Grace

I was thinking about a conversation I had with a very dear friend of mine a few years ago about the subject of grace. He was frustrated because in his home group, he was struggling with extending grace to his guys and could not figure out why. I remember telling him that he could not extend grace well, because he had not learned how to accept grace from Christ.


Thinking back on that, I now know that that lesson was as much for me as it was for him. In my own life, I have a hard time accepting grace on a somewhat regular basis. The problem is my pride. Pride that screams that Christ is somehow not enough; that my sin is bigger than he is. When I look at it in those terms, it seems absolutely ridiculous to deny grace.


My frustration comes when I see the hypocrisy of those who claim to be like-minded in their faith in Christ.  How can you accept grace from Christ and simultaneously deny it to others? To these, some sins are forgivable, while others are not. There is no such thing as a point of no return with Christ, so why do we create them for ourselves and others?


I know that my understanding of Christ and who he is, is still far from complete. But I know that I am fully known by Him, which makes my pursuit of Him all the sweeter.