MOMENTS OF GRACE – Jesus and grace

By David Woodbury

Probably the world’s greatest story is the story of total redemption recounted in the parable Jesus told of The Lost Son. No other narrative has so captured the attention and imagination of humanity and it is a re-occurring theme in books and films.  While we are moved and inspired by the lost son returning home, it is in the actions and attitudes of the father that we catch a glimpse of the grace of God. Jesus may not have said a lot directly about grace but He left us a graphic and explicit word picture of grace in this parable.

While we may struggle to explain and grasp exactly what the grace of God really is and how it impacts our lives, the father’s reactions and actions to his wayward son very clearly illustrate the heart of our Father God. If, for a moment, we can change places with the lost son and experience the outpouring of love and mercy from the father, we have caught a glimpse of God’s grace in reality.

The son had spent his father’s resources living with pigs and prostitutes and finally comes to his senses and decides he would be better off as a mere servant in his father’s house and sets of to come home. Here is a human example of the miracle of God grace operative in a lost life.

One of the great tragedies of humanity is that it spends inordinate time trying to earn or create a relationship with God. The reality is that it is a genuine and wholehearted repentance that triggers the grace of God; the hinge pin of a meaningful relationship with Him. When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant. (Luke 15:17-19 NLT)

There can be no doubt there was a deep-seated, perhaps even painful yearning in the heart of the father for his missing son. (V 20) At the heart of grace is a longing and eagerness in the heart of God that a path of meaningful reconciliation is possible. Note the actions of the father: he was looking out for his lost son and runs with eagerness to embrace him with love and compassion; no sense of recrimination, no “I told you so” etc. A reaction that is instantaneously responsive.

In verse 22 that father bids the servants to: Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Now here is a facet of this story that needs to be noted. There is a symbolism here that cannot be missed. The son was not only travel-stained from the dusty roads he had travelled to return home but no doubt his clothes still carried the gunk and filth of the pigpen.

When the father throws the finest robe in the house around his son’s shoulders all the gunk and filth of the pigpen are covered from his sight. He sees not, his son’s past with all its failures and sin, but rather the new creation that the father’s love and grace have created.

And so it is for all of us who have come in true repentance to God. We are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus and when God looks upon us He sees not the gunk and filth of our sins, but the sinless righteousness of Jesus.

The Reformation spoke of the possibility of salvation by faith. Luther’s search for a gracious God resonated with the needs of those who believed that sinners could not be accepted by a righteous God. He concluded that God not only requires righteousness, but also provides it. – (Salvation Army Handbook of Doctrine – 2010)

Hymn writers have captured the reality of this righteousness that God provides as seeing the forgiven sinner clothed in the righteousness of Jesus.

No condemnation now I fear

Jesus and all in him is mine.

Alive in him my living head

And clothed in righteousness divine

Bold I approach the eternal throne

And claim the prize through Christ my own
(Charles Wesley - 241 SASB)

When He shall come with trumpet sound
Oh may I then in Him be found
Dressed in His righteousness alone
Faultless to stand before the throne

On Christ, the solid rock, I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

(Edward Mote)

God called us and when we responded to the invitation to accept Jesus as our Saviour, we came into a right standing with God; clothed in nothing else but the righteousness and glory of Jesus.

Not only are we saved by grace, but we are also sustained by grace. That same grace that we encounter at the moment of redemption is that grace that will sustain us in our relationship with God right throughout our lives. Here is our ultimate spiritual security, not only are we redeemed by grace, we are constantly sustained by grace, often in ways that are completely unexpected or anticipated.

Video for meditation: Wonderful Grace

Click on or paste the following link.

https://youtu.be/eY9TtB-Z3WE