How do you see grace?

I had a conversation with a friend the other day and wanted to share a way to think about just how huge and amazing grace is.

Justice is - say if you intentionally smash into your friend’s car with your own car and the law protects your friend and requires you to repair or replace your friend’s car.

Mercy is - say if you intentionally smash into your friend’s car with your car, but your friend tells the law, “I’m going to let it go.” even though the law would require you to repair/replace your friend’s car.

Grace is something different altogether though.

Grace is, say if you intentionally smash into your friend’s car with your car, but not only does your friend say to the law, “I’m going to let it go”, but they also declare, “I’m going to replace the offender’s smashed-up car. But I don’t want to just repair the damaged car, I’m going to replace the damaged vehicle with a brand new one - a good one, a nice one. 100% at my own cost.”

whoa.

I think we don’t let that reality - the HUGENESS of grace sink in often enough.

If our sin-problem, which separated us from God were easy enough to be solved with more justice or more mercy, Christ would not have needed to die. But justice and mercy - in all the years before Jesus were never enough. So Jesus came and offered us not only His grace but the power of Grace to “walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:4)

A person who demands justice - we usually think of as reasonable. Someone who offers mercy - we might admire them, but all too often we call them “soft”.

But what could we call a person who offers grace the way God offers it to sinners - that is to us? “Maniac” maybe.

It’s one thing if our friend forgives us - they’re our friend. Scripture says we were actually hostile to Him (Romans 5:10). And yet, despite that, Jesus suffered and died on the cross for you and me - without any sort of prior guarantee that we would follow Him, or try to follow Him well. Yet His incredible gift is already given - waiting only to be accepted.

Incredible.