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The Great Cost of Free Grace

Author Dan Kennedy tells the story about Fred Herman, broadly known in his day for his unmatched sales skills. Catching the attention of “The Tonight Show,” Fred was invited to appear as Johnny Carson’s guest. Johnny welcomed the renowned salesman to the show, and soon thereafter challenged Fred to sell him something on the spot. Kennedy’s account: “Carson said ‘OK, since you’re the greatest salesman, sell me this ashtray.’ Fred picked it up, examined it, and asked, ‘If you were going to buy this ashtray, what would you expect to pay for it?’ Carson named a price. Fred said, ‘Sold!’”1

Over the past four weeks, we have been talking about God’s grace, both His nature of grace and His outpouring of “grace in its various forms”2 to us through acts of love. From His own lovingkindness, God lavishes the riches of His favor upon us,3 not as our due, but as His gift. But while grace is free to us, God has extended it at great cost to Himself. Paul explains, “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.”4 Moreover, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.”5 And Jesus “suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.”6 Again, grace is free to us, yet quite costly to God. Paul reminds us, “You were bought at a price,”7 indeed it is the price of justice, for we are “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”8

Then what does this tell us about our worth to God? What must we conclude about His regard for us—both as individuals and collectively as the people of His redemption? John tells us plainly, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”9 Our life, to Him, is worth His life for us. Then let no one, especially you, convince you otherwise. And in this glorious truth may we give ourselves entirely to Him who gave Himself entirely for us, for “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness”10 —the great cost of free grace.

And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. —Revelation 5:9

1 Dan Kennedy, No B.S. Sales Success: The Ultimate No Holds Barred, Kick Butt, Take No Prisoners & Make Tons of Money Guide, (Entrepreneur Press), 63.
2 1 Peter 4:10
3 Ephesians 1:7-8
4 Romans 3:25
5 Galatians 3:13
6 Hebrews 2:9
7 1 Corinthians 6:20
8 Romans 3:24
9 1 John 4:10
10 1 Peter 2:24

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I’d Be Happy To Help

Volunteering as the adult education administrator at our church years ago, one of my tasks was to schedule teachers to lead the class each week. It wasn’t always easy—people are busy and preparation takes time—so to my invitations, understandably, came some “no” responses and some reluctant “yeses.” But whenever I asked Joe to teach, his answer was almost always the same, “I’d be happy to help.” Not only did he eagerly embrace the opportunity to teach from God’s Word, he graciously relieved me of my burden du jour. Over time, Joe’s enthusiasm influenced me, as twenty-some years later I often find myself responding to the entreaties of others, “I’d be happy to help.” Grace is contagious, isn’t it?

We often think of God’s grace as a needed, yet undeserved gift showered upon us in deluge proportions. Over the past two weeks, for instance, we have marveled at our right standing before God (righteousness) and our rescue from eternal separation from Him (salvation), both loving gifts of God through His servant-Son, Jesus Christ, who lives in us through faith. Yet receiving God’s grace is just the beginning for us, the starting point of a lifetime adventure, for just as God pours out His favor on us, so also He flows His favor through us as conduits to others. Saved by His grace through faith,1 we are now “God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”2 Not only may we participate in meaningful acts of eternal consequence, God has had them prepared for us for a very long time. And He equips us for that to which He calls us: “God is able to bless you abundantly,” taught Paul, “so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.”3

“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms,”4 wrote Peter. Some teach, some encourage, some help, some exhort, some intercede—maybe you major in some of these and minor in others, or perhaps your gifts are entirely different. Regardless of our individual callings, though, I think readiness looks the same: remain near to God through the Word and prayer; expect His call to action; resolve to do what He directs you to do; and trust Him for the result. For extending God’s grace to others is part of the gift of grace we receive from Him. It’s something we get to do.

Of course! “I’d be happy to help.”

Father, “may [Your favor] rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us—yes, establish the work of our hands,”5 so that the world would know and receive Your love and grace. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Ephesians 2:8-9
2 Ephesians 2:10
3 2 Corinthians 9:8
4 1 Peter 4:10
5 Psalm 90:17

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Crossing over the Crevasse

Several years ago, Peggy and I joined a boatload of others on a cruise through Alaska’s “inside passage.” Reaching Juneau, one of our port-of-call excursions was a helicopter ride to the top of Mendenhall glacier, where we disembarked and walked around a bit on this slowly flowing, massive river of ice. We approached a crevasse, its translucent windows of brilliant blue drawing us forward to behold its beauty. The closer we stepped, the deeper our gaze, but the deeper our gaze, the darker the chasm. Suffice it to say we staked out our own position of comfort, peering into the depths from a position of reasonable safety.

In last week’s post, we saw God’s grace manifest itself in making us righteous in His sight—guiltless and acceptable before Him. By divine initiative, “Christ . . .  suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring [us] to God,”1 and “We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ.”2 So, from the safety of righteousness, let us peer into another expression of God’s grace—our salvation—for being “made right” with God suggests a time when we were not right with Him at all. Truth is, we were “separated from the life of God”3 and “dead in our transgressions and sins.”4 We had no hope before Him, rather only condemnation5 for our sins and our sinful nature. Yet it was precisely into our hopelessness that He graciously intervened. Paul expounds repeatedly: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”6 God “saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit.”7 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.”8

Jesus once told his listeners, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”9 By grace, we are saved from the penalty of our sin, and by grace we live rightly in the presence of God. No matter how deep or how dark, the chasm of sin threatens us no longer, for we have crossed over and we are saved. Thanks be to God.

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. —Romans 10:9

Father, great is the love in which You lavish Your grace upon us. Grace us to live thankfully, confidently and freely as vessels of your grace, however you lead us today. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 1 Peter 3:18
2 Romans 3:22 NLT
3 Ephesians 4:17-19
4 Ephesians 2:1
5 Romans 5:18
6 Romans 5:8
7 Titus 3:5 NLT
8 Ephesians 2:8
9 John 5:24