Grace

             Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  (Lamentaions 3:22-23)

 

            Last night, it occurred to me that imitating Jesus in showing grace would be a good idea. This verse passage came to mind, but when I looked it up this morning, it doesn’t use the word grace. That led me to wonder. Grace is used 10 times in the Old Testament (according to the NIV translation.)  The only times it means something that God gives are in Isaiah 26:10 and Zechariah 12:10. There are other terms (e.g., forgiveness, hesed, or lovingkindness) that are used, but eight times out of ten in the Old Testament, it has little or nothing to do with God. On the other hand, grace is mentioned 114 times in the New Testament. That’s today’s trivia. 

            Someone described kindness as loaning others our strength. Others have described grace as giving someone what they don’t deserve. Forgiveness is like grace. We don’t give grace or forgive because the person deserves it. Dallas Willard said that as we mature in Christ, we don’t need less grace, but more. As he described it, Christians burn grace like jets burn fuel on takeoff. Part of that is because as we mature, we become more responsible and aware of our responsibilities and failures.

            Our giving grace and forgiveness doesn’t mean that the other person deserves them. It doesn’t mean that we weren’t hurt or felt no pain, or that what they did was right or even OK. It has nothing to do with the kind of person they are, and everything to do with the kind of person God is, and that we are.

            If we are going to imitate Christ, this is one of the things we need to develop. I struggle with things like this because I don’t like to keep records – “Oh, look at how much grace I gave today. I’ll bet I did better than anyone except God!” but at the same time, when one is learning a skill, one needs to pay attention to the little details. I think the first step is simply to recognize when someone needs our grace.