This Christmas season when I turn on the radio typically there is a holiday song playing. Usually it’s a fun, feel good song about the warmth and wonder of Christmastime. But the best songs go deeper to reveal the glory, power, and awesome blessing of Christmas which is Jesus Christ—God’s loving gift of grace to save the world. I’ve heard grace defined as getting the blessing you don’t deserve. Mercy is similar—not getting the punishment you do deserve. They are two sides of the same coin. Both are unmerited favor. You and I encounter God’s grace and mercy all around us. Oh, that we may have eyes to see it, a heart to receive it and thank him for it, and hands, feet, and a voice to share it with others.
God’s Grace Saves
This week I read a Dec. 6th article in Christianity Today about the dramatic change the grace of God made in Somphon Sriwichai’s life. Somphon grew up in a mountainous region of northern Thailand. As a boy he was raised for 11 years in a Buddhist temple, but at the age of 19 he rejected the strict rules and regulations of becoming a monk because it brought no peace. Soon he started living a wild, self-indulgent life of substance abuse and crime. But nothing satisfied his festering anger. He joined a gang and was constantly on the move evading police and other gangs. At age 29 when he was under the influence of drugs and alcohol he heard a group of Christians singing so he checked it out. After the worship service, he challenged the leader with philosophical questions. The leader answered with the good news of Jesus’ love and salvation. He told Somphon, “If you believe, you will see the grace of God.” This stuck with Somphon because in Buddhism there is no grace or forgiveness. If you do good, you receive good. If you do evil, you receive evil. He knew he was destined for evil for his wrongdoing. But he longed for grace and hope. Three months later he entered a church and asked God to forgive him and save him. God did.
After growing in his faith and being trained in the Bible, he felt God calling him to reach the Lahu tribal people about 50 miles away. So he went. He prayed, read the Bible with people, shared the gospel, and healed people. At one point God gave him a vision of where he should minister and when he realized where that place was he concentrated on reaching people there. Many started to respond and become believers, even the village shaman who had become very sick. Somphon prayed for him. He became well and decided to follow Jesus. Today about thirty years later the church Somphon started holds services in three local languages. They serve the community by running a school, saving children at risk of abuse and human trafficking, providing disaster relief during floods and fires, and supplying food and medical help to refugees fleeing Myanmar. It’s so encouraging to see how others are experiencing and imparting the same saving grace of God that Somphon received years ago. It’s because of Jesus.
God’s Grace Is Fully Expressed in Jesus
In a full manifestation of God’s grace, Jesus, God the Son, stepped down from heaven. While still God he became a man to show people who God is and to enable us to have a life-saving relationship with him. That’s what Christmas is all about. The apostle John wrote of Jesus as the Logos, the eternal reason behind all creation and the expressed nature of God. “In the beginning was the Word [Logos in Greek], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1-3, 14).
Jesus lived out God’s love and grace in all he said and did. That is why he came. Jesus quoted the prophecy about himself from Isaiah when he started his adult ministry. “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19). This unmerited favor is an integral part of so many teachings of Jesus like parables about the prodigal son’s receptive father, the rescuing shepherd, the good samaritan, the generous landowner, the delay of separating tares from wheat, the debt forgiving king, the wedding banquet invitation to all, the service of sheep and disservice of goats, the kind master and unworthy servants, and the sacrificial seed. Since God is gracious Jesus taught his followers to be gracious. He said,
- “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:37-40).
- “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9).
- “If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also…Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you” (Matthew 5:39, 42).
- “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Matthew 7:1-2).
- “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:44-45).
- “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matthew 6:14-15).
- “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 7:12).
Along with his words, Jesus’ actions also proclaimed God’s grace. He sought out the lost, the last, the least, and the outcast. He ate with tax collectors and sinners. He forgave prostitutes and sinners instead of condemning them. He healed the sick and the diseased, the lame, and the blind. He touched the untouchable. He freed the oppressed from demon possession. He raised the dead to life. True to his mission as Messiah, he intervened in the suffering of people to bring healing and salvation. In every case he transformed their lives for the better. That’s what grace does.
Receive and Give God’s Grace
The most impactful way God draws you and others closer to himself and transforms you to become like Jesus is by being involved in his ministry of reconciliation—helping others find and follow Jesus. Yet you don’t have to strive to be more loving or to impart more grace. Trust and obey Jesus and let him live through you to extend his love and grace to others.
A key to living this way is to remember how great God is, what he has saved you from, and what he has saved you for. The apostle Paul had that mindset. At one point he persecuted Christians then Jesus appeared to him and dramatically changed his heart. God then worked through him to proclaim the good news about Jesus, start several churches, and write most of the Bible’s New Testament. In similar fashion, John Newton had that mindset. He was a wretched businessman who profited by searching the African coast for people to capture and sell as slaves. However, everything changed when he and his crew were nearly drown in a horrific storm. He cried out to God for his mercy. God graciously saved him and changed him. Newton advocated for abolishing slavery, became a preacher, and wrote hundreds of hymns proclaiming the greatness of God including one of the most popular in all of history, “Amazing Grace.” This is also the mindset that Somphon has.
God is always at work saving, sometimes in very visible and dramatic ways and other times in not yet seen ways. Like with Somphon, God meets you where you are and graciously calls you closer to himself to be with him, to be like him, and to do what he does. Jesus makes that possible. God wants to change your life for the better. Trust Jesus to save you from your wrongdoing and empower you to live rightly with him, for him, and for others. Accept his grace, be reminded of it and blessed by it, then share it. “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).
Conclusion
If you have experienced the grace of God, pass it on. He gives you gifts so they can be regiven. His greatest gift is Jesus. This Christmas discover God’s grace and truth in the gift of Jesus. Trust and follow him and live a life of grace, mercy, kindness, and loving service so others might come to find and follow Jesus also.
Note: When you have a few minutes to quietly reflect on God’s grace I encourage you to listen to the hymn John Newton wrote: Amazing Grace performed by Il Divo.