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Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, United Kingdom
Broadcaster, musician, song writer, tea drinker and curry lover.

Friday, May 14, 2010

A Wonderful Exchange

I've been thinking quite a bit recently about Grace. It is my favourite word. Someday if I have a daughter I would like to name her Grace. What I like about the word is that in just five letters it effectively sums up what the Gospel is all about.

I've often heard grace defined by the mnemonic

God's
Riches
At
Christ's
Expense

That goes some way to expressing it. Sinead O'Connor (probably) unwittingly put it very well when she titled an album of hers "I Do Not Get What I Deserve". I guess to complete her take on the definition you could add "I DO get what I DO NOT deserve".

Martin Luther put it this way: "This is the mystery of the riches of divine grace for sinners, for by a wonderful exchange our sins are now not ours but Christ's, and Christ's righteousness is not Christ's but ours."

As far as I am aware the concept of grace is totally unique to Christianity and it flies in the face of perceived wisdom that to get anywhere in life you have to work your way towards it. Like it or not, God has reached out towards us through Jesus and all we have to do is accept.

Jonathan Edwards the theologian said "Grace is but Glory begun, and Glory is but grace perfected." Will you take God's hand of grace as He reaches out to you.

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