Is Grace humanly possible? One of the most compelling books I have read on the subject of grace is Phillip Yancey’s What’s so amazing about grace? In the book, Yancey coins the phrase ‘scandal of grace’ to refer to the fact that God’s grace is extended even to those who we might consider the most undeserving of grace. People who themselves demonstrate no grace. People who do unspeakable, ‘unforgiveable’ things. We are reminded that we are all ultimately undeserving of grace – that is what makes God’s grace so amazing. We all ‘fall short of the glory of God’ (Romans 3:23). Hence the rather strong word ‘wretch’ in the hymn we sing:

Amazing Grace ... that saved a wretch like me!

Grace is free and that is fundamentally what makes grace so amazing. It is at enormous cost to God, and it is God’s willingness to bear that cost that makes it free to us. We do not have to do anything to ‘earn’ grace:

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV)

We do not have to do anything to ‘earn’ grace , but here is the crunch: Can we receive such grace and not be changed? Can we receive such grace and go on living a life of un-grace? I don’t believe we can. When Jesus taught us to pray, he included the line “forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us”. This line in the Lord’s Prayer, alongside Jesus’ Parable of the Unforgiving Debtor (Matthew 18:21-35) makes it pretty clear that God fully expects those who receive grace to likewise show others the same costly, freely given grace.

Let me be brutally honest here: We humans don’t do that kind of grace. We love the idea of forgiveness, right until we find ourselves up against the ‘unforgivable’. Deep down inside, we still believe people need to somehow show us that they deserve to be forgiven. We are like those advertisers who claim huge things for their product and then put a tiny asterisk alongside the claim, and somewhere in the bottom corner in tiny print you will find the words: “Conditions Apply”.

God’s love and grace is unconditional.

God calls us likewise to love unconditionally, to extend grace unconditionally.

Phillip Yancey argues that this is humanly impossible, and I tend to agree. Like Yancey, I believe that it is only by the grace of God, and the Spirit of God acting in and through me, changing me and changing how I live in this world, that I can become gracious. It doesn’t happen overnight. 2 Corinthians 3:18 speaks of the Spirit within us working an ‘ever-increasing’ transformation into the likeness of Christ.

We all struggle to forgive the ‘unforgivable’ and to love the ‘unlovable’ – and for each of us that may be different people – but that is precisely what God calls us to do. That is in the end what makes the gospel ‘good news’! Nobody is beyond salvation. Nobody is beyond hope. Nobody is beyond grace. All people can be saved. Yet we struggle to show that grace as freely and indiscriminately as God does.

But here is more good news: God’s grace is not done with us yet. God continues to work in us and transform us. As much as we all ‘fall short of the glory of God’, we also know that the Spirit works within us to transform us in ‘ever increasing glory’, and the ultimate goal is the likeness of Christ. Hold onto that assurance, and where you find yourself falling short of the free and unconditional love and grace that is expected of us, don’t fall into despair. Don’t be tempted to fall into the kind of thinking that says, “it’s no good. I just can’t do it. I will never do it. I will never forgive.”

Certainly, don’t harbour that unforgiveness as something you hold onto and nurture within yourself. Don’t feed it. Know it for what it is: a poison that threatens your own ability to know grace and peace, and something that needs to change and can change – by the grace of God. Then seek out that grace. Welcome and encourage the work of the Spirit within you. Desire it and never stop asking for it. Ask God to show you how to cooperate with the Spirit in the work towards that transformation.

Let us pray: Ever-loving God of mercy and grace, thank you for unconditionally loving me. Thank you that even a ‘wretch like me’ can know your grace. Please give me the grace to be like you. Help me to see the conditions I have attached to my love and grace. Help me to strip them away. Help me especially with those who seem ‘unforgivable’ to me. Help me with my unforgiveness. Only you can help me to truly forgive as I have been forgiven. By your grace, Lord, transform me, I pray. Little but little, day by day, help me to be more and more like you. Amen.

Brenton Prigge