"Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."
Matthew 6:28
What are we standing in?! “We have access by faith into this grace
in which we stand” (Romans 5:2).
What do we have on our lips?!
“He who loves purity of heart and has grace on his lips, the king
will be his friend” (Proverbs 22:11). “Grace”—what a funny word! How can we “stand in grace” and have “grace
on our lips”? What do we see when we look at a perpetrator of a heinous crime,
a woman of the street, an impaired homeless bum, or a tattooed, pierced youth? Our Scripture reading in Romans 5:8, sheds
light on these questions and has the potential for changing the way we look at
people, including ourselves.
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while
we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “grace” as:
“unmerited divine assistance given humans for their
regeneration or sanctification; a virtue coming from God”. The people listed above are people who have
had their sins paid for because of God’s love for them. Most of them don’t know
it. They, like us, did nothing to deserve such a gift from God. On the contrary, we’ve all done a great deal
to deserve the death penalty from the holy Judge. These people are unaware of
God’s divine favor, and we believers fail to consider it that much. But verse 10 of Romans 5, tells us that God
reconciled us to Him when we were His enemies.
We were not even born when Christ died, yet God included us
and those yet to be born as recipients of His mercy. Once we believe on Jesus as our Savior and
the payer of the penalty for sins we incur, Romans 5:11, tells us: “We can now
rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received
the reconciliation”! Unfortunately, the majority have not yet received this
reconciliation. May our days not end
with only a sigh (Psalm 90:9), but with the knowledge that we have made someone
aware that God loves him or her, and that the penalty for their sins has been
paid by the death of the Son of God!
But what about “grace on our lips” and how could that make a
king our friend? We could ask Esther
about this one! Esther wisely wined and
dined the King before making her request.
Then we read these words of grace that God placed on her lips as she
awaited her fate: “If I have found favor in your
sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my
petition, and my people at my request. For we have been sold, my people and I,
to be destroyed, to be killed, to be annihilated. Had we been sold as male and
female slaves, I would have held my tongue, although the enemy could never
compensate for the king’s loss.” (Read
the Book of Esther to see whether the king proved to be her friend or foe.)
“Return, O Lord! How
long? And have compassion on Your servants” (Psalm 90:13). Make us glad according to the days in which You have
afflicted us, the years in which we have seen evil. Let your work appear to
Your servants” (v. 15-16). One day we
will see the beautiful picture on the tapestry of our lives that God is
creating. “And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the
work of our hands for us; yes, establish the work of our hands” (v.17). A few days ago, we read a similar cry to God
by Nehemiah: “Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my
good deeds that I have done for the house of my God, and for its services”
(Neh. 13:14)! Some believe that Nehemiah
was a eunuch—deprived of his manhood to serve in the palace. Perhaps he felt the need for his
life to count for something, just as we do. Regardless
of how much we have sinned or how much of our life we have wasted, once we
believe and become the children of God, our loving Father places on us a robe
of righteousness—the very righteousness of Christ our Savior. That is grace! That makes it worth it all!
