Today is the one year anniversary of “The Light for My Path”. Thank you so much for being here, dear reader! To celebrate, I thought I would share the first post I made here in this space one year ago. May you be blessed in reading, and if you’re in the U.S., Happy Thanksgiving to you!
The warm golden light washes over the last of the busy day. The air cools quickly as the sun draws closer to the western horizon and the long shadows deepen. The low orange glow sets the grass and shrubs alive with vivid detail and stunning beauty. The only sound is the clicking of my camera’s shutter as I capture the scene before me.
November sunsets. They are like grace. They change whatever its light falls on, bring to life things that are dead and bring into existence things that do not exist (Romans 4:17).
In the midday sun, or in the typical gray November dreariness, the grass is brown and dead; easy to overlook and not worthy of a second glance, let alone a click of my shutter. The low-lying sun changes it completely, and brings death to life.
Grace is the difference.
Grace. It is such a loose, oft used Christian word. I wonder if we really know what it means. The common definitions I’ve heard for ‘grace’ are ‘unearned favor‘, and ‘a free gift of God‘. Though these are certainly true, I have never found them very helpful to fully grasp this central Christian truth.
I recently heard a description of ‘grace’ that has helped me to plumb its depth a little more. Though don’t remember the source, the explanation was something like this: Grace is the free and sovereign work of God to do for me what I cannot do for myself, even when I don’t deserve it.
So, yes, ‘grace’ is a free gift of God, it is unearned favor, but it is so much more. It’s God doing for me what I am unable to do for myself. It’s God pouring out His love and favor upon me even when I don’t deserve it.
I’ve been reading the Book of Romans and as I ponder this deep and rich truth, I found some verses which show grace and its effects. I noticed a striking contrast in the reality of who we are and what Christ has done.
“For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.” Rom. 5:6
Here is the “God doing for me what I couldn’t do for myself” part of grace. I was weak, unable to do anything for my spiritual condition, yet Christ did it for me.
“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Rom 5:8
“….while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son…..” Rom 5:10
Here is God again ‘doing for me what I couldn’t do for myself’ paired with the “even when we don’t deserve it” part of grace. I was an enemy of God, a sinner deserving of eternal death, yet Christ died for me. And you. Grace is the sovereign work of God through Christ’s life and death for you and me, when we were ungodly, sinners, and enemies of our Creator — the One who gives us life and breath and all things.
Before we are saved, we are like the November grass in the noon-day light — dead, hopelessly dead, and dried up (‘separated from Christ…having no hope and without God in the world.” Ephesians 2:12). But when grace pours in like the warm golden light of a November sunset, it covers death and makes alive, gives depth and beauty where there was none.
Salvation is all grace, and like the lifegiving rays upon the dead grass, it leaves us completely changed.
Grace is all the work of a sovereign and good God. Grace is rooted in love and it’s free. We can’t do what God through Christ has done for us, or anything that even comes close, on our own. And we do not deserve the glories that gift abundantly offers us — both here in this life, and even more so, in the life to come. Yet it is ours, in Christ. That is amazing grace.
Have you received this grace unto salvation? Thank Him! If you haven’t, ask Him!
“For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” Rom. 10:13
“But God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved.” Eph. 2:4-5
The Light for My Path 
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