Grace

Clansi Roy explores how ugly things can be made beautiful by grace, although there are conditions to the free gift.

Grace,” sings U2 vocalist Bono, “makes beauty out of ugly things.” Even the word sounds nice, but the idea that human sinners are saved by it is even nicer. Grace transforms us from cosmic outcasts into precious children of God (see 1 John 3:1), and not one of us is too “ugly” for God to make “beautiful.” Titus 3:5 reminds us that God off ers grace to us freely out of His mercy, and we are not saved by doing particular things. It is a huge relief that we do not have to make ourselves “good enough for God,” because His standard is impossibly high. Grace is as simple as God off ering us salvation just the way we are (see Acts 15:11), but it is so profound. Our God is a generous God.

It is easy to make two simple but big mistakes about grace. The fi rst is to use it as an excuse to do whatever we like. We might think, “It’s OK, God will forgive me later if I do what I know is wrong.” As Paul says in Romans 6:2, “We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (NIV). Of course, God does forgive us when we stuff things up, but grace is the bridge to a life with God. He may save us when we are at our ugliest, but never just leaves us how He fi nds us.

Our God has bigger things in mind for our lives.

The second big mistake is to think grace only applies to us. Grace is for absolutely everyone, and we should let it do amazing things for those around us. If we set the bar higher for other people, we are asking others to jump through hoops God didn’t set up, and this is extreme hypocrisy. We can’t ask people to have their lives straightened out before they meet Jesus—because He is the one who does the straightening.

Paul says it best in Romans 15:7: “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you” (NIV). To accept others just as Jesus accepts us, faults and all, can be quite challenging. We are, however, called to live graciously in response to the grace that we have been shown. The exciting thing is that grace revolutionises our human relationships just as it is the revolutionary instigator of our relationship with God.

Grace is a quality that could change the world. It fl ows from God to us, bringing good changes with it, and we are called to let it drip off us onto everyone we meet. Nothing in your own life (or in anybody else’s) is too ugly for God to make beautiful. Grace is that powerful.