AMAZING GRACE

But may the GOD of ALL GRACE, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you – 1 Peter 5:10

Only eternity can fully reveal the awesome and AMAZING GRACE of God as it has been manifested for us in the Person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Humanity’s greatest need is to know and receive the Grace of God, epitomized in Christ: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, FULL of GRACE and truth” (Jh.1:14). Grace is the free, unearned, unmerited favour of God, bestowed on those who can never deserve or earn it by anything they do or refrain from doing. Amazing Grace describes the God’s lavish Gift in the Person of His Son. The words of the eternal hymn comes to mind: “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me; I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.”

The inspiration for this hymn flowed through John Newton, a former slave dealer, after a close encounter with death on the high seas. Amazing Grace summarised the story of his life. His spiritual state was so wretched, he not only sinned but made it his vocation to seduce others to sin. Every line of his hymn was filled with deep remorse for the depravity of his sinful nature, and expressions of Joy in encountering Amazing Grace! Every word in the lyrics of the hymn was pulled with pain, but also with thankful tears from the treacherous times and the dark days of his early wayfaring youth, to the wondrous joy of him discovering the Love of God. Newton’s epitaph, written by his own hand, tells more eloquently than any other words his experience of the immeasurable width, depth, and height of God’s Amazing Grace: “John Newton, clerk, once an infidel and libertine, was by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy.”

Being redeemed out of such a morally corrupt condition helped Newton to acknowledge and appreciate the Matchless Grace of God. Obviously, not everyone has gone to the depths of depravity like Newton, and some of such would think they do not need as much of the grace of God as the likes of Newton. But those who fail to see themselves as sinners in dire need of help are unlikely to taste the reality of amazing grace. They may simply see grace as nice and useful, but not really amazing. The more self-righteous you believe yourself to be, the less grace you’ll think you need. Alas, you can never make yourself good enough for God to accept you. The answer is in Christ alone and His Amazing Grace: “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfil its lusts” (Rom.13:14). Every soul needs grace because all have sinned and fallen short of God’s Glory (Rom.3:23)

Grace is Amazing because it is absolutely free: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourself; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Eph.2:8-9). Grace is Amazing because it conquers both the penalty and power of sin: “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law but under grace” (Rom.6:14). Grace is Amazing because it comes in to govern your spiritual life; to equip and strengthen all phases of your life. Paul admonished Timothy: “You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2Tim.2:1). Amazing Grace causes struggling and striving to cease. There is no struggling in grace, only submission. But there is a place for growing in grace, by being immersed in the knowledge of God: “But GROW in GRACE and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ…” (2Pet.3:18a). Beloved, let God’s Amazing Grace perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you! I exclaim with Paul: “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift” (2Cor.9:15)