Tim Suffield.com

How absolutely astoundingly wonderfully amazingly beautiful is grace? I can’t think of anything that shocks me more to my heart than this truth. And it is truth, it is one thing that I can state absolutely, that I can speak with certainty and know that what I say is truth: God is for me. I mean, wow. God is for me. Grace just blows me away everytime I actually consider it.

The Lord of all Creation, the Creator of everything, the preserver and sustainer of life wants to know me. Me. Me who is pathetic and stained by sin. Me who is broken, useless, worthless. The God of all Glory wants to know me. More than that. Because I can just about comprehend Him wanting to know me, if I were good enough. But oh no, it doesn’t work like that. Where rightfully I deserve to be obliterated from history as the just and correct punishment for my iniquity, for the utter cack that I wallow in, He reaches out in mercy and in divine grace that He may be all the more glorified.

More than that. He doesn’t reach out and pull me up. He came down to me. He got down on his knees in my filth. He prostrated Himself at my feet. The Lord of Glory. The one being who need never bow to another, ever. Born admist donkey slobber and animal dung He came, triumphant and beautiful; all the more so because of the parallel of His birth. Upon His shoulders I stand, and I am lifted up to the highest of heavens. I am clothed in His righteousness. I am made as Holy as He is by being covered in His own Holiness. Despite the fact that I still sin, I am somehow no longer a sinner. Grace has marked the name of the Lord indeliabley upon my heart, and declares me a saint. Inexplicabley God has adopted me as His child, as His son. I am part of the the heavenly family of the Most High. I have an ‘older brother’ now who is a perfect example to me, and how! I am accepted. I am forgiven. I am hidden in Christ on high. In Christ. In Christ.

Wow.

More than that. Ever so much more. Grace is nonsensical to us. The Cross is a complete scandal. The Incarnation is fundamentally absurd. And yet while I cannot explain it, dearest brothers and sisters, what I can tell you is that it happened. That by his wounds I am healed, by his stripes I am saved. That I will upon That Day be glorified and raised as a co-heir with Christ, and that the Spirit works in me day by day making me more and more like Holy Yahweh. Perfecting me. Changing me. Wiping me truely clean, in act as well as in legal justification. Such grace! Such wonderous grace! Thank the Lord that we cannot understand such truths, that we do not become proud or fixed in our understanding. That we do not exult in the way that we can understand, explain and reason as opposed to in that grace that reaches out to us and draws us into the elect of our God. Thank God for grace, such grace!

When the God of all Glory sees us come stumbling down the road, beaten and filthy, longing to return to his embrace, when we’re overcome by our guilt to the extent that we cannot even choke out the words over the tears that come tumbling from our eyes, what does He do? Does He blast us from the earth because of our sin? Does He condemn us and spurn our woeful attempts at repentance? I know I would. It’d make sense to me.

No.

Praise the God of Grace! Praise Him that He acts to glorify Himself by treating with us, by opening his arms, by embracing us and by crying “my child, it has been so long since we’ve spoken!” Praise the God of Heaven who loves us while He loathes that which we do! Praise the God of compassion for his mercy!

In Him I am not a sinner. I am a son. In Him I am not pathetic. I am not broken. I am not useless. I am more than conqueror in Christ Jesus. He has overcome! O death, where is your sting? Eh? No, I don’t see it either. While I was bound in wickedness because of my Godlessness I was truely powerless. But now! Oh such sweet words! But now! But now I am justified by the blood of the lamb, my punishment has been paid by my Lord and my Saviour, and in God I can do all things. By His Spirit and in His mighty will I have power. Such grace! Such grace that we might be allowed union with the Father! To stand in the Holy of Holies, to not cover my face but to bask in His presence! To enjoy Him forever, glorifying His name in word and in deed!

Praise you O God! Such lavish Grace!

“And what does He do after giving us grace?” I hear you cry. Oh, you know the answer. It just blows everything else out of the water. What does the God of Glory do after giving us grace?

He gives us more.

Frankly, it just comes out … and I couldn’t not share it. I don’t even know if the logical progression in my head lasted through my yearning to commit this to “print” but one can hope. And if not, well … grace!

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 29th, 2006 at 7:28 pm and is filed under Reflections. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.