There is no better time than the Easter season to thank God for his saving grace, freely given to us by means of the life, death, and resurrection of God’s Son, Jesus Christ for all people who believe in Him, that we should not perish but will enjoy eternal life with Jesus Christ in heaven.
How many of you are familiar with the 1910 hymn, Grace Greater Than Our Sin, by Julia H. Johnston. The following are a couple verses and the refrain from that song.
Marvelous grace of our loving Lord,
grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt,
yonder on Calvary’s mount outpoured,
there where the blood of the Lamb was spilt.
Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace,
freely bestowed on all who believe;
all who are longing to see His face,
will you this moment His grace receive?
Grace, grace, God’s grace,
grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
Grace, grace, God’s grace,
grace that is greater than all our sin.
I am sure you are familiar with the hymn ‘Amazing Grace’ by John Newton and the first 3 verses.
Amazing grace (how sweet the sound)
that saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now I am found,
was blind, but now I see.
‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
and grace my fears relieved;
how precious did that grace appear
the hour I first believed!
Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come:
’tis grace has brought me safe thus far,
and grace will lead me home.
You and I are only still living our physical lives here on earth by the grace of God. He is keeping each one of us here until we fulfill the mission He assigned us to carry out for Him in this life, despite all the dangers, toils and snares we have encountered and survived in this life thus far.
We are living in the Age of Grace, also known as the Church Age. Humans have been living in this age since the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost nearly 2,000 years ago. It is defined as a time of “unmerited favor,” where salvation is offered freely to all humanity through faith in Jesus Christ rather than through adherence to the Mosaic Law. This age will conclude with the Rapture of the Church and the Second Coming of Christ.
You may have heard the acronym for grace in this definition; God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2: 8-9). “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins an to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). The moment we receive Christ, all our sins, past, present, and future, are covered by God’s grace.
Have you ever paused for a moment to recall all the dangers, toils, snares, and close calls you have faced and survived in this life, only by the grace of God? Have you ever felt God’s protective hand directly upon you, or at least the hand of your guardian angel protecting you? If you have, you know what an awesome and humbling experience it is that can leave you shuddering, amazed, and thankful all at the same time. Praise God for small and great miracles!
If you have not felt that experience, indulge me while I cite some personal examples in my life.
I survived two serious bouts of bronchitis when I was a very young child, as well as three potentially dangerous falls involving stairs and a highchair before the age of three. At the age of five, my older brother saved me from running onto a highway in front of an oncoming car on my first day of kindergarten. When I was 14 years old, a friend and I were spared from a scary life-threatening event involving breaking chunks of thick floating ice from an ice jam in a waterway.
For four decades I played multiple sports on a regular basis without any injuries more serious than sprained ankles. Three times during my teenage years I lost control of my car on muddy and icy roads, ending up in ditches without bodily injury. Also, during my teenage years, God spared me from a potentially fatal tractor accident while mowing grass for the state game and parks commission.
Jumping ahead to my married years, my wife and I have felt God’s protection during five potentially fatal health episodes, as well as two dangerous vehicle circumstances, all involving my wife, including three tubular pregnancies, a cluster of blood clots in both her lungs, a serious allergic reaction, a rear-end auto collision which the attending officer said she should not have survived, and when her fish-tailing car was kept from spinning out of control on an icy highway into either a deep ravine or into the path of an oncoming truck.
Finally, I will cite two more vehicle incidents involving me. An elderly man ran through a red light directly into the path of my delivery straight truck traveling at 60 mph. I had no time to evade striking the man’s car broadside. The impact caused my 26-foot box truck to veer into oncoming lanes of the four-lane highway. However, God prevented any oncoming traffic from coming along at that time, and I was able to keep my truck upright and glide to a safe stop, without injury to me or my co-worker.
Then on another occasion, I was making a delivery to Avoca, Iowa, in my large straight truck. Avoca sits on a high ridge along Interstate 80. It was a bit of a wintery day, and the roads were slick with black ice, resulting in the need for cautious, slower speeds. When I completed my delivery in Avoca, I entered the interstate lanes at a cautious speed of 45 mph. At that point I am heading downhill, with a deep grassy median on one side and a steep long grassy embankment on the other side.
Almost at once after entering the downhill lanes of the interstate, the back end of my truck began to swing back and forth heading downhill. I tried steering out of the out-of-control movement of the back of my truck, but to no avail, it seemed I was only making matters worse. The futility of my steering action led me to accept the direness of my situation, so I quickly adopted game plan B of ‘let go, and let God’, praying for the best, but bracing for the worst-case scenario of potentially spinning out of control and off the road. It was then I felt a peace come over me as I completely ‘let go’ of the steering wheel and put my life or death in God’s hands.
Almost immediately, after I let go of the steering wheel, it was like the hand of a powerful angel grabbed the top of my truck and set me on a straight course down the hill, so I re-took hold of the steering wheel and safely continued down the remainder of the long downhill grade. In all my life’s close calls, I had never, or since, experienced such a surreal and dramatic act of the real ‘hands-on’ grace of God to spare my physical life. Grace, Grace, God’s Grace in awesome action!
‘Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home. Praise God! Amen!
I pray you too will experience God’s saving grace, both spiritually and physically, during your life.