The Unbending Grace of God

I've spent most of this morning working on internet technology that normally works pretty well, but that decided to make today more 'interesting' for me. Do you have days like that with technology? Or maybe you're blessed enough to get by without it! Regardless, anything made by humans will have its failings. What I'm glad about right now, is that the grace of God does not have those failings!

Let's look at some reassurances from Scripture:
"the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." Rom. 11:29

"Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" (that's us, right?) 1 Tim 1:15

"while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly" (that's us again) Rom 5:6

"while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (ditto) Rom. 5:8

"while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son" (even before we knew we were God's enemies!) Rom. 5:10

And one of my all-time favorites, "Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure." Eph. 1:4-5.
Can we see that all these are initiated by God, before we could seek him and without our help in any way? That means God's grace continuing for us, is not dependent on how well we obey or even respond; God's grace is always there for us because it existed before we did. God's grace is completely a part of Godself, because God is love (1 John 4:8) and love will operate in a gracious way, and grace is eternal because God is eternal.

Eventually, my computer will fail, my smartphone will get stupid, my car will break down, and my house will fall apart. But God's grace, his absolute favor toward me, will never fail!

And to that we can reply in joyful thanksgiving, along with Paul, "For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen." (Rom. 11:36)