Grace of a Loving God
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TODAY: Think grace. End a disagreement. Conclude a dispute.
Settle an argument. Reach out to an adversary, a spouse, a parent
or child you’ve been arguing with — whether it’s
been a few minutes, a few days or a few years — and find a
way to resolve your differences. Why is it so easy for God to grant
his grace and so difficult for us?
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It was 1995, and I was in Disciple I, my first time studying
the
Bible in any real detail since college. We were reading about
the prophets and discussing the actions of Jeremiah, just before the Exile.
The theme word was “comfort.” That is when it happened. I looked
at the verses of Jeremiah 31: 33-34: “They shall all know me, from
the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their
iniquity, and remember their sin no more.” My head snapped up, and
I looked at our facilitator and exclaimed, “That says it all. That’s
the message of Christ; that’s his covenant with us.”
I had such an excited feeling, and I was pleased. It seemed to me that
Jeremiah, a prophet in the Old Testament, was giving the same message
that Jesus was saying to the Pharisees in the New Testament. The law is
not what is important in a person’s understanding of God and our
relationship to God. What is important is what is in our hearts.
But there was something more. There was grace — “I will forgive
their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.” We are human beings
who commit sins. The words of Jeremiah are saying to me that not only
will God forgive my sins, but once that forgiveness occurs, the sins will
not be remembered, and they will not be held against me. For me, this
is the unconditional love that we receive from God through Christ.
Therefore, as I go through the Lenten experience of examining myself and
my relationship with God, I reflect on the words of Jeremiah and the grace
of a loving God who will always accept me and remember my sin no more.
— Ed Federico
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