May 15, 2012
“Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.” Romans 3:24 The Message
You can’t repay it. What God offers you is a gift .. free for the taking. Except taking isn’t what it feels like. It feels more like you are receiving something incomprehensibly greater than what you are giving up. Except you aren’t giving up anything . You’ll change in ways you cannot fathom. You’ll wrestle with things you thought were long ago forgotten or packed away in your mind’s closet. You’ll find yourself wondering if “it” can really be that free of gift. There must be strings. There must be some hidden agenda. There must be conditions that let you keep up your end of the “bargain”. And slowly this gift of sovereign life begins to move throughout your whole life. You discover a strength you’ve never had. You discover yourself actually wanting the best for others at the expense of yourself. You discover that forgiveness is real and in itself a treasure to share with others. God never intends for you to spend one second of your life trying to repay Him for the gift of His Son. It is the pure gift of God’s “sheer generosity” of his love for you. Why did He choose you? You can only shake your head and say thanks over and over. But He has left behind a secret currency for you to spend extravagantly. It’s called .. Thankfulness. You spend it every time you share The Gift with the wide-eyed expectation that that person or persons might let go of their mess and accept The Gift in its place. And you smile and maybe even laugh at the thought that God used you to share such a Gift. Why did He choose you? Because He wanted out of pure love to make you terminally infectious with the gift of grace. Why did He choose you? Because it only takes a moment …
“If death got the upper hand through one man’s wrongdoing, can you imagine the breathtaking recovery life makes, sovereign life, in those who grasp with both hands this wildly extravagant life-gift, this grand setting-everything-right, that the one man Jesus Christ provides? Romans 5:17 The Message
Ken Chester: Grace-Gripped is sent M-F to God’s Wide-Eyed Followers of Jesus and friends of Priority One (ken@priorityone.org)
