Grace, truly amazing

I'm sometimes asked what the difference is between the Christian faith and other faiths. One famous preacher (whose name, unfortunately, escapes me), replied to that question with one word: GRACE. An incident which happened to me a couple of weeks ago was a lovely illustration of grace...

Most weekday mornings I try to spend in the church office at Priory. Usually I manage to get home for lunch, but on this particular occasion I had stayed in town. I walked along to a nearby sandwich shop, and ordered a sandwich. As the lady behind the counter was preparing my sandwich, to my horror and embarrassment I realised that I hadn't any money with me! I quickly apologised, asked her to cancel the order, and prepared to leave the shop empty-handed. To my surprise and delight the lady said, "don't worry, you can have the sandwich and pay me next time you come in".

That was truly an act of grace. She didn't have to make the offer; I was not in a position to make a payment for the sandwich, and she couldn't be absolutely certain that I would return at some future date with the money due. Yet despite all that she let me walk out of the shop gratefully clutching my sandwich!

It seems to me that grace is something we can struggle to fully understand. There's a saying which we often hear these days, "if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is". So when we hear that God offers us his unconditional love, we find it hard to believe. When we are told that Jesus died on a cross to pay the price for the things we do wrong (sin), we struggle to grasp the personal implications.

Many people have, deeply within their psyche, an understanding which tells them that they have to earn God's love, that they can't possibly be worthy of it: "why would God love me?" Yet the Bible tells us that we are all in the same boat; St Paul puts it like this, "everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard". Sin separates us from God, and by ourselves there's nothing we can do about it. But the wonderful good news is that Jesus has dealt with the problem: "Yet God, with undeserved kindness [grace], declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins."

No matter who we are, or what we've done, God's love, grace and forgiveness is available to us. Many years ago a slave trader by the name of John Newton, who had turned his back on God and was living a sinful life, experienced a wonderful transformation when God came into his life. The love, forgiveness and new life direction which Newton experienced caused him to pen the words to one of the all-time favourite hymns. Newton discovered what countless others have before and since - God's grace truly is amazing!

For a great performance of Amazing Grace click here.

And yes, if you're wondering, I did go back and settle my debt!