Written by Michael D. Warden

Grace is God’s love expressed. It is the secret of a heart set free. It is to the follower of Christ what air is to the wings of an eagle or wind to the taut sails of a schooner on the open sea. Grace is utterly beautiful. And utterly free.  

Perhaps, for so many of us, that’s also why it is so hard to accept as real and surrender to it. But only those who are willing to accept grace – free and without conditions – will ever understand what it really means to follow God or grasp just how much His love is willing to risk for the chance to win our hearts.

Grabbing Hold of Grace
All my life, I have heard grace defined as “God’s unmerited favor,” which is of course true. But “God’s unmerited favor” has proven to be such a vague and frustrating description of something so crucial to my life as a Christian. After all, I could rightly say that God’s love, mercy, and kindness could all be defined as His “unmerited favor.” So what, then, distinguishes His grace?

Author and theologian Dallas Willard defines grace as “God acting in our life to accomplish what we cannot do on our own.” That comes closer to something I can grab hold of, but even it leaves me unsatisfied. So God acts on my behalf and for my good – great. But if that’s all that grace is, then how do I connect with it? It feels too far removed from me – like something God is up to over there, off in the distance. How do I live in such a grace and build my life on it in any practical way?

I think one reason we struggle to define grace is that it’s so radically foreign to the way we would do things if we were God. To our human sensibilities, God’s grace seems unwise, even ridiculously reckless. How foolish it is to irrevocably proclaim someone as acceptable and worthy of love and honor and then to promise full, permanent support before someone actually proves to be the slightest bit worthy. Such a gift could be easily abused. It could be taken for granted. It could be horribly wasted. Surely God is too smart for that.

But such is the daring love and wisdom of God. For grace is just such a radical gift. And it takes a radical faith to grab hold of it.

Two Sides of Grace
God’s grace is twofold. It is first His absolute acceptance of who you are – just as you are – based solely on your faith in Jesus, His Son. After that, there’s nothing you need to prove, nowhere else you need to go, and nothing else you need to do to make yourself right enough or good enough or acceptable enough. You’re already completely acceptable. The God of the universe has proclaimed you as such.

But if that weren’t reckless enough, grace goes further even than this. For beyond absolute acceptance, grace is also the power to become who God intended you to be. To tweak Willard’s definition, grace is God’s power working in us and through us to accomplish what we could never do on our own. Such grace is not fueled by guilt or shame or the legalistic rules of religion. Instead, it’s fueled simply through believing that what God has proclaimed concerning you is actually true.

As a wise man once said, “Show me a man who tries to become righteous by doing righteous things, and I will show you a slave of religion. But show me a man who does righteous things because God has proclaimed him righteous, and I will show you a son of God.”
     
Grace is the power to love sacrificially, the power to walk in intimate communion with God, the power to accomplish God’s purpose in the world, the power to overcome sin, the power to become in every way the whole person you were created to be. And you plug into that power through faith – through your confident belief that all of these things are not only possible for you, they are yours by right as a son or daughter of God.

Living Freely
To live in God’s grace is to live in freedom. But too often, somehow, we don’t feel all that free. Honestly, we don’t know what the problem is. All right, we know that God loves and accepts us. Yes, His power is available to us. But for some reason, grace doesn’t work for us. It doesn’t quite reach us.

Why is that? It may be that deep down we don’t really believe God is right. Sure, He sees us as acceptable and worthy and capable of becoming who we were meant to be. But we know better. And as long as we hold onto that sort of subtle arrogance, grace will remain out of reach. As Scripture says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).

It isn’t enough simply to believe that God sees you as acceptable or that God believes you can become all that He designed you to be. You must see yourself that way as well. You must let go of your own appraisal of your worth and allow God’s grace to extend into the way you see and deal with your own heart.

You see, when God proclaims you as acceptable and empowered, He’s not just rattling off empty words. He is pronouncing what is true. In fact, His very pronouncement actually makes it true because His creative power rests in His words.

When you walk in an inner grace of seeing yourself the way God does, you’ll be able to give yourself permission to be where you are right now in your journey, without condemnation. You can let yourself feel what you’re feeling, stumble where you’re stumbling, and not know the things that you’re unsure of – all without judging yourself as less than acceptable to God, yourself, or anyone else.

And through it all, you can know that tomorrow you’ll become closer to the person God created you to be than you are today. You are actively cooperating with His power, which is actively at work in you, transforming you into the image of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:10).

That is grace – utterly beautiful, utterly true, and utterly freeing.

Michael D. Warden is a full-time author, speaker, and life coach who helps people discover and fulfill God’s unique purpose for their lives.