Daily Word of Grace # 162 (October 28, 2020)
One of the best, if not THE best, books about God’s grace is Grace in Practice (2007) by Paul Zahl. He describes grace this way: “Grace is love that seeks you out when you have nothing to give in return. Grace is love coming at you that has nothing to do with you. Grace is being loved when you are unlovable. It is being loved when you are the opposite of lovable…Grace is a love that has nothing to do with you, the beloved. It has everything and only to do with the lover. Grace is irrational in the sense that it has nothing to do with weights and measures…It reflects a decision on the part of the giver, the one who loves, in relation to the receiver, the one who is loved, that negates any qualifications the receiver may personally hold…Grace is one-way love” (36). Such grace from God, such one-way love from God is the heart of the gospel. It is not merely a part of the gospel, or an aspect of the gospel, or a nuance of the gospel, or an ancillary benefit of the gospel, it is the gospel itself. It is only through God’s grace that you have salvation (Ephesians 2:8) and the hope of everlasting life (John 3:16). In fact, God’s grace is greater than everything in your life—greater than your successes and failures, greater than your healthy relationships and strained relationships, greater than your strengths and weaknesses…and yes, even greater than your death. God’s grace—God’s “one-way love”—is why the gospel is such good news, and always will be.
Love and Prayers,
Dave