Exodus 34:5-6 - “5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,”
Merciful. Gracious. Slow to anger. Abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Throughout the pages of scripture, it is these characteristics that the Biblical authors use to describe God. When looking at the story arc of the Bible- the epic story of God’s redemptive plan for his rebellious creation - God’s character is captured through the lens of these critical traits.
Today, I want to focus on one of these character traits of God - that He is gracious. Grace is defined as “free and unmerited favor of God.” Free in that God gives it to us generously without cost. Unmerited, in that, we have not and can in no way merit the precious gift of God. We cannot earn our way to His Grace through our own moral performance, making His generous giving to us that much more necessary (Romans 11:6, Ephesians 2:8-9).
Throughout the story of the Bible, God’s Grace is a consistent theme. God is consistently giving freely to His creation. Instead of giving sinful, rebellious humans the wrath that they bring upon themselves, He affords us His Grace. This is seen right from the outset of the Biblical story when humanity chose to seize autonomy for ourselves and tried to be like God (Genesis 3, Romans 5:12). In the face of humanity’s first rebellion, God punishes Adam and Eve with exile from the Garden. Yet, God also shows his grace by clothing their nakedness and promising humanity’s future deliverance from evil – a promise that is fulfilled in Jesus. Jesus demonstrates that God’s Grace does not come at the expense of His justice against human evil. Our sins against an infinite God calls for our death –– a price we cannot afford (Romans 6:23). But in His Grace and justice, God takes the price of our sins unto Himself in Jesus, and in a generous and spectacular display of His graciousness, gives up His life in our place (Romans 5:8).
By His Grace, we can put our trust in Jesus and find salvation and anchor our faith in Him, who embodied God’s perfect Grace and justice on the cross (1 Timothy 1:14-15). It is through Jesus that we see God’s Grace perfectly epitomized. Grace is God choosing to be with us and suffer the death that we choose over Him, all so that we can live the life that we don’t deserve.
Let us be thankful for this beautiful gift of our God.
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