Wondrous Grace

We yearn for justice; we plot retribution; we seek vengeance: such things are the natural desires of our hearts, and yet justice demands the sentence of death for all of us. This is because God says that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23) and the “wages of sin is death.” (Rom 6:23) It is a dichotomy really, that we who deserve judgment of the harshest sort seek it so zealously for others.

This penchant for vengeance is partly a façade, for if we focus on the faults of others we are not so prone to see our own. The Lord Jesus made reference to that in Matthew 7:3 when he asked, “Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?” Is it not because we don’t want to see what is in our own eye? I don’t want to acknowledge that MY “heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” (Jer 17:9)

We read stories of the horrors of the German holocaust, Stalin’s bloody purges, or a host of other things and we begin to seethe with righteous indignation, horrified with what men can do to one another. And rightly so: but do we pause to consider the even more horrific fact that all of us are capable of such atrocities?

“Never!” you say. However, do you suppose that a representative German soldier that marched Jews to their deaths at Auschwitz in 1944 considered that he would do such things when he was sitting at home reading the newspaper in 1939? In most cases no! And yet, when the circumstances arose that “legalized” such things, he participated in one of the worst injustices of the 20th century.

We all deserve to die because we have all fallen short of God’s standard. When God created Adam in the perfect paradise of Eden he gave him only one commandment. “The LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Gen 2:16, 17) Adam was to instruct his wife, Eve, of God’s standard, and so continue in harmony and communion with God.

However, when Satan entered the Garden Eve was deceived and Adam freely ate of that tree, willfully breaking God’s standard and thereby falling short of his glory. As a result, “by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” (Rom 5:12)

Adam should have died right then and there! And he did, spiritually speaking, for he was cast out of the Garden and separated from communion with his creator. “So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” No longer did he have access to the tree of life, but he continued to live physically for a very long time. However, the summation of his life was just as God had said, for “all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.” (Gen 5:5)

But the fact that Adam continued to live another moment is the first example of one of the most amazing attributes of God’s character: Grace! God could not overlook Adam’s sin—the consequence was as sure as God’s word. However, when Adam sinned by disobeying God’s direct order the first death was not his, but that of an animal. “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.” (Gen 3:21) Adam and Eve had tried to cover their nakedness when “they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons” (Gen 3:7) but that was not sufficient, for no blood was shed in death. God himself killed an animal—the first death in the world—to shed the blood and provide coats of skins for rebellious man.

An even more amazing example of grace was the promise that God gave to Eve that her seed would bruise or crush the serpent. (Gen 3:15) Millennia passed before this promise was fulfilled, but it came to pass in the person of Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God.

When we are introduced to this promised seed in John 1:1, he is introduced as the Word. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.” (Jn 1:1-5) Furthermore, as a fulfillment of the promise made to Eve so may years before, “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)

Full of GRACE and truth! And what grace! “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Eph 2:8,9) There was nothing that Adam could do to reverse or even mitigate the sentence of sin, but God in his grace stepped in with an animal sacrifice to die in his stead. It was God’s gift. Adam could not buy it—God gave it.

So too with God’s gift of his eternal, only begotten Son. “God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” (Jn 3:17) “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” (1 Tim 1:15) That is free, unmerited, wondrous GRACE!

“For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” (Rom 5:7-9)

Grace has not replaced justice—justice had to be satisfied. After all, the Word is grace AND truth. However, the judgment of our sin was meted out upon the holy, spotless Lamb of God. “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” (Is 53:5) God’s requirement for sin is satisfied as a result. “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.” (Is 53:11)

God’s grace is a wondrous thing, but it will come to an end. “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) However, “the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” (v. 7)

Grace has saved me, and grace will save you too if you haven’t already taken it as God’s gift to you!

-A.N. Scharf

Grace is the sweetest sound
That ever reached our ears,
When conscience charged and justice frowned,
‘Twas grace removed our fears.


‘Tis freedom to the slave,
‘Tis light and liberty;
It takes its terror from the grave,
From death its victory.


Grace is a mine of weatlth
Laid open to the poor;
Grace is the sov’reign spring of health;
‘Tis LIFE FOR EVERMORE.


Of grace then let us sing!
(A joyful, wondrous theme!)
Who grace has brought, shall glory bring,
And we shall reign with him.


Then shall we see His face
With all the saints above,
And sing for ever of His grace,
For ever of His love.

-T. Kelly