A Picture Of Grace

“The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him” Luke 15:28

As believers, the more truth we imbibe, the more we are established in grace. That’s just how it works. The more truth we imbibe, the more we are established in grace. In fact, the reason some Christians appear not to be able to backslide and have been consistently growing in their walk with God is because they keep the truth before them. The truth that, ‘I used to eat with pigs but see what God has done for me’. If you don’t know that you are dead in your sin, you won’t think you need a Savior. If you don’t know that without Jesus you are hopeless, you will question the need for Jesus. And that is the problem with a lot of people. Their salvation experience is not real because there is no time in their lives that they actually came to their senses like the younger son and said look, I am eating with pigs – I need help. For some of us, we know where God took us from, we have a glimpse of what God has planned for us and where He is taking us to and we do not want to go back to where God took us from. That is why you should not be afraid to teach grace because when people actually see what God’s grace has done for them, nobody wants to go back to eating with pigs. Nobody!

The grace shown to the older son to bring him in is not so obvious; but I will show you. The Bible says, His father came out and begged him. In those cultures at that time, fathers were authoritarian. It’s not these days that fathers want to be best friends with their sons. No, fathers then were dictators. They reeled out commands and everyone was to carry them out; no questions asked. Why? Because I said so. You disobey the command and you exit his roof. So that’s the picture of the father – high up there. To beg in those says is to go on your knees and take the hands of the person you are begging. You are either kissing the hands or just holding it. Now for that kind of father to go down on his knees and beg his son, that is grace. It is like Jesus coming down, He became a man, He humbled himself, and He died. Jesus did not have to die because not all men died. Did Elijah die? Did Enoch die? So why should Jesus die? He did not have to die, not even the death on the cross. So why did He do it? He did it so that you and I can come in. And this is the picture of the grace that God has shown to you and I. Keep this picture of grace ever before your face and let it renew you from the inside out. Let this picture of grace transform your gratitude.

Prayer: Father, I look at Your grace and I am humbled. Lord, let the reality and the depth of Your grace transform me daily until I am just like You Jesus, in Jesus Name.