Death, Taxes and Grace

Three things you can’t avoid are death, taxes and grace. I added grace because the first two have always been so depressing. Could there be a more depressing saying? I don’t think so.

You can’t avoid grace. It’s everywhere. It’s around every corner. It hunts down your sin like a bounty hunter hunts down crime. Grace covers you like a warm down blanket on a cold, wintry night.

We often think of grace as “dodging the bullet” or “whew, that was a close one.” This concept of grace is interchangeable with the word “blessing.” When you barely avoid a car wreck you might say, “By the grace of God we missed that car. That was a real blessing.” “There by the grace of God, go I” is another example of how we dodge the bullet. This implies the caretaker side of God. This ‘blessing’ form of grace is important, but it only tells one side of the grace picture.

The other face of grace is the forgiveness we receive from the Lord. This is the freedom of forgetfulness that comes when we mess up. This is the part that blows my mind. How could the Creator of the heavens and the earth “throw our sins into the sea of forgetfulness…throw them as far as the East is from the West?” However, this has always confused me a little because eventually the East and West meet up again. I hope He throws them somewhere right in the middle. I digress.

Grace is an amazing thing and is not very easily understood by earthlings. How can something so huge care about something so small like me? I’m one out of billions. If you add in the animals, insects, plants and trees, I’m one of quadrillions. Even still, a sparrow does not die without the Lord knowing and caring. Again, it’s unfathomable.

We all sin and can never compare to the greatness of God. But it’s great to know that we are “justified freely by His grace.” Pardoned. Are you kidding me? We were once strapped to the electric chair, sitting in the gas chamber or waiting for the deadly drip to begin and the red phone rang. It was God. He was instructing the executioners to free you…no questions asked. This is the ultimate gift of being a follower of Christ.

I don’t know that I will ever fully grasp grace. It may be ungraspable on this side of Heaven. But for now I trust. I believe what the Bible promises about this gift. And as much stuff as I have buried at the bottom of the Sea of Forgetfulness, I am eternally grateful to a God who thought this up.

If you are not a follower of Christ, let me ask you a question. Is this too good to be true? Is this the ultimate multi-level marketing scheme, where you’re on the ground level? The answer is “yes,” except for the multi-level marketing thing. And yes, when you call out to Him to rescue you from your self-sufficiency, He is there…no questions asked. Your past is not too much for God’s grace to cover. As soon as you call on His name, your red phone rings…there is good news on the other end of the line. You have just received your grace call. Congratulations. You too will be eternally grateful.