Immeasurable Grace

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:”  Romans 3:23-24

Do we really understand and appreciate the grace of God?  The term “grace” is translated in scripture from the Greek “charis” which means “acceptable, benefit, favor, or gift”.  In the Old Testament, the term for “grace” is translated from the Hebrew “chen” which also means “favor”, but its root word “chanan” means “to bend or stoop in kindness to an inferior” (Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance).  Is not this what God did when He sent His only Son to suffer and die on the cross in order to give sinners the opportunity to become part of His family?  Did He not stoop to inferiors like you and me in order to provide the most precious gift of eternal life?

Be referring to us as “inferiors”, I don’t mean to disparage anyone or bruise anyone’s ego, but every man, woman, and child is an inferior being when compared to God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Actually, there really is no comparison.  Even the angels are superior to mankind (Hebrews 2:7).  However, that same verse goes on to say that God crowned man with glory and honor setting him over the works of His own hands, and has put all things in subjection under his feet (verse 8), that is, has put man in charge of all things on the earth.  Remember that God gave dominion over the fish, birds, cattle, and every animal that walks on the earth to man (Genesis 1:26).  That, in itself, was a great measure of grace that God gave to man.

The definition that we usually use for “grace” is “God’s riches at Christ’s expense” which is a good description of the grace that God has made available to man, but His grace goes much further than an acronym.  God made man and woman and put them into a perfect environment, supplying everything that they could ever need, being a loving Companion to them, and blessing them beyond measure with His grace.  They only had one rule to keep, and there was nothing difficult about keeping the command to not eat from just one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  They could freely eat of all the other fruit trees, and God surely provided them a vegetable garden with tasty edibles like tomatoes, carrots, corn, etc.  They had pure, clean water to drink, and I would imagine that there were bountiful and beautiful flowers to enjoy and perfect weather.  Surely they never had to run to the basement because of a tornado warning, and each day was a perfect day to enjoy the sunshine.  Basically, they had no worries at all.  I think that whatever labor that they had to do was not hard but actually enjoyable.  There were likely no weeds to pull in the garden and no ferocious beasts to fear.  As the old saying goes, “They had in made in the shade” because of God’s grace.  I believe that eternal life will be like it was in the garden of Eden before Adam and Eve sinned except there will be no visit by that old serpent, Satan himself, for he will be banished forever, that, too, because of God’s grace.

However, we know what happened, how that Eve was deceived by Satan disguised as a serpent who convinced her that God was holding out on them, and she took of the forbidden fruit and so did Adam.  Thus, they lost their paradise.  At that point, God could have given up on them and on future generations who would have come from them, relegating all mankind to an eternal hell with no chance at redemption.  But that’s not God.  His love, mercy, and grace is “greater than all our sins”, as the song truthfully says.  No one could honestly blame God for giving up on His creation because of the evil that man has perpetrated for thousands of years.  In Noah’s day, God was so grieved at the wickedness of man that He desired to destroy all mankind, but Noah received grace (Genesis 6:5-8).  In Numbers 14:11-21, God was ready to wipe out the Hebrew people because of their rebellion and constant whining during the journey to the promised land, but Moses received grace, and so did many of those whom he was leading.  If it wasn’t for God’s merciful grace, none of us would be here and be recipients of God’s best.

Those of us who have received eternal life and a future home in heaven because God forgave us of our sins will one day see the glories and beauty of heaven and experience the peace, health, and joy of no more sorrows, pain, fears, troubles, disappointments, and heartaches.  God’s love goes beyond human understanding.  His grace, also known as His undeserved merit, is immeasurable.  Its height, depth, length, and width has no limits.  We will never see the end of it nor fully understand it (Ephesians 3:18-19).  All we have to do is to receive it with abundant gratitude and enjoy it forever.