John 1:14
"Wherefore, redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah; for he is full of grace and truth."
2 Nephi 2:6
"Gratitude begins when a man stops treating grace as rare and starts recognizing it as reality."
Chris Harper
"The real Jesus is full of grace and truth. He meets you where you are, and then refuses to leave you there. Grace is not permission. It is power. Power to walk away. Power to change. Power to become who God actually called you to be."
Chad Logan
It is so easy for anyone, especially someone with an addiction...to anything...to feel that they are undeserving of any help, especially Heavenly Help. It's easy to feel that they don't deserve Divine Forgiveness. I certainly did. Here's the problem. I believe we completely misunderstand both Grace and God's Love. In 1st John, we read that "God is love." During my years of recovery I've come to believe that's true...He IS love. It is who He is, and it is His nature. Maybe that is what makes Him God. So... I choose to see and experience Him through the lens of perfect love. All my scripture study, all my church experience, all my recovery experience, and all my interaction with those around me happens through that lens. His love. Why do we love Him? Because He loved us first.
And because of that love, we get to experience Grace in new ways...every day. We get to choose to "live in the grace of the day." The entire point of Grace is that we DO NOT deserve it. We CANNOT deserve it. We CANNOT earn it. It is NOT transactional in any way. Ephesians 2:8 says, "For by grace ye are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God."
Now, there are probably thousands of books and other writings on the subject of Grace, with all kinds of philosophical and theological opinions and perspectives on the subject, and I certainly am not a scholar...no credentials at all... I have only lived experience. My lived experience, and the lived experience of many others who have shared their own stories, is that Grace is a free gift. It comes as a result of the Atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ and is available to, and for, everyone.
Six years ago, in June 2020, in one of my early blog posts I wrote about Grace. Since then I have experienced more, and continue to, as we're told in section 93 of the Doctrine and Covenants, grow from "grace to grace." If you know my story, you know that I didn't ask for Grace. I did nothing to deserve Grace. In fact, I was running away from Grace. I was sick in so many ways and wanted out of my life. But, as Elder Kearon reminded us, God was in "relentless pursuit" of me. I didn't ask for Grace. To quote Toby Mac, "It was the last thing on my mind...."
"When love broke through
You found me in the darkness
Wanderin' through the desert.
I was a hopeless fool...
I did all that I could do to undo me
But You loved me enough to pursue me..."
That's a beautiful description of Grace! I was stopped in my tracks, brought home, and then given the opportunity to heal, to learn, to experience forgiveness, and to live a much different life than I had. That's called redemption. And it happens only through, and because of, the Grace of Jesus Christ. Once again, there was no deserving. There was no obedience. There was no desire for it! So I ask myself often, why does He love me so much? Why save my life? How could He forgive me so readily and so completely? It is Who He is.
I could not save myself. I could not even see how sick I was, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I knew I was broken, and I thought I was hopeless. I had given up and knew I was going to Hell, but there was nothing I could do to change or to get better. I ran away and Grace followed me...
Growing up in the Church I don't remember ever hearing about Grace. I think we were afraid of it, like somehow the idea of Grace would just let us off the hook. We had to "work out" our own salvation. "Cheap grace" was our greatest fear, because of course God loves effort and work and busyness, and we believed that Christ would make up the difference in the end, after "all that we can do." I grew up thinking that God's love had to be earned and that it was really easy to disappoint Him. He was a tough, stern Father, and although Jesus loved me and was somehow on my side, I still had to "be good" to earn my way into Heaven. But as long as my good works outweighed my mistakes and my sins, I'd be okay in the end. It was a guessing game, and as I got older I knew I was losing.
In our Bible Dictionary we are told that "grace cannot suffice without total effort on the part of the recipient...This grace is an enabling power that allows men and women to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation AFTER they have expended their own best efforts." Really..."own best efforts?" "Total effort?" Can any one of us say that we have given 100% to living the gospel and obeying God's commandments? Of course not. And how can we even define our "own best efforts?" And all this confusion comes from one simple verse in 2 Nephi 25:23...a verse that really doesn't mean what we think it says.
In his book, "After All We Can Do," Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf writes..."We are not saved 'because' of all that we can do. We choose to receive Christ's grace; we don't earn it. Salvation cannot be bought with the currency of obedience; it is purchased by the blood of the Son of God (See Acts 20:28). Have any of us done all that we can do? Does God wait until we've expended every effort before He will intervene in our lives with His saving grace?"
Once again, Grace is not earned. It is given as a gift. We just have to open it...and put it to use. Grace will change us, if we allow it. Grace is not some nice idea that just sounds good in a sermon, but it is, in fact, a radical power that both forgives and changes hearts and minds. It will change our very nature. Grace finds us where we are and pulls out of the pit. The pit of addiction, of depression, of sorrow, of anxiety, of sin, of stress. Grace is strong and it is gritty, and is the power of God unto salvation... both now and in the future.
Adam Miller writes in the book "Original Grace"..."A grace-filled partnership with Christ is the original plan, full stop - not an unfortunate intervention necessitated by my failure to save myself. Further, there aren't two kinds of perfection. The only kind of perfection is perfection-in-Christ. Perfection results from growing deeper into the grace of a divine partnership so that, as Christ put it, we 'all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.' And finally, in my view, sin is not what happens when I fail to save myself. Sin is what happens when I try to save myself. Sin is what happens when I abandon God and reject his original offer of a grace-filled partnership." As Adam says, "Grace is NOT God's backup plan." It IS the plan.
Grace is the yoke which seals our partnership with Christ. We can do life together with Him so much better than doing life alone.
If we are "saved by grace," what exactly does that mean? Honestly, I'm not sure, and it might have a different meaning for you than for me. But like the blind man healed by Jesus, all I know is that now I can see. I am different. I have been allowed to repent...often... and have been forgiven... often. That is Grace. I have seen miracles in my life, and that is Grace. I have been able to live a larger life than I had ever imagined and have forged relationships with people I could never have anticipated. That is Grace.
The author of Romans says this in chapter 6 of "The Message" bible... "So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we've left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn't you realize we packed up and left there for good?" In the King James version, it calls that being "dead to sin." King Benjamin's people in the book of Mosiah cried aloud with one voice, asking that the "atoning blood of Jesus Christ" be applied so they could receive forgiveness of their sins, and that their hearts might be purified. Why? They believed in Jesus Christ. What happened immediately? They received a remission of their sins and a "peace of conscience" because of their "exceeding faith." The result? They had no more "disposition to do evil." Their hearts were changed. They were different people. Why? Grace.
Emily Belle Freeman wrote in "Grace Where You Are,"...
"There are some things in life I am certain of. Grace is one of those things... Grace is not just for the salvation of sinners, but also for the bestowal of blessings. His grace is the gift of transformation. An endowment of strength. Divine assistance. An enabling power. The elevating of souls and the healing of hearts. Grace is His favor, and His kindness, and the tenderness with which He extends His mercies. It is His touch on our heart and how we reflect that within our life. Grace is ALWAYS there, but we notice it most in our weakness. In our brokenness...Grace is an invitation to come as you are. Grace is the promise that there is still room. Grace is radical generosity. Grace is the healing and restoring that is abundant in Christ. Grace is a place at the table. He extends His grace the same way He extends an invitation to His feast, no matter how broken you feel - He wants to heal you."
My story is a story of Grace, hunting me down, stopping me, bringing me home, offering opportunity for healing, growth, and transformation. Bringing people into my life to teach and to lead along the way. Grace is radical forgiveness and radical redemption and radical partnership with Christ to experience the joy and peace I had been missing for so many years. Grace is powerful, yet incredibly loving.
Maybe, just maybe, we really can't understand Grace. We can talk about it, preach about it, write about it, but maybe the only thing we can really do is experience it...
The beauty of the gospel is that you do not deserve Grace. I do not deserve Grace. We do not have to deserve Grace. You are not worthy of Grace. I was not worthy of Grace. But... you are worth His Grace, as am I. Remember, "Our worth is set. Everything else is just experience." Grace is all around us. Just look up and let it spill over you like warm water. Ask for it. Plead for it. Bask in it. It WILL change you and everything about your life. You'll never be the same.
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