how that is what is expected from us. Well, where is the grace? What does it look like when we fail at living righteously? 

 

Grace is something that I am having to learn a lot about on the Race. I struggle with showing grace to myself and sometimes my initial response lacks grace. The reason I struggle with is is because I have watched grace get talked about and flung around time and time again.

“I know I did wrong, I know I hurt you, but you’re supposed to have grace.” 

“I know I should have done that, but there’s grace.” 

People use grace as an excuse to get away with sin, and when people do this they obviously have no idea what grace is. 

Grace is a gift! It’s not deserved and it will never be deserved. Is it true that God gives us grace? Yes, it’s true. It is grace that He sent His Son, and it’s grace that we have the gift of eternal life. Grace is not getting the punishment we deserve, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be consequences. 

You see actions equal consequences. When we choose to sin, there will be repercussions. When a child lies to his/her parents about their grades there are consequences for the lie. The parents may extend grace in not extending a physical punishment, but trust was lost and that is a consequence of the child’s actions. 

When a person runs late for work, their boss may not reprimand them or yell at them, but he’s not going to count on that person as his best employee, as one who always follows through. 

Actions equal Consequences. The actions can be good and reap good consequences (aka rewards), or the actions are wrong and the consequences still come. Grace doesn’t get rid of the consequences for sin, it saves us from the true punishment we deserve. 

 

So in regards to living a righteous life. Know that there is grace. There will always be grace because we’re not perfect and we will fail. We cannot live righteously on our own, if we could we wouldn’t need Jesus. But there’s grace. We reap the consequences that come from our actions, we go before God with a humble and contrite heart and we refocus our eyes on Him. 

When you are in a circumstance that doesn’t seem fair and you are wondering where the grace is, look to God. Take responsibility for your actions and realize that there is already grace, so much grace. 

Keep pressing forward, keep focusing your eyes on Christ, keep growing. 

Till Next Time,

Kara Faber