God shows us grace when He extends us love, forgiveness, and eternal life in spite of our wrongs and shortcomings. While we cannot offer eternal life to another, in honour of the grace we have experienced, God expects us to show love, mercy, compassion, and kindness to those around us—even our enemies.
As Jesus instructs His disciples, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy” (Matthew 5:7) and “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:44-45). And as the apostle Paul urges early Christians in Ephesus, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32).
While our salvation is the most extravagant expression of God’s grace, God’s grace can have meaningful impact on our earthly life, too.
God’s grace gives us tremendous freedom. We can live unencumbered by the heavy weight of our transgressions. His grace also gives us spiritual gifts, pays our sin-debt, and transforms our hearts and lives. Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” This theme is echoed also in Ezekiel 11:19” “I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.”
It makes us brand new, free and forgiven, ready to embrace the beauty and the glory of a life lived fully in the Lord.
Erick Bouwmeester
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