God’s Remarkable Grace
Remarkable is uncommon, different from the norm, outstanding, extraordinary and unique. God’s grace is remarkable. How would you explain the concept of grace to someone who didn’t know the gospel of Jesus Christ? Grace is uncommon. Common means that which is ordinary, average and unrefined. Ordinary is unexceptional and deficient in excellence. Casual is common. Casual is laid back and apathetic. Casual Christians are casualties in the spiritual battle.
Salvation is by God’s remarkable grace. Grace is God’s divine favor: Grace is a gift given to the one who didn’t deserve to receive it by the one who didn’t need to give it. Grace is all of thee and none of me. Salvation is God’s gift given by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
The Pharisees thought that they could earn righteousness. They thought salvation was based on their own performance. However, salvation is not of works. It is a gift of God’s grace. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.
According to 2 Corinthians 6, “We beseech you that you receive not the grace of God in vain.” Why were we given God’s grace? For what were we given his gift of salvation? The Pharisees thought they would get to heaven by their own works of baptism or circumcision. Some Pharisees think that you have to speak in tongues to be saved. Some think that you have to keep the Old Testament law. Grace is not about performance. It’s about God’s gift, fit for the master’s use. The purpose is that we should be to the praise of the glory of His grace.
Humility is required in order to receive grace. It’s easy to judge others and to think we’re superior to others. Like the Pharisee prayed, “Lord, thank you I’m not like that tax collector over there.” The tax collector prayed, “Lord have mercy on me a sinner.” Which prayer did God hear? A broken and a contrite heart God will not forsake.
Evil speaking, gossip, grumbling and complaining will reject grace. From the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. According to Psalm 19, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable unto thee, O Lord my strength and my redeemer.
When you ask a man, “What do you think God thinks about you?” most men will answer, “I think he’s disappointed in me. I think I’ve fallen short of his expectations.” If you call a man “Man of God,” most men will look down. When you ask him why, he’ll say, “because I feel unworthy.” However, because of God’s grace, he made me worthy and now by his grace his mercy has made me his own. “Man of God” means God’s man. This is the genitive of possession. It means that we are his and he is ours. Because of grace, it’s not who we are but whose we are.
When Pete was serving as a young Christian minister, he was called by his board of elders and they said, “We think you’ve been sloppy in your work.” Pete felt discouraged and felt his anger rising when he heard this comment. Then their next statement was, “but we think you’re redeemable.” Even though Pete felt discouraged, he was encouraged about redemption. They said, “we think you need a sabbatical.” Pete spent the next three months in prayer, meditation and bible study. As a young minister, these three months were the closest and sweetest months of fellowship with God Pete had ever experienced. Isaiah 40 says, “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”
God will give us grace when we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. Therefore, receive not the grace of God in vain. To receive God’s grace means that we must forsake our pride. It’s not about me, it’s about him. He’s given us this gift of salvation, the spirit of Christ in us the hope of glory. Why? So that we would present our bodies a living sacrifice of praise, holy and wholly acceptable unto him which is our reasonable act of worship… and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
In Psalm 51, David’s prayer of repentance was, “Against thee and thee only have I sinned. Create in me a new heart O God. Deliver me from my iniquities and wash me with hyssop. Restore unto me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit.”
According to Romans, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Jesus said that In our flesh nature that we inherited from Adam, there dwells no good thing. We cannot help but sin and the wages of sin is death.
When Peter said, Lord don’t wash my feet I’m not worthy. Jesus said, unless I wash your feet then you can have no part in me. We’re contaminated by our worldly nature and by our worldly environment. We’re washed from sin by Jesus Christ. He is the fountain of living water. In the Old Testament the blood of animal sacrifice was insufficient to cover for the sins of Israel. However we’re cleansed by the blood of the lamb. Jesus Christ is the lamb of God. For he who was without sin was made the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in him.
The world expects Christians to be remarkable, uncommon, and outside of the world’s norms. Jesus Christ was remarkable. He humbled himself and drank the cup of death, sin and judgement on our behalf. He shed his innocent blood in exchange for our guilty blood. Therefore, thank God for his gracious gift. Ye were bought with a price: the precious blood of the son of God. Because of Christ’s precious payment on our behalf, our value is that we are God’s dwelling place. As the apostle Paul said, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of the Holy Spirit?”
This is amazing grace, this is unfailing love. This is God’s remarkable grace. For by grace are ye saved by faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, his poem, his magnum opus, his great work, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which he has foreordained that we should walk in them.
Because of His remarkable grace,
May we ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael