Whenever I think about God’s grace I tend to alternate between thankfulness and confusion. I am thankful that God’s love has made a way for us to have fellowship with him. I am thankful that when I heard the Gospel I believed and now have the hope of eternal life. I am thankful that God has given grace and mercy when what I deserved were judgment and wrath.
But I am also confused. Why would God do this? Why would God be gracious to me, a sinner? Why would God provide a way of escape to those who most often make selfish choices? I am not qualified to answer these questions. They are mysteries that reside within the person of God. Only God can answer why he has afforded a fallen humanity grace for eternal life.
But the mystery does give me hope. It gives me hope because, in spite of my insecurities and fallen nature, I have come to know that I have been born again. Sure, there I days when I struggle to hold onto that hope. But, most days I remember that it was not by any works of righteousness I have done that salvation was gifted to me. God has given me the gift of salvation by his gracious love and mercy. He knows I am incapable of ascending to him, but he has already proven that he is willing and able to descend to us.
Jesus is proof of God’s love and grace. Jesus is the fulfillment of every promise God ever made. When Jesus walked on the earth, he was a living, physical, perfect representation of everything God had said he was going to do in and for sinners. The mystery is difficult to explain, but it is not too difficult that it can’t be experienced.
We may be tempted to ask a plethora of “why” questions and never quite be satisfied with the answer for why God is gracious. But when we ask the “how” question of grace—How have we received God’s grace?—the answer is quite simple. We have received grace because of Jesus.
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