"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich" (2 Cor. 8:9).
The majority of our lessons on the holiness of God have focused on the relationship between His holy character and His justice. As we have studied passages dealing with the moral purity of God and His relation to Israel and to the church, we have been struck by how unworthy we are to stand before Him.
But as astounding as His holiness is, it is His grace that is most amazing. We mentioned in an earlier lesson that we often wonder why God can allow bad things to happen to good people. The answer, simply put, is that it can happen because people are bad. In light of this, we should ask, “How can good things happen to bad people?” None of us receives what he duly deserves in this life. God is gracious even to His enemies, allowing the sun to shine on the evil and the good, and the rain to fall on the righteous and the unrighteous. His grace is manifested in the lives of people every day, but we don’t stand amazed by it. Instead, we complain when tragedy strikes, we whine when things don’t go our way. But if we would really consider who God is and who we are, if we would take our sin seriously and reverence the holiness of our God, we should really be amazed by all the good things that happen, by the grace He shows us time and again.
When we complain and feel sorry for ourselves, we don’t understand grace. We don’t understand and appreciate the mercy God shows us every day. We don’t understand that God’s holiness demands justice, and that it is only by the grace of God that worse things don’t happen to us.
If God’s holiness does demand justice, how then can He be gracious? Does this create a contradiction within God Himself? It would if justice were not satisfied, if God dismissed our sin as if it never happened. But this is not what has happened. Justice has been satisfied by Jesus Christ on the cross. He led a sinless life, fulfilling the requirements of the law, and He died in the place of His people, thus paying the penalty for their transgressions. His righteousness is imputed to sinners, and God’s wrath is appeased. Though we deserve to die, to suffer eternal torment, Jesus has taken this penalty upon Himself, suffering the pangs of death and the wrath of His Father in our place. “By His stripes we have been healed.” Praise be to the Lord our Savior!
When was the last time you told God how grateful you were for the grace He has shown you? Do you spend more time complaining about the bad things in your life than being thankful for the good things God has given you? Spend some time today thinking about what you deserve, and then think about the grace God has shown you.
