Nothing we can do to make God love us more than He already does

A world without grace is a dark place indeed.

Yet it needn’t be. We say grace at mealtime, we are grateful for kindness shown, we leave a gratuity for service well given, there are grace notes in music and the pardoning a wrongdoer is ‘an act of grace.’ We can also learn about grace by a look at the opposite meaning of the word in expressions like ‘fall from grace’. The dearth of grace in someone can find us calling them ‘ingrate’ or ‘a disgrace’.

It is also the case that those who come to this country, who speak and work against its values and abuse privileges and provision, and sometimes involve themselves in criminal, if not treasonable acts, could be declared as ‘persona non grata’ (a person without grace) and expelled.

Peter reminds the first believers that they should use their gifting to serve others, “faithfully administering the grace of God” (1 Peter 4 v10).

The Christian life and the life of the Church should be marked by grace. In the early Church it was noted that they responded to God’s grace in Christ by becoming generous and caring. They fearlessly preached the gospel of grace, testified to the resurrection of Christ, and we read “and much grace was upon them.”

There is nothing we can do to make God love us more than He already does. We like to propagate something like: “If you are good you will be rewarded” but God says, “while you were still sinners Christ died for you.”

God’s grace is not justice, it goes beyond justice, to complete pardon and liberty from sin. In this year of grace, maybe we should consider dispensing more of it.

The Rev Phil Gomersall Tottlebank Baptist Church, Near Greenodd