Accessing Grace

"...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift..."  Romans 3:23-24.

God's grace is a gift.  This is one of the points that the apostle Paul makes repeatedly throughout his letters to the various churches and people in the New Testament time.  And as a man who received what he knew about God's grace directly from Jesus Himself, we could say that Paul stands as an authority on matters of God's grace.

But this seems to present an interesting question.  If God's grace is a gift, how does He give us that gift?  Over the centuries since Jesus walked the Israeli countryside, that question has been answered in many ways.  Quite a few have said that it requires repentance, and by that word mean specific acts or words which demonstrate sorrow over sin.  Others have said penitence, which means acknowledgment of sin, reception of forgiveness, but then works of atonement.  Yet others have said that it really isn't a gift, but is something that we humans strive for, either by making sure that we do enough good in God's eyes, or, at the very least, having the good in our lives outweigh the bad.

Yet, in my studies of God's Word, I find myself very thankful for the faith that I have been raised in over and over again.  When I look through God's Word, I find three ways in which God has said we can reliably receive this specific grace of salvation through Jesus.  The first one is the gift that God has given to His church, which is the authority to announce the forgiveness of sins.  While many find great comfort in hearing those words of forgiveness from the pastor as though from God Himself (John 20:21-23), that same gift is given anytime one of Jesus' followers tells another that they are forgiven.

The other two involve God tying a physical element to His word of forgiveness.  When Jesus was celebrating the Passover with His disciples on the night He was betrayed, He broke the bread and passed it around to them.  He then included these words: Take this and eat.  This is my body, given for you for the forgiveness of sins.  Also, with the cup served after the meal, He passed it to them and said: This is my blood of the new covenant, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.  God's grace coming to His followers and believers in the event known as the Lord's Supper.

We see Jesus tying God's grace to another action in Matthew 28:19-20.  As He sent His disciples to take His message of forgiveness to the world, He gave them the task of baptizing and teaching.  Later, in Acts 2:38-39, Peter says that such an action is a promise of the forgiveness of sins and the receiving of the Holy Spirit.  God gives His grace through the means of the event known as baptism.

God does not want His grace to be something that we are unfamiliar with.  That's part of the reason He uses common, everyday things to communicate that grace to us.  And God makes the promise, not just in these few verses mentioned, but throughout His Word, that when He ties Himself to certain actions and words, His grace is accessible there, and He would love for nothing more than that all the people of the world come there to receive that great gift of grace.