GRACE IS ABOUT LOVE.

You cannot love until you have been loved, and then you will love in direct proportion to how much you have been loved. (Steve Brown)

You cannot extend grace until you have been loved and, thus, had grace extended to you. Love is not love, unless you do not deserve it and know that you do not; otherwise, it is reward.

Grace is not grace unless you do not deserve it and know that you do not; otherwise it is reward.

TEXT:

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus, and who are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In Love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our transgressions, according to the rich of His grace, which He lavished upon us” (Ephesians 1:1-8a NASB; emphasis mine).

I want to begin by reminding you of the six “tried-and-true” suggestions I made to you in an earlier message, suggestions that I believe will enhance the quality of your life as a Christian, suggestions that, when practiced, will make whatever method you might choose to develop your relationship with Jesus a genuine joy, rather than a burdensome, carrot-on-a-stick task. As a reminder, those six suggestions were as follows:

Number One: Purpose to be slow to speak.

Number two: Consider the other person as being more important than yourself.

Number Three:  Give generously, especially your time, expecting nothing in return.

Number Four: Generously and liberally extend grace to others, and do it in direct proportion to the grace God has so generously and liberally extended to you.

Number Five: Learn the value of solitude and practice it often.

Number six: Cease making foolish decisions and practice making wise decisions.

Today, I want us to take a more careful look at the fourth of these suggestions: Generously and liberally extend grace to others, and do it in direct proportion to the grace God has so generously and liberally extended to you.

If you sincerely want to improve the quality of your life as a believer, then be a grace extender, one who extends grace to others in direct proportion to the grace God has so lavishly extended to you. To withhold grace—unmerited favor—is to hold grudges, and those who do, do not enjoy the quality of life—the more abundant life—that God intended for them. For the grace extenders the relationship is always more important than the method—always.

Many years ago now, God revealed a specific truth to me, one that I have never forgotten. It was early on in my ministry, back in the days when the He was revealing the gospel to me, graciously allowing me see that the gospel is really the good news of His grace toward sinners. As I have told you, I grew up in the Wesleyan-Arminian world, where one’s salvation (justification, sanctification, and glorification) was tied to works. Yes, they would use the “man is saved by grace through faith” passages, but that is not what they preached.

Anyway, on this particular day, I was in my office at Benevolence Baptist Church doing what I was talking about last Sunday—spending time in solitude—and basking in the amazing truths of the gospel. Truths that said—

• Jesus died for all of my sins—past present and future
• My sin debt has been paid in full through Jesus’ death
• I am eternally forgiven, i.e. I get off scot free
• God will never remember my sins again—never
• I am as righteous as Jesus is righteous, because of Jesus
• I am seated in Heaven in Jesus at God’s right hand
• I am a joint-heir with Jesus to God’s estate
• I have eternal life and, thus, can never lose my salvation

Back then, these truths were relatively new to me and they were definitely contrary to what I had been taught all of my life; however, they were life-giving truths, like none I had ever known. Consequently, they were very precious to me. (Just for the record: they have become even more precious throughout the years!). As I sat there that morning, basking in these truths, the Holy Spirit spoke to me, and He spoke as clearly as did when God called me to be a pastor. Interestingly, I remember verbatim what He said on both occasions:

• The first occasion: “Mac, I want you to pastor a small country Baptist church close to home.”
• The second occasion: “Mac, if you are going to accept these truths for yourself, then you must also be willing for them to be true for others, even those who you do not think deserve them.”

On that day, in that office, during that time of solitude, God gave me an incredibly significant gift, one without which I would not have survived as a pastor: the gift of being a lavish extender of grace.

Now, allow me to clarify what I mean by extending grace to others:

• Extending grace means that I believe that Jesus will receive everyone who comes to Him, even murderers, child molesters, terrorists, and hypocrites; consequently, I purpose to treat everyone as a potential believer.

• Extending grace means that I purpose not judge another Christian’s relationship with God by his behavior or by his belief system. Through the years, I have learned (1) that each one of us, even the ones that God seems to use most, desperately needs the finished work of Jesus applied to our lives every minute of every day, and (2) that, although I have been a diligent student, I know very little that I would dare to cast into cement.

• Extending grace means that I purpose not hold grudges against those who hurt me. To be sure, I have been hurt by the words and actions of others many times, since that day in that office, but because of that incredibly significant gift God gave to me that day, I have been able not to see them as being in debt to me.

• Extending grace means that I purpose not to keep a record of the wrongs I have suffered. Yes, I do remember some of them, but I do not keep a record of them. There have been times when I have been tempted to write a book describing the wrongs I have suffered, wrongs that at the time, I never thought I would forget. But then I remember what love is, and I remember that loves keeps no record of wrongs suffered. The truth is this: I couldn’t write the book, even if I wanted to because I wouldn’t remember couple of those wrongs, try as I might.

Extend grace to those who don’t deserve it and don’t know they don’t. I dare you . . .