“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” (Ro 5:1-2 AV)
How soon we forget that just as grace saved us, it continues to keep us. Paul uses the present tense here. Salvation happened in the past. Yet he chooses to emphasize that grace keeps the way to God open. We did not work our way into God’s grace, and we cannot work our way into it now. This does not mean that sin is of no consequence. That is the main idea of the next chapter. There are consequences for sin. One is that sin puts a strain on our relationship with the LORD. As Paul says, “where sin abounds, grace did much more abound.” The result of grace is rejoicing in hope! The key is to believe in it. Paul says we have access by faith into the grace. God’s grace exists. Yet it is ineffective if we do not accept it by faith. Therein lies the problem. If we constantly live in the reality of our sin and failures, we will never avail ourselves of the grace that abounds. If we do not believe God’s grace can sustain us through the trials of life, then it will not. It all boils down to our faith in the grace of God.
I was reminded of this picture of grace recently. I witnessed a father with his children. This man rarely, if ever, loses his temper. It doesn’t matter how his children are behaving. He is a man who rules his own spirit well. It doesn’t matter if he is having a particularly bad day; with his children, he is a gentle giant. Contrasted against another father I knew, who did not have his spirit under control. It did not matter how small or large the infraction, he went ballistic. He was a man of two personalities. He could be kind one second. The next second he would be off on a rage. One can imagine what it would be like to be a child of one versus the other. The first dad exuded a spirit of grace and mercy. He was predictable and kind. A child of the first father would have a healthy sense of worth and security. He would know he is valued and appreciated. The child of the first father would go to sleep at night with a sense of peace. A child of the second would live in a constant state of fear. They would not know where they stood with their father at any given time. There was no predictable standard. They could behave the same way two days in a row. The first day, dad would be patient. The second day, he would beat them. There would be no sense of worth or security. Love would be a question mark rather than a statement.
God is a God of love, mercy, and grace. He must correct. But He does this with love and patience. Even when He does correct, He does not remain angry forever. His grace much more abounds. The problem with a father who was unpredictably angry was that his child never knew when he or she could approach him. The child could seek him out only to find that his or her need was an annoyance met with a profane-laced verbal assault. Faith in the kindness of a father like that is non-existent. God is not that person! If we lack joy over the grace of God, we lack faith in who and what God is. We are still trying to gain His love. His love is given and kept by His own grace. Therefore, we can please Him; not because He will love us more; rather, because He loves us with an everlasting love. I must admit, I still don’t fully understand this infinite grace of His. But that shouldn’t keep any of us from accepting it by faith.
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