Grace Meditations for Sunday
June 21, 2008
Philip Gulley and James Mulholland
Grace is the unfailing commitment to love all persons, regardless of their beliefs. Only grace makes it possible for those who believe differently to respect and relate to one another. Grace allows us to disagree, to challenge the damaging beliefs of others even as we are challenged and to do this without violating the autonomy and dignity of others. Grace empowers us to embrace deeply divergent convictions even as we embrace one another. We love one another as God loves us - graciously.
Max Lucado
Grace doesn’t have to be logical. If it was, it wouldn’t be grace.
Nicolas Berdyaev
True liberation comes through grace and not through free will.
Paul, the Apostle
By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not our own doing, it is the gift of God - not because of works, lest any man should boast.
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Posted in Grace Meditations, Love and Grace
June 22nd, 2008 at 3:08 pm
I don’t want to sound like a complete idiot. But I’m willing to risk it. What is the difference between grace and love?
June 22nd, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Ceara –> You don’t sound like an idiot at all, in fact, the question’s a very good one, and the kind that theologians kick around and Christian thinkers write books about. In some ways, I think the words are largely interchangeable within faith vocabulary even though there’s a distinct quality around grace. Divine grace is commonly defined as the unmerited favor of God and in that, grace might be seen as “a thing” imparted to us by God, while God’s love seems more sweeping, given that God doesn’t simply love, but God is love. Love isn’t merely an action, emotion, or characteristic of God as much as it’s the very essence of God’s being from which everything else that God is (just, forgiving, compassionate…) flows. God’s grace flows out of God’s love.
In Christianity we tend to speak of God’s grace when referring to what Christ has done for us and the Apostle Paul declared repeatedly that grace, grace, and grace alone has made us righteous before God. Not our good works or obedience to the law. Grace has justified us. Grace has saved us. Grace through Christ. Why have we been given grace? Because of love.
See? You can talk round and round on such a simple and theologically rich question. Does any of that make sense Ceara? How would others of you respond to Ceara’s question?
June 22nd, 2008 at 4:46 pm
I think that grace is Love taken to a God level. I love, I love my kids and my family and my darling JB. But in no way does that come close to the love of God which is grace. Without love there can’t be grace, and without grace there can’t be love. Just my 2 cents worth.
June 22nd, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Ceara,
Eph 2:8 For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith-and it isn’t from yourself but through God.
“But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared . . . according to his mercy he saved us” (Titus 3:4-5).
“That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7).
“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).
Grace is a product of love. That is what I believe.
June 22nd, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Kelli–> I really do love how human relationships can help us catch glimpses of our relationship with God, even if only a fraction of a glimpse. That was worth for more than 2 cents
Sane–> A great selection of verses; Ephesians was certainly one that comes to my mind in describing grace as well. That and the entire book of Galatians which rocks from start to finish with grace. Thanks for contributing those verses and ditto on grace as a product of love
June 22nd, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Grace is love and love is grace. To me it’s kind of the same.
Although we deserve punishment, we are feely given grace, through Christ.
It’s a beautiful attribute of God’s love.
I think Anita explains it great when she says….
“In Christianity we tend to speak of God’s grace when referring to what Christ has done for us and the Apostle Paul declared repeatedly that grace, grace, and grace alone has made us righteous before God. Not our good works or obedience to the law. Grace has justified us. Grace has saved us. Grace through Christ. Why have we been given grace? Because of love. ”
Because of love.
By the way Ceara, you do not sound like an idiot at all. You sound like a woman on a quest and I think that is wonderful!
June 23rd, 2008 at 5:19 am
I have always thot of grace as a bi-product of love in a way.
For me grace goes so much beyond where love can reach.. at least in my humanness and my small understanding. Mind you that’s coming from my mind that can barely comprehend or fathom how deep the love of Christ is for us. It’s hard to truly know it and receive it as it is. It’s too vaste for me.
I can extend grace to someone that I don’t love… in that I can extend grace to a stranger or an acquaintance.
Hmm.. you got me thinking and I like that. GRACE!! that word is my life, it’s what gets me day by day. Inspite of myself… His grace!!!
grace and love.. love and grace.. sounds like a great digging for me is coming, I want to search out these two words now. I have always seen them as seperate, but when trying to answer this question I am beginning to see that they are very similiar.
great question Ceara!!
June 23rd, 2008 at 8:03 am
Thanks you all for helping me out. I’ll do some digging myself on this. If I come up with anything I’ll share. I probably won’t come up with any thing though. lol.
C
June 24th, 2008 at 4:49 am
I like Philip Yancey’s comment in his book What’s So Amazing About Grace (a book I highly recommend): “Grace means there is nothing I can do to make God love me more, and nothing I can do to make God love me less.”
June 24th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Devon, that statement was one that truly shook me to awakening about two years ago. It’s so true, we can do nothing to change His love one way or the other for us!!